
DATE: Saturday, August 9, 1997              TAG: 9708080102

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Maddry 

                                            LENGTH:  102 lines

MULE MANIA IN CHESAPEAKE COUPLE FINDS CREATURES STUBBORN BUT ENDEARING

BOB FERGUSON and his wife, Judy, have mule mania.

They live in the heart of Chesapeake - a quarter mile from the Virginia Employment Commission offices - on a 40-acre spread on Albemarle Drive they have named Gee-Haw Farm.

``Gee,'' as Bob will tell you, is the command you give a mule to get it to go right. And ``haw'' is the command to go left. Bob and Judy have four mules on their property - each with its own personality - that will obey those commands . . . when they seem prudent and agreeable to the mules.

Bob's a child counselor for the city of Norfolk's Division of Youth Services. The Fergusons use the mules to entertain children and take folks on hayrides and hayride cookouts in a rural setting. There's a large pond with ducks on it next to the house.

Beside the house is a rusted cast iron bell with a strong clapper that can be heard a quarter mile away when its chain is pulled to summon Bob and the mules from the nearby woods or fields for supper.

Bob, wearing a T-shirt with a likeness of a mule's head on the front with ``Mule Headed'' printed beneath it, briefed me on the animals when I arrived.

``You can't get a mule to do anything it doesn't really want to do,'' Bob said. ``They are extremely cautious animals. If a mule doesn't think something is safe, he isn't going to do it even if you hit him with a two by four. He'll just sit down.''

Take the Fergusons' mule Jake, for instance. As a rule, mules do not like to jump. A horse will see a low fence in the distance, run up to it and go over it in a bound.

Not the mule. You can get the mule to run to the fence. But once he gets there, the mule will freeze. He may study the fence for a minute or more while dead still. And if you order him to jump over it, he may. And he may not.

If he doesn't want to jump the fence, the mule - with ears flopped to the side - will stand there like a bronze sculpture of a stubborn mule. The sky can thunder. Clouds can drop hailstones as big as cannonballs and bounce them off his head and shoulders. But the mule will not jump if he doesn't care to.

But if he does jump, it will be after long consideration. And from a standstill. Not a run.

As mules go, the Fergusons' mule Jake is one jumping fool. He won first place for a jump at the Benson (N.C.) Mule Day two years back. And he jumped a fence 4 feet and 9 inches high at the State Fair, winning third place in that state jumping contest.

``He already had second place nailed,'' Bob said, ``but when they raised the fence, Jake figured he'd done enough jumping for the day. Wouldn't budge.''

And that was that.

If you have a child who has never seen farm animals or had a taste of the country life, a visit to Gee-Haw Farm is a good idea.

Bob takes groups of children on the hay wagon for rides through the woods, past a creek and around his vegetable patch, where they get to eat fresh butter beans like candy.

The mules that pull the long hay wagon are easy to handle and extremely modest, given the fact that both have appeared on the cover of Midwest Mule Magazine (the largest-circulation mule magazine in the United States) because they are so handsome.

The mules are named Virginia and Carolina. They are male mules dark brown in color with light noses. They appear to be twins but are not. Both were sired by a mammoth Jack (donkey). They get their large size from their mother, a Percheron (a fast-trotting draft horse).

I got aboard the hayride wagon - seated in back - behind Bob, Judy and Erin Erickson, a mule fanatic at the tender age of 12. Erin, a student at Great Bridge Middle School, was riding horses in an English riding habit until about six months ago. Now she rides mules in an English riding habit at shows, when she is not feeding and grooming the mules at the Ferguson farm.

``I like mules better,'' she said.

Bob got Virginia and Carolina hitched to the hayride wagon, and they took off at a stately pace across a field and into the woods. When we got into the deep woods - where there are sometimes deer foxes, and raccoons - the ride got a lot bumpier. And when the wheels rolled over a dead limb in the path, I bounced about 4 inches into the air from my seat way back in the wagon.

`Gee!'' I shouted, as I landed on the base of my spine.

At that point the mules went to the right into a clump of bushes and it took some time for Erin, who had taken over the reins, to get the mules back on track and sorted out. That ``Gee'' word had done it.

Once the ride was over, Bob insisted on showing me Jake, the jumping mule. I told him it was getting late, but I didn't want to hurt his feelings. So I stayed.

He had that mule on a rope, and the more Bob told Jake to jump, the more that mule dug in his feet. Bob's face was getting redder by the minute. After 30 minutes, he was still shouting, ``Jump!'' But old Jake had his ears laid back and his feet so still they seemed anchored in cement.

I tiptoed off the place to my car without saying anything. Probably should have stuck around. But I just hate to see a grown man cry. MEMO: If your group, school or day care class would like to take an

educational field trip to Gee-Haw Farm, phone 547-2338. There is $4 fee

per child (no charge for teachers and staff). Tours last from about 90

minutes to two hours depending on group size. The farm also caters to

private groups for hayrides, camp fires, birthday parties and weddings. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

RICHARD L. DUNSTON

The Virginian-Pilot

Judy and Bob Ferguson keep four mules on their Gee-Haw Farm in

Chesapeake, using them to give hayrides and entertain children.