I would also like to thank Amos for the quote. A key word is "professional." It took skill to train and control a team of mules. It was an important job in the settling of the west, as I have tried to point out also. Anyone who has never ridden a mule can get the experience on Molokai, riding down the pali to the leprosarium and the site of Father Damien's mission. It is an all-day trip with a break for lunch. The trail always has patches of loose rock and some small washouts and it is quite an education to watch the mules pick their way down and up the cliff and how they "train" the inexperienced rider who tries to impose his will.