April 9th was National Unicorn Day, and as a lifelong devotee to the noble beast, I naturally had to celebrate in some way with my mules.
As you can see in the video, Cash didn’t really care. He wandered up to look at the newcomer once, but otherwise appeared totally bored by the whole thing. However, after breakfast, as he ambled back across the field towards Iris, he suddenly noticed the Unicorn standing on the other side of the fence where I’d left it. A Unicorn in the field is fine; a Unicorn behind a single strand of electric tape requires a big drama to be made about it. It’s Cash logic, I don’t know. It really frightened him and he was just as scared when we brought it back into the field for him to look at. Who knows? Perhaps it was the sudden surprise of seeing it there which upset him.
Unfortunately I didn’t get his explosive reaction on video as I wasn’t expecting it, but here is the aftermath – including the mules helpfully gliding in to block my view (maybe they thought it was mean to film Cash in his moment of crisis. I genuinely think they know he’s a little bit subnormal and look out for him as best they can).
Marty surprised me with his boldness. He wasn’t sure at first, but his curiosity quickly overcame any misgivings he had. Given his usual reaction to any small animal who enters his field / looks like it might enter his field, I’m also surprised that he didn’t try and kill my poor Unicorn … but then, he did start gnawing on its leg after Xato knocked it over. So there’s that. Creepy mule.
Xato on the other hand was quite uncertain to begin with, although in typical Xato-fashion he exhibits this concern very stoically – it’s not really until Ben crosses behind that his cup overflows and he has to get out of there. He doesn’t like movement behind him, I’ve noticed.
However, when he knocked the Unicorn over, his only response was to calmly back up a stride, airplane his ears, and look down his nose at it. Funny fella.