And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Will you "it's Photoshopped" guys quit that? 1. You don't know, and 2. why do you feel it is necessary to get out your wet blanket and throw it on a simple image? If you don't like it, scroll on, and throw the blanket in the dryer. Leave the rest of us in peace.
Because I'm tired of the ignorant hostility in the comments, and it needs to be called out once in a while. It's fake! It's Photoshopped! It's AI! I suspect the impulse comes from a need to seem smarter, more perceptive, than others, and to display this sort of opinion gives the commenter's ego a cheap charge, as in "I saw it and you didn't." It just wastes our time and degrades our enjoyment of a simple image. It's a needless negative injected for no other reason than to fool the commenter into feeling better about oneself, if only for an instant. If you think about it, it reveals more about the person making the comment than they would probably like.
I owned and rode a "Racking" mule, Sally Ann. She was a jumbo mule and as sweet as can be and I took her places where horses would falter. She was smart and I gave her the rein and she figured out how to get me and her across ravines and rock escarpments safely. Now I never tried that in the picture. Once I rode a mule, I never went back to horses, idiot creatures they are.
The photo reminds me of an interview I read years ago, done by the Natl park service and still available to read free, on their website. The fellas name was Ned Chaffin and his parents homesteaded n ran cattle in SE Utah South of Green River. "Under the ledge" "Robbers roost" country. The interview itself is amazing but it includes 40-50 pictures taken in the early 20th century. Trails like that abound in these photos and they did everything from runnin cattle n sheep up n down them to hauling heavy equipment for oil/uranium exploration and gold mining hardware down into those canyons. Hell, some of that shit is still down there, abandoned. I highly recommend the read. Very little talk of fear but the determination is evident.
A good mule, or mustang , with an experienced rider could do that with ease. I've done a similar ravine on a smaller pinto, and it was nerve-wracking for both of us. The trick is to keep your torso upright at all times to balance the load for the animal.
FWIW, the US Calvary trained on descending very steep slopes and ravines up to and during WW1. My grandfather was a Calvary Captain and my Mom has some old photos of he and his troop going down some very similar slopes.
nah, he's on a mule.
ReplyDeleteBeat me to it.
Delete"As sure footed as a ...."
DeleteDangerous? I'd call that descent "stupid."
ReplyDeleteThat's a photo of teamwork, confidence and trust, not stupidity.
Deletejohn is the stupid one.
DeleteIf you were your ancestors, you n yours would still be clustered upon the east coast, too fearful to set off across this continent. Sad, really.
DeleteI suspect Photoshop is at work.
ReplyDeleteWill you "it's Photoshopped" guys quit that? 1. You don't know, and 2. why do you feel it is necessary to get out your wet blanket and throw it on a simple image? If you don't like it, scroll on, and throw the blanket in the dryer. Leave the rest of us in peace.
DeleteAnon, why doncha take your own advice.
DeleteBecause I'm tired of the ignorant hostility in the comments, and it needs to be called out once in a while. It's fake! It's Photoshopped! It's AI! I suspect the impulse comes from a need to seem smarter, more perceptive, than others, and to display this sort of opinion gives the commenter's ego a cheap charge, as in "I saw it and you didn't." It just wastes our time and degrades our enjoyment of a simple image. It's a needless negative injected for no other reason than to fool the commenter into feeling better about oneself, if only for an instant. If you think about it, it reveals more about the person making the comment than they would probably like.
DeleteHa, he might have to tighten his seat belt.
ReplyDeleteOr get that saddle horn buried in his taint.
DeleteMules are awesome, and the right mule will forever change your thinking about horses.
ReplyDeleteI owned and rode a "Racking" mule, Sally Ann. She was a jumbo mule and as sweet as can be and I took her places where horses would falter. She was smart and I gave her the rein and she figured out how to get me and her across ravines and rock escarpments safely. Now I never tried that in the picture. Once I rode a mule, I never went back to horses, idiot creatures they are.
DeleteThe photo reminds me of an interview I read years ago, done by the Natl park service and still available to read free, on their website. The fellas name was Ned Chaffin and his parents homesteaded n ran cattle in SE Utah South of Green River. "Under the ledge" "Robbers roost" country. The interview itself is amazing but it includes 40-50 pictures taken in the early 20th century. Trails like that abound in these photos and they did everything from runnin cattle n sheep up n down them to hauling heavy equipment for oil/uranium exploration and gold mining hardware down into those canyons. Hell, some of that shit is still down there, abandoned. I highly recommend the read. Very little talk of fear but the determination is evident.
ReplyDeleteA good mule, or mustang , with an experienced rider could do that with ease. I've done a similar ravine on a smaller pinto, and it was nerve-wracking for both of us. The trick is to keep your torso upright at all times to balance the load for the animal.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, the US Calvary trained on descending very steep slopes and ravines up to and during WW1. My grandfather was a Calvary Captain and my Mom has some old photos of he and his troop going down some very similar slopes.