Bubba the Gaited Jack

            Gaited Jack Stud Service.  We’re pleased to announce the scheduled arrival of Bubba the Gaited Jack so that we can provide mule-making services to our many gaited horse customers.  Owned jointly with Billy Oley, M.D., of Red Lodge Montana, Bubba is the culmination of a conversation Billy and I had while we sat under a rain-drenched tarp eating peanuts by lantern light in the Slough Creek drainage north of Yellowstone Park.  Camped in grizzly country for the early bugling elk hunt, Billy and I had plenty of time to reflect on our mutual fascination with mules, particularly gaited ones.  We then and there decided to add a jack to our sire services at Absaroka Tennessee Walking Horses.

            Bubba hails from Stepping Out Farms in Shelbyville, Tennessee, the well-known producer of gaited mules.  A sorrel with light points and an unusually refined head, Bubba will mature in the 14 to 14.1 hands vicinity.  This size jack will normally throw mules plus or minus one inch of the height of the dam.  Videotaped on a lead line, Bubba showed an amble, a trot, a foxtrot, and a running walk—all in less than a minute!  Gaited genetics are definitely present, so we’re expecting good gaits from the mules Bubba sires down the road with Tennessee Walking Horse, Foxtrotter, and Paso mares.  Mules resulting from breeding to registered mares of any gaited breed will be eligible for automatic registration in the American Gaited Mule Association.  We’re told by Bill Moore, who has many years of experience breeding gaited mules, that it’s not uncommon to get a gait from this line of jacks and non-gaited mares (such as a Quarter Horses), and, short of that, an enhanced, longer-stepping walk.

            Bubba’s introductory stud fee will be $450, or $400 for mares booked (with $100 deposit) by April 15, 2007.