Sunday, July 26, 2015

the horses (and mules!) of Nola

Just got home last night from a few days spent in New Orleans' French Quarter for a conference. Fun times! I'm pretty exhausted, but rather than catch up on sleep like a normal person I'm off to a horse trial today with B and Wick (I'm just playing chauffeur, not competing). 

So more interesting updates will come later (and I'll hopefully get caught up with everyone else's posts too!!!), but in the meantime here are all the horse-related pics I snapped in the Big Easy. Enjoy!

Jackson Square contains probably the most recognizable horse statue in the city. This iconic combo of statue + backdrop shows up all over the place on signs and t-shirts etc
this guy was a little less fanciful - but still pretty cool. and of course the Mississippi lies just beyond.
horses and beignets - what a perfect combo!
there's a lot of civil war history in the area too - and these neat statuettes were displayed in an antique gun shop
but of course there were actual living breathing equines too - mostly of the carriage-pulling mule variety. this particular guy was spotted making his was across bourbon street, and didn't exactly look thrilled about it. his driver said he's pretty new to the job
this true white mule was really striking and i was super disappointed that my snapshots didn't come out any clearer. as it was, i nearly knocked a few ppl off the balcony running to catch this picture haha (no, i'm NOT crazy, why are you asking?!?). 
these horse head posts lined many of the streets in the French Quarter. most were pretty plain but this one appears to have been painted (at some point) and was covered in glitter
and of course i thought Izzy would approve since he appears to be noshing on a candy cane lol
the French Quarter was kind of all over the place, with high end art and antique galleries interspersed with chintzy t-shirt and souvenir shops  
and, um, yea there were police horses tied near the station on bourbon street each evening. obviously i had to say hi (and yes all my fellow conference attendees thought I was freaking nuts...). this horse was super friendly - nearly aggressively friendly and almost bit my face off, but in a nice kind of way? lol i guess i'm just 'that girl' that probably drives all the mounted police crazy haha
then of course there are all the carriages on Decatur. they had some really interestingly colored mules out here - and i wish the pictures were better!!
these guys were all super quiet - except for one wearing a metal grill over his muzzle. presumably that one bites?
i could NOT get over how huge their ears were. for the most part these were BIG mules, with even bigger ears!
just look at those things!?! who could resist haha

and here was the white mule again. i kinda want to think this was the same one from the prior evening bc it seems unlikely that there would be more than one pure white mule around town... but who knows!
Anyway it was a super fun trip but I am GLAD to be home. Will hopefully get back into the swing of things with at least a quick ride this afternoon :)

32 comments:

  1. Love love love love love this! Omg. Beignets! I must have some!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. haha the beignets were pretty amazing, and i very definitely had more than my fair share... but hey, calories in different time zones don't count right? lol

      Delete
  2. Love the horse head posts! And big ears, aww!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. those big ears will never cease to amaze the little girl in me haha

      Delete
  3. I am a new reader and looked back through some of your old posts. Did your friend buy Wick or sort out his lease? It is fun to follow you and Isabel but I love OTTBs so it's fun to hear about them, too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks for reading! yes everything worked out well for the lease situation with Wick, thank goodness (i was more than a little worried there for a bit)! and i also adore OTTBs and occasionally feature a few of my friend's here. one day i'll have one for myself too, but for now Isabel is fitting the bill in a big way :D

      Delete
  4. Those ears!!!

    Love all the "horses" you saw!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. haha i'm honestly like a child about the horses - but whatever. my colleagues can judge me however they like while i'm busy snapping pics of toy horses in display cases ;)

      Delete
  5. I love the pictures! It's awesome you saw so many mules.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks! i thought of you when i saw them all! i don't see many in my regular life, but they are a very common sight in the french quarter

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. meeee toooo!!!! those ears.... i just will never not love them lol

      Delete
  7. Those big ears!! I just want to see them flop all around :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. haha yesss!! i should have snapped video for ear flopping gifs... ahh hindsight lol

      Delete
  8. New Orleans is so fun! Hope you ate well while you were there :) Kinda hard not to!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. omg did we eat!!! we ate and ate and ate - this and that and everything they say you should try plus so much more! i left no rock (comestible or otherwise) unturned haha

      Delete
  9. New Orleans is one of my favorite places in the country. I love the mules!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I went to NOLA when I was a senior in high school and I think I was too focused on alcohol and freedom to even acknowledge that they had equines! Seriously!! :) Glad you had a good time and got to pet a bunch of ponies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i went in college too (for another and very different conference) and had a somewhat different experience. still tho, alcohol and freedom ranked high on this trip as well, but the mules and police horses definitely stole the show haha

      Delete
  11. Looks like a fun time! I really need to visit there sometime. Love your pictures. Mules are the cutest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i enjoyed this visit very much! went once before (around 2007 maybe?) and wasn't very impressed. and even with this trip, it was more about the people i was with rather than the location that made it so positive. it would probably take the perfect circumstances (meaning either financial or the right ppl to go with) for me to go again, but all the same i'm glad it happened

      Delete
  12. I'm gonna do this the next time I travel. I always pay attention but rarely snap photos. I've never been to New Orleans but would love to go one day. Glad you had a good trip!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i may or may not be moderately obsessed with taking pictures haha. in fact this blog exists primarily as a means for me to justify deleting old pics from my phone ...

      Delete
  13. Yay NOLA! I loved the photos, brings back memories *tear*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lol i was super disappointed that i didn't get to check out the bug museum - esp since i walked past it a couple times! but the hours really didn't work for my schedule. le sigh!

      Delete
  14. My mule also loves her ears rubbed. I find it funny given how much most horses hate their ears touched. It's a goo thing too as everyone who comes up to meet her wants to touch her ears.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. that's good to know they like it - the ones i met were a little ambivalent lol. but i'm so starved bc my own mare won't let me touch her face so.... yea haha

      Delete

Thanks for leaving a comment! You may need to enable third party cookies in your browser settings if you have trouble using this form.