Restless in the off season between summer wagon rides and winter sleigh rides, 14 mules from the Frisco Adventure Park staged a “bray”-kout Thursday, Sept. 19, and cruised around town for two hours before being caught. Two mules in particular, sisters Dolly and Jolene, led the great escape, according to Sierra Madrigal, the mule manager for Two Below Zero.
“They were the ones that mastermind the entire escape, and they were the last ones to be caught,” Madrigal said. “They’re the ones that are the brains of the operation. They took it upon themselves to go find pasture.
” Sometimes slandered as dumb creatures, mules are actually “extremely smart animals,” and Dolly and Jolene were “pretty much able to disassemble the pen” at the Adventure Park by lifting up on a panel, Madrigal said. Usually this time of year, the mules will be put out to pasture, but Two Below Zero recently lost its pasture lease and has not been able to find a new pasture, leaving the mules to remain in their pen through the fall, she said. “We lost our lease that we’ve been using for many years, so they are unfortunately still in the pen for the off season,” Madrigal said.
“So they are getting a little antsy, and I think that is what contributed to the breakout.” It was around 2:30 p.m.
when the Summit County Sheriff’s Office got a call for horses, later identified as mules, running across Colorado Highway 9 near the Adventure Park, Sgt. Mike Schilling said. Deputies respon.