Mule Woman

You can tell a horse to do something, and you can ask a donkey. But with a mule, you NEGOTIATE. Leroy thinks this is a dang good bargain! #muletraining #grounddriving

Sundays are for trail riding with the whole family! Yesterday we explored new sections of the Cross Florida Greenway with our personal girls Bella, Chiquita, and Agate. At three years old, Chica has had exposure to mountains, meadows, water crossings, swamps, you name it. She feels like a big girl wearing her pack saddle, too. #mulemonday #longearlunes #mulesofinstagram

Did you play with your mule today? ☀️ Progress isn’t always linear, when teaching your mule or horse a new skill, it’s important to incorporate “days off” in between to go back to the basics.

From hardly being able to be led or touched, to standing nice for a quick hose-down like the brave girl she is!💙 It’s been a great 30 days with this little #minimule with us both learning a LOT! #EndlessGrowth

Can mules learn liberty? ABSOLUTELY! Is it more challenging than with a horse? Yes, it definitely can be. Liberty and bridleless communication is simply another language. Just as communicating with a rope halter or bit is a language! While horses are typically always apt to please and will try time and time again until they get the answer “right,” donkeys and mules, being more self-sufficient and independently motivated, can get bored easily and lose connection. When you don’t have a lead rope or lariat to maintain that connection, things can get tricky! Chica and I have been speaking the language of liberty since she was just a weanling, and now that she’s 2.5 our communication is really starting to grow.

It’s a hay day!

We have a hedge on the way! Drip irrigation on auto-pilot. A new day means a new project here on the farm. 💙

Raising this baby from a weanling has been the honor of my life! I’m a big advocate for letting babies just be babies, slowly & surely increasing what I ask of her at developmentally appropriate stages. At nearly 2 1/2 now, she has the most brilliant brain and biggest personality of them all. Not to mention - she’s turning big, grey, and spotted just like her mama!

This here is a gentling technique taught to me by a great horseman many moons ago. By the time you’re ready to swing a leg over your colt they could already have 500 or 1000 miles walking with the feeling of a rider on their back, and by then they’ve also become comfortable with having you in their periphery rather than by their side or in front of them. Those of us lucky enough to experience raising a mule or horse from start to finish owe it to them to make the transition from groundwork to riding as sweet and as sensible as can be. My mule Chiquita here is about to turn two - we have many miles to walk together yet!

Sakira crossing water.

Never twitch, hard-tie, hobble, trip, kick, whip, bribe, cheat, or trick a horse into doing anything. Never take away a horse’s dignity in order to make them perform. Patience and consistency allow the horse to understand what we are asking and then proceed at their own pace when they are ready. Training in this manner takes less time and builds a relationship of trust and confidence between horses and humans. When the horse learns that you will not react in anger or aggression when they are fearful or confused, the more trust they will have in you, and the more they will begin to offer you. In action is my friend Sakira – an Egyptian Arabian gelding I had the honor of working with last May. Spring snowmelt and runoff made trails abundant with water crossings, and Sakira had never crossed water before. He launched himself with such force across each creek that I decided it was necessary to slow things down, get off, and allow each other some space to come back into our minds and bodies. It was a test of my physical fitness as well – lots of walking by his side and straddling logs while reassuring him that he could cross confidently and independently. Sure enough, he figured it out.