The second image in the photo contest:
"When leaving the Wind Wolves Preserve early one morning we spotted this Mule amongst other Mules and horses by the road side. We gave this Mule an apple. He is very friendly."
When we stopped to visit with the mules and horses, a couple employees of the Preserve stopped us for a tease of "this doesn't look like archaeology."
The equestrians sparked an interesting conversation about the developments made to saddle and tack that cumulated in the Western Saddle. Aspect of which the students did not know about.
Taken a step further and imagine what it would have been like at the turn of the 1900s to have worked cattle from a horse or mule. The terrain is very variable and often invisible beneath the grasses. There are rattlesnakes and rodent burrows. How might sitting atop horse or mule change a persons perception of the landscape and its inhabitants?
