“The passion that Meredith Hodges feels for the equines that she has fought for all her adult life is still as fresh, inspiring and infectious as it was when she first discovered the world of horses, donkeys and mules. She has never wavered in her devotion to them and in her mission to carve a lasting and honored place for them in our world. They are lucky to have her as their champion, but Meredith actually sees it a bit differently. She feels honored and privileged to be a part of their world.”
By Meredith Hodges Does the Lucky Three Ranch participate in filming? Since my parents gave me a Brownie camera when I was five years old, I have been fascinated with taking pictures. They also gave me a diary after I learned to write. When I got older and began my interaction and training with mules in 1973, I always documented those interactions with my mules and donkeys in pursuit of learning the best way to manage and train them. I wanted to give them the best opportunity to exceed people’s ...
By Meredith Hodges No training series would be complete without examination of the principles and philosophy behind the training techniques. The philosophy of my training techniques is based on the principle that we are not, in fact, training our equines. In fact, we are cultivating relationships with them by assigning meaning to our own body language that they can understand. Since our own level of understanding changes and grows over time, we must assume that so does that of our animals, and we must gauge our explanations accordingly. In the ...
By Meredith Hodges With the hectic schedule of spring and summer slowly tapering into fall, thoughts of cool, refreshing mountain streams, the sight of a massive bull elk, or the quiet majesty of the rugged mountain peaks on a relaxing trail ride, mountain hunt or pack trip begin to ease their way into our minds. What better time to share with your mule or donkey? What better place for him to show you what he was born to do? A mountain trail ride or pack trip are both perfect ways ...
By Meredith Hodges When I was growing up, equine trainers were considered special people whose special talents were a mystery to common folk like me. Witnessing the cowboys riding the broncs in the rodeos and seeing the upper-level riders at the Olympics made me doubt my ability to ever accomplish what they could do! After all, this was their profession and I was just a young girl with a passionate love for equines. Since I thought I would never be able to train equines, I dreamed of rescuing abused horses ...
“The passion that Meredith Hodges feels for the equines that she has fought for all her adult life is still as fresh, inspiring and infectious as it was when she first discovered the world of horses, donkeys and mules. She has never wavered in her devotion to them and in her mission to carve a lasting and honored place for them in our world. They are lucky to have her as their champion, but Meredith actually sees it a bit differently. She feels honored and privileged to be a part of their world.”
