Sundance in Training...

I know this has been a long drawn out effort for training a mule. Sundance is 10 yrs old now. So many things have interfered with getting her under saddle that the last 5 years have flown by.

She was supposed to be a project for Rich. I didn't want to train another mule. I'd worked with Badger as my very first full blown project in 1998. Sunshine in 2002 and Siera in 2006.

Anyway. Cancer, stroke, and other health issues took away Rich's desire to work with Sundance. I thought she was too wild and crazy at first to work with. However since she is here, I decided that she should be useful. So last year I started working with her. She made great progress and then...winter happened. The round pen got filled with large square bales for the winter and the training there stopped. I had good intentions of all sorts of work with her...but didn't.

Now we start up again. And the intense human contact has made an impression on all of the mules.

The red headed sisters always come to the gate and stare at me when they see me outside. Sunshine is the older of the two and has years of riding under her girth.
Sundance evidently loves the challenge and work. She will spot me anywhere and find me.

Even in the forest she hears my footsteps and comes on the gallop. She reminds me in a way of her half brother Badger. Her sister Sunshine is very similar. I've been blessed with some very fine mules in my life. Sundance may be one of those special ones and I may not have known it.

Here she is at the gate with her sister. Demanding to be noticed.

I made her wait though until I was ready.

In the round pen I just decided to start treating her like any mule I'd take riding.
No ground work first.
Brushing and picking the feet.

Blanket and saddle. This is the second time she has had a saddle on. She twitched her body when I brought it out but then stood still as I put it on her.
Bridle.
She really is not sure about having a snaffle bit in her mouth and kept inching backwards.
I did not have her tied, she was at Liberty and could have chosen to bolt away. However I stood quietly and spoke to her, explaining how I felt she needed to trust me on this.

She took the bit and let me adjust the straps. The bit and bridle really bugged the crap out of her. So I added a few jugs with rocks to her saddle and asked her to trot around me.
She shook her head and bunny hopped in protest. She went faster, slower, faster, then stopped and became a mule statue.

I put the crinkly dog food bag on her next and she listened to it as she walked around and then stood quietly again.

I attached reins and we worked on feeling the bit on one side and another and giving to the bit. It only took a few minutes for her to figure this out. I stopped as soon as she responded.
I then put a foot in her stirrup and laid across her, first on one side, then another.

A huge thunderstorm started moving in so I decided to end our session. I unsaddles her and did it as if she were a seasoned mule. She just stood quietly.

I'm looking forward to another session hopefully today.
One thing I have going for me, is that I am not like a paid trainer. I don't have a time limit on her work. I don't have to produce results in 30 days. I can take my time and do it how I like.

I will be moving the herd back to the forest so they have lots of shade as the weather is turning very hot and humid.

I'm pleased with Sundance's progress. They say you need to train them very young. I'm thinking that Sundance is more like her sister and half brother Badger. They needed time for their mature brains to kick in and accept things.
This work would not have gone well when Sundance was two or even five years old.

I guess things happen for a reason.

Wonderful Saturday

The morning started like any other except that Molly had asked if I wanted to go riding.
Well, of course I did! Mornings are the best time to go for me on the weekends. In the afternoons there are guys that race around with loud 4 wheelers and I just don't think mules and loud machines would mix well.

Not a great shot, but I just took the camera and pointed behind me. Molly's mount is Mica. She used to be a roper/heeler and team penning mule but has now retired into a life of quiet trail rides. We didn't use her for about 5 years and I pulled her out of retirement and found that she was excellent for novice riders and as a rock solid dependable mule in all situations.

I rode Siera. Molly wanted to ride her. But Siera can be funny on her first trips away from home. She can be obstinate and when it comes to black sucking mud, she will sometimes prepare for a down right refusal to move through it.
Putting a newer rider in that situation is not a good idea.

And I knew my chosen route had mud sucking holes that the 4 Wheelers had created. [No photos of the mud sucking route nor the creek crossing that was similar to the swamp of Sorrows ~~ Movie reference to The Never Ending Story]

My hands were totally full of convincing Siera she would survive the black muck holes of death.
We had to cross the valley floor but the 4 Wheelers and made deep ruts in the already saturated valley. Instead of trying to cross to the other side, I walked Siera upstream on solid ground to the snow mobile crossing.
Less stress for her and probably safer too.

We finally made it to my favorite destination. The Back Valley, The Lost Valley...well, the 4 Wheelers have beat down a trail there too. However I took Siera upstream and she didn't mind at all. At one time it would have been a bit of a fight. Not any more. In fact she was being Miss Perfect by this time.

Maidenhair Fern Hill

I was pleased as this was her second ride away from home this year. Too many variables in my life had to get straightened out before I could take the time to ride again.

As we left the Back Valley we had a steep slippery trail to go up. I told Molly that these guys could do it easily, just let Mica have her head and lean forward, keep your balance, and trust her to do the proper thing. 

It was a hard incline for both mules, but once we got on the old logging trail, we let them catch their breath.

Mica is aged but in much better shape than she was in last year. Both mules are a bit soft in muscle and endurance but that is because they don't get ridden enough. I am aiming to fix that.

We eventually made it back to the first valley. The Black mud sucking valley of ruts and black water and muck. 

When I crossed the creek I offered Molly the opportunity to ride Siera. She didn't hesitate. We swapped mules and I rode Mica the rest of the way home.

Siera knew the way home up the camp road and was not going to offer up any resistance.

Molly had met Siera the first day she came to visit and fell head over heels for her. I have two other teens girls who have done the very same thing with her. Siera is that kind of mule. She loves attention. 

Molly beamed all the way home. 

I took Molly home and told her that around 3pm I'd be taking Sundance out for her next training session. We took a vote and decided to start calling her *Sunny*, Sundance and Sunshine are just too much of a mouth full.

Sunny, it is.

The funny thing is with Sunny and her sister, it that they are the two that were born on this place and raised here. Both out of my slightly nutty but fun mare Cheyanne who is no longer with us. Both mules are extreme people mules.

In one respect it almost makes it a bit harder to train Sunny. She doesn't want to trot around the round pen. She wants to hang out with the human.

Trainers like those that they can force into lunging and moving. 

Sure I can lunge her. But then I can also work with her a bit differently and use her human trust in other ways.

Put strange things on her back. Toss balls around. Ask her to follow me over killer tarps. Kick a ball.

All with a curious attitude at first then a Ho Hum attitude.

Crinkly Mule Eating Dog Food Bag. At first it was a mule eater. After a while it was a grooming tool. Legs, stomach, ears, back and then a neck decoration.

HO..Hum.

Finally. A saddle. And a jug with rocks in it to make annoying noises as she walked.

Reaction?

Look at the jug, walk, listen to the jug. 

Stop.

Look.

Ho Hum.

I let her trot the pen with the saddle to feel the back of it bouncing around. I'll use the back girth next so she can feel that. Then add a breast collar and crupper and perhaps a britchen.

I stood in the stirrups on each side and laid across her. She just sighed.

And that was the end of the session.

I was pleased. I recalled watching a video of an old mule/horse trainer who commented that in truth training the animal should be as about boring as watching paint dry. You don't want snorting bucking and challenges every step of the way. I agree, but to me it isn't boring. It is more about watching her reactions and body language to everything we are working on.

I put things away and she followed me.

...as if to ask...

What's next?

Admittedly, this was to be Rich's mule to train and I kept holding out the hope that he'd get interested in her again.

But she is doing so well.

I am simply awed by her calm attitude.

Let's hope it eventually translates to trails!