{"id":426,"date":"2023-12-11T20:18:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T02:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/?p=426"},"modified":"2023-12-11T20:29:10","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T02:29:10","slug":"new-mule-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/mule-advice\/new-mule-owner\/admin\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mule Owner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dear Cindy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I\u2019ve owned a TW horse for years, I\u2019ve only now become a mule owner too, and have a couple of training questions for you.\u00a0 My mule is a five-year-old gelding and was used by his previous owner for extensive trail riding.\u00a0 He is a pleasure to ride, but his ground manners need a lot of refining, and I\u2019m having trouble getting him to do what I ask on the ground.\u00a0 My two problems:\u00a0 first, he refuses to stand still \/ stand by a mounting block for me to get on.\u00a0 And second, sometimes when I lead him, he either refuses to be led and plants his feet, or tries to push ahead of me.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The methods I used to teach my young TW mare these things don\u2019t seem to work with my mule.  Can you make any suggestions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks very much,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jodie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Jodie,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is natural for a mule to want to step away from a structure such as a mounting block.\u00a0 Then to have someone step up on a block, you are now towering over the mule and this makes the mule nervous.\u00a0 This is what predators do, right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several things you can do…I will suggest one for starters.\u00a0 If the mule is not too nervous, you can give a handful of oats as a treat to “distract” him just enough while you step up into the saddle.\u00a0 However, after mounting, you should pet him and encourage him to stand for\u00a0a minute before walking off.\u00a0 Too many riders, mount up and take off and the mule never forgets what is going to happen next, so they take off before the rider is ready.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have trained nervous mules to stand quietly at the mounting block.\u00a0 It takes time and patience.\u00a0 I quietly move the block, place it by the mule’s shoulder, give the mule a handful of oats to reward him, and next, pet him.\u00a0There’s no reason to rush this along, I mean, where’s the fire anyhow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next phase, I step up on the block, reward the mule at the same time for reassurance, pet him, and tell him how good he’s doing. Sing a little song at the same time if you really want to get his attention. I mean, how many handlers sing to their mule? Ha! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After your mule becomes comfortable in accepting the mounting block with you standing on it, (and if your song was cheery) you should be able to mount up quietly on your mule.\u00a0 After quietly mounting, encourage the mule to relax and stand for a minute.\u00a0 It’s not rocket science, it’s just merely taking your time to work through this process. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This and more groundwork information is available in\u00a0Answers To Your Mule Questions<\/a>\u00a0available here.\u00a0 Thank you for writing and let me know how things progress for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~Cindy K. Roberts <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Cindy, Although I\u2019ve owned a TW horse for years, I\u2019ve only now become a mule owner too, and have a couple of training questions for you.\u00a0 My mule is a five-year-old gelding and was used by his previous owner for extensive trail riding.\u00a0 He is a pleasure to ride, but his ground manners need … Continue reading “New Mule Owner”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mule-advice","tag-mule-training"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428,"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions\/428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}