Working with Siera

It is odd how one mule can have such a reaction from one person to another.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons I enjoy interacting with them so much.

A few weeks ago I tossed a saddle on her and took her for an awesome ride.

Last week we went to the 'Secret Place' where I let my hubby ride her. For some odd reason, when he saddles her, she is an unhappy mule.
Is it because she just has picked a 'favorite' person?

Mules do tend to do that.

Or is it a new problem?
Today I took her over to the trailer to see if she'd react any differently to my saddling her.
To my surprise, she did have a reaction and leaned back against the halter as I slowly tightened the cinch.

She then gave a half hearted rear and stared at me with a wild look in her face.

Well instead of riding, I decided to do a 'session' on saddling and un-saddling.
About 45 minutes later after repeated saddling and un-saddling...along with a 'time out' for patience while tied to the trailer,
I pronounced the exercise complete.

I gave up the ride to work with a possible issue to keep it from happening again.

This is satisfying work.

Next time, if hubby rides Siera, I'll ask to saddle her for him.
Perhaps our body language is different and that is what makes the difference.

Yes. I can saddle her untied in the round pen without any problems, for those who are wondering.
But that is not always going to be the case when you are trailering somewhere to ride.

Tomorrow we saddle up and see how it goes. We should have a good day to get some brush busting in.