{"id":909,"date":"2026-01-02T15:41:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T21:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/?p=909"},"modified":"2026-01-02T15:41:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T21:41:59","slug":"developing-good-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/cindys-mule-wisdom\/developing-good-habits\/admin\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing Good Habits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"995\" src=\"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail_IMG_7962-1024x995.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-910\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail_IMG_7962-1024x995.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail_IMG_7962-300x292.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail_IMG_7962-768x746.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail_IMG_7962-1536x1493.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail_IMG_7962-1200x1166.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail_IMG_7962.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Mule Memo: Developing good habits. The median amount of time for humans to develop a good habit is 66 days. A mule? Let&#8217;s just say the mule has a head start when it comes to developing a habit, whether it is good or bad. That&#8217;s why you want to focus on good ground manners so your animal is safe to be around. One habit in particular is: when stepping up into the saddle, make sure your mule is ok with this and not feeling anxious. Sometimes it may take a few seconds to squeeze the crest of his mane to reassure him that everything is fine. The mule&#8217;s mother (the horse mare) did this very thing by massaging the young mule&#8217;s crest on top of his neck. In equine language, this means &#8220;I&#8217;m here, and everything&#8217;s OK.&#8221; Once you are in the saddle, sit back and relax. Don&#8217;t take off &#8211; or in a couple of weeks, your mule will take advantage of knowing what comes next, and he will charge out down the trail. Even though you didn&#8217;t encourage him to bolt out (or did you?), a level-headed mule waits for his handler&#8217;s signal or request. Some riders like to ride their mules as though they are on a NASCAR track, and others like to mozey along. I like for my mules to have good manners and still be able to giddyup when needed without developing anxiety. I hope this helps. If you need assistance, you know where to find me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mule Memo: Developing good habits. The median amount of time for humans to develop a good habit is 66 days. A mule? Let&#8217;s just say the mule has a head start when it comes to developing a habit, whether it is good or bad. That&#8217;s why you want to focus on good ground manners so &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/cindys-mule-wisdom\/developing-good-habits\/admin\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Developing Good Habits&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cindys-mule-wisdom"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","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=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":911,"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everycowgirlsdream.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}