Muddin' with Siera

I promised myself I'd take Siera riding today.

I even put it on my 'to do' list. We've gone 36 hours without rain so I thought it would be a good time to take Siera on the 4 wheeler trail to the creek and all of the way down the valley.

Siera hates black muddy muck. She has told me that she is sure that the black nasty smelling stuff was only put there in the trail to suck her mule soul out through her hooves.
I have assured her that it is just mud. In the valley where the 4 wheelers have torn things up? Well indeed, it may just be sucking black muck that would pull you down.
However, since the trails those guys made are pretty decent except for low branches, I decided to take her to the end of the valley and back.

We slid down the first incline into a puddle of green slimy water that was at the bottom of a dry run. Well, it appeared more like deep rutted wash out with gobs of gunk in it. See Siera with her head turned? She knows that home is up over the ridge and to her left.

I told her how proud I was of her, she was taking on these slippery inclines and rutted ditches like a real trooper.
She was not impressed with my voice at all.

We made it to the creek and the path we normally use was partially submerged in ages old black dirt that had turned into quagmire.
She tried turning around to take the trail home and I asked her to go up and around.

She is a pretty good mule. Some of the branches I had to duck under had me laying over her neck and slightly to the side to avoid the saddle horn.

Here I gave her a choice. Walk in the soul sucking black muck or walk in the creek.

She turned her head again as if she'd rather go home. I told her that she couldn't head back until we'd gone to the end of the valley.
Hmmm.

Fine.
The creek, it was. We rode to the end of the valley and I made her stand still.
Normally she'd be a bit calmer with another mule along, but she was solo.

On the way back she was in a hurry and stepped over a tiny sapling that was bent across the trail. It slapped her between the hind legs and she did this buck/jump thing. Since Siera is terrible at bucking, it felt more like a trip than anything else.

I took the opposite side of the valley and intended on coming back a different route when we got stopped by a literal 'sea' of black sucking muck mud. I figured we could get around it by edging up towards the woods, but going through wild roses, thorny apple trees, and berry briers didn't look like an option to me.

Siera knew that she had to cross the narrow valley to get back to solid ground and we back tracked as she peered at the maze of gouged 4 wheeler ruts that were black and filled with smelly green oozing water.
I let her go along to seek a way to get across. It was if I could tell that she was really examining things or perhaps she was seeking the spot she'd safely crossed just a few weeks ago.

She made a decision and through the nasty stuff we went.

I could just hear her saying over and over.. 'Nasties! Nasties! My hooves are going to get dirty! Knee deep in smelly wet mucky muck!'

Her hooves did make sucking noises as she crossed the ruts and we got to the creek.
Big Sigh.
I like it when she sighs.
She is relaxed then.

We had two hills to go back up that we'd slid partially down. At the bottom of the hill I gave her her head and let her make her own way up the hill. I wished in a way that she'd had a luxurious mane to grab hold of ... but she doesn't. Up we climbed.

After the last climb we stopped. I wanted to let her catch her breath. The day had turned very humid.

When we got to the gravel road, I dismounted and loosened her cinch.

Siera sighed again and we stood in the road while a nice little breeze cooled us off a bit.
I walked her home.

She had really put out a great effort for me. Mud and water had always been a huge issue for her. Steep hills and tough terrain are also a bit harder for her than a mule out of a quarter type horse. She is gaited and doesn't have the incredible back end strength that Sunshine and Mica have.
On the open and flat terrain, she can really move out.

I tied her to the shade tree in the yard and took my time letting her cool off and brushed her until she was dry. She does like attention. I figured she deserved it after the hazardous adventure she'd gone on.

With dry weather coming up this week I hope to get some more rides in with Sunshine and Mica also. They handle the ditches and the mud in a different way, nearly a bored attitude.

The weather is to turn warm and muggy again so our rides will be early or late along with more round pen work with Sundance.

When I let Siera go she walked away slowly. The red headed sisters crowded me as if to ask for some attention. Sundance smelled my shirt which was spotted with black dried 'valley' muck.
Siera rolled in the dirt...
I took a shower.

...and I had to clean my saddle...
And it was a fine day.

Busy day

El Nino hasn't been kind to us.  Sure the weather is milder and wetter, but we are swimming in mud and goo.

According to our farrier most of the equine he has had to trim have been in the sticky muck.  As he then said, "Hey, I chose this job."

Before he arrived we got each of the donkeys and gave their feet a bath and then put them in the round pen picking them out so our farrier wouldn't have to.

Not all of the donks liked getting their feet washed, but we got it done anyway.

Two hours later when Dewey showed up he was pleasantly surprised and very happy that we'd taken care and time to wash and clean the feet so he wasn't handling gooey mud caked hooves.

After Dewey finished, we talked about Siera and her frog issues on her one foot. We decided to see how trimming and regular 'in hand' exercise would work before we decided to go with special shoes.

I love Siera and she is a great ride.  Everyday I get her out, clean her up and either hand walk her up the gravel road or lunge her a bit in the round pen.  She enjoys the attention and the work so much that she trots to the gate every time I am in the yard.

Lil' Richard had his second training session.  In the first one, he was full of nonsense.  I put a rope halter on him for this session and we lunged on a line.
Between the last session and this session, he must have decided that he was going to be a smart pony and work very intelligently.

His Whoa became instant.  He learned to walk to me with finger pressure on the rope.  He learned to back up with finger pressure on the rope.  In all of his years with us, he has just been led around, trimmed, and basically had no formal training.

He took to this like candy.  He even took on the ever fearful blanket.  Lil' Richard gave it the stink eye, then walked over it after only a few minutes.
I put it on him and he smelled it and stared at it and then promptly ignored it.

He is a very quick study.

At the end of his session, I spent a bit of time with grooming.  He still has burrs in his forelock and in his tail from his late summer grazing.  He stands like a statue when I work on these.
Of course I've done this for years with him, so I didn't expect anything else.

He may make a great little mount after all.  He won't be for anyone who weighs over approximately 115 lbs, but that is fine because he'll work for me to get little short rides in.

My feet will only be about 3 inches off the ground.  My inseam is 3 inches less than his height.

I'm looking at an older donkey to start under saddle and with this mild winter I may have time to do that also.

So I guess El Nino may have some good things after all.

I look across the pastures and see Pedro, one of my favorite not trained mules. I'd started him quite a while ago but had that ended when I had to have multiple shoulder and elbow surgeries years ago.

Hmmmm.