Ask Meredith – Training
Training Questions and Answers
Training is much more than just teaching the equine to be driven or ridden. It is a responsibility to the equine athlete to develop his body correctly so he can do the things you ask of him. This means that you must be willing to go slowly enough at each stage of training to develop the muscles, tendons and ligaments over a good frame (proper equine posture). This does NOT start in the round pen, but on the lead line. This is the first place that his posture and the correct building of muscle, etc. will take place. Showmanship work on the lead line helps to establish strength and balance on the flat in a controlled situation. Leading over obstacles adds coordination to strength and balance before they go to the round pen and learn to balance at all three gaits on the circle. If you begin in the round pen without the proper amount of time spent on the lead line, most equines will have difficulty and you can experience bad behaviors during training.
The physical loss of balance is the most prevalent and produces most bad behaviors in mules and donkeys. When the training program takes into account the details of correctly developing muscles, tendons and ligaments over an aligned frame, using an adequate period of time for this to actually happen, the equine (horses included) will recognize that the handler is actually making them feel good all over, and they will be more willing to comply. Truly bad behaviors are then non-existent, and the annoying behaviors they exhibit are no worse than a child testing his limits. It takes years to grow and develop properly, so be fair and considerate to your equine by setting him up for success and giving him the benefits of patience, kindness, respect and plenty of time to develop. Condensing the training program to teach “things” to your equine, with no regard to how long it takes to build muscle over a correct frame at any given stage, is abuse and will produce bad behaviors.
Click on the title below to see the complete question and answer.
As Seen On RFD-TV
Question: The reason I am writing this is because I am very disturbed about something I saw on a mule training show aired by RFDTV. I realize you must be very busy and you may not be able to do anything about it, but I just feel like I need to bring it to your attention. I don't own mules but I do own three horses, and I watch your show because I like the fact the you use gentle and resistant free training methods and I am glad people like you are trying to educate people on this type of training.
Last Wednesday, January 16, RFDTV aired a "Rural Heritage Horse Hour", which was a show about these two men and how they train mules. What these two men did to mules to "train" them to pull a cart just broke my heart and I know it would break yours also, because their methods go against everything you stand for.
In case you aren't able to view the shows, let me explain what I saw on this show. Through the whole show I was in total disbelief at what I was seeing.
It starts out with 2 mules in a large stall and one of the men trying to catch one of them. Right away it became very apparent these mules have had very little handling and wanted nothing to do with these men. When one was finally caught it was tied up so they could catch the other one.
They then brought one of them out to a metal chute, which was just wide enough for the mule to fit in, they attached a chain to the halter, put a chain behind the mule, and to my disbelief a chain over the mules back, (this they said was for the mules safety so it couldn't rear up and go over backwards).
They also made the comment that if the mule tries to lay down they put a chain under the mules belly. The poor mule is standing there absolutely scared to death. They made a point of bringing this to your attention by pointing out that the mules back is all hunched up because he is scared. (Who wouldn't be)! Then they put a twitch on the mule so they could get the bit in his mouth and the bridle on.
Then they put the harness on the mule, the whole time you could tell the poor mule was terrified. At one point in the show they zoomed down to the mules hind legs, which were trembling and not even touching the ground, the mule was sitting on the butt chain.
All the while the men were making comments about how you have to be careful around these animals because they will hurt you and hurt you bad! Now that they have the harness on the mule they take it out of the chute and are going to show how they "train" the mule to lead.
Once again I am shocked to see that they are going to chain it to a tractor! They drive around and around and the mule has no choice but to follow. They stop and leave the mule tied to the tractor while they bring out the second mule and proceed to put the harness on it the same way.
Then they bring that mule and tie it to the tractor also and "lead" both of them. Now it's time to "train" them to pull a cart. They tie them both to a pole and hook them up to a two wheeled cart. While trying to approach one of the mules to hook it up, it side stepped and fell over the tongue of the cart, landing on his back and struggles to get up, with the tongue on his one side and the other mule on his other side. At this time the men just stood there and one made the comment that the mules do get "skinned" up once in awhile and then chuckles.
They now have the mules hooked up, they tie them back to the tractor, the other man gets on the cart and the cart also has a large tractor tire tied to the back of it. They said you need to have enough weight attached so they cant run off, but not too heavy that they can't pull it. They go around the ring a few times then to my shock they take them down to the highway and drive up and down the highway, so the mules can get used to traffic noise!!
Then they bring them back up to the pen go around a few more times and decide it's time to have lunch. They leave the mules tied to the tractor while they are gone! When they come back they untie them from the tractor, attach another tractor tire to the cart, to ensure they don't run off and now they are going to teach them to drive.
Did I mention that they work these mules for at least 8 hours in one day, they say you have to "wear them down" to get them to learn. Through the whole show they would make comments like, "you have to show them who's boss", or "you have to hurt them before they hurt you". I wonder how many of these mules don't survive their training lessons? I shudder to think. This was part one of an apparent series of shows.
The whole time I was watching this I kept wondering what Meredith would be thinking if she were to see this. I have also sent an email to RFDTV about my concerns. These so called training techniques are cruel, and dangerous for both mule and trainer.
I feel there is no reason to air shows like this, when there are so many other trainers out there, such as yourself, who are showing people that you can train mules and horses in a safe and gentle manner and get much better results. I can't believe these mules are going to be very safe to be around after this type of training.
I guess that I am hoping that by bringing this to your attention you may have more influence on RFDTV then I would. Perhaps you or other people could convince RFDTV that this is not the type of training shows that should be aired. Mules and horses and even other people wanting to learn to train deserve better training shows than this.
Thank you for letting me express my concerns.
Answer: This is dangerous information to be made so readily available to the public and the error of these people's ways needs to be exposed!
Mules and donkeys are the most fair and loving creatures in the world and it is people like this who give them a bad name! But more than that, they put newcomers to the industry at risk. These animals who are trained like this may give the appearance of being broke, but these are the same animals you hear about later that have caused a wreck during a parade, or some other kind of accident. It's no accident that these animals wind up unreliable in stressful situations.
Animals that are trained to fear are never calm and confident though they can appear to be. It is better to train with a program that lets them learn in a step by step progression that helps them to grow in a healthy manner both physically and mentally. Our program does this, as you well know. The training is totally resistance-free and the result is a confident, obedient, affectionate and reliable companion.
