MULE CROSSING: Donkey Training, Part 6

By Meredith Hodges

By walking your donkey through all the different phases of training, and before going on to the trot, you have given yourself and your donkey an opportunity to learn to negotiate and perfect your movements before you ask for speed. This allows for a lot more perfection of coordination to take place, so things are less likely to fall apart when you do add a little speed. This is the most obvious difference between mules or horses and donkeys. Horses and mules are difficult to slow down in training because of their flight instinct and are better equipped to handle walk, trot and canter all at once, moving from a confined area to more space and, ultimately, through obstacles. Donkeys, however, with their freeze instinct, get worried and won’t move if they are overwhelmed and confused. For this reason, their training is approached a little differently.

By now, your donkey should be walking really well in the round pen, both lunging and in the drivelines, on straight-aways and turning. He should be walking the hourglass pattern and the perimeter of the larger arena, circling at the cones in the pattern, doing circles off the wall on the perimeter of the arena, and crossing straight diagonals for changes of direction. He should be walking through straight-forward obstacles and getting in and out of your trailer. He should be moving away from pressure a lot more easily through the turns on the forehand and haunches while on the lead line.

Next, you will ask our donkey to begin to do his turn on the haunches while on the drivelines. This will take place in the round pen. You have already asked for the reverse and smooth turns with which he should be familiar. Now, you are going to ask him to plant a pivot foot through the turn. Do this by simply keeping the outside rein a little tighter than you did for the reverse along the rail. Hold your donkey’s head and neck straight with the outside rein while giving pulls/releases in the direction of the turn and backing it up with your driving whip on the opposite side. As he completes the turn, be sure to give a full release and ask him to walk out promptly afterward. It shouldn’t take long for him to get it. After he understands with the drivelines in the round pen, you can mount him and walk him through it, paying attention to the correct rein and leg cues. Then you can move to the open arena and practice along the rail, first on the drivelines and then under saddle.

Once he has learned the turn on the haunches in the round pen, he can also learn his turn on the forehand on the drivelines. This is a little more difficult, as he will want to try the turn on the haunches. Ask him to “Whoa”” along the rail. Then, keeping your reins taut and even, take a step to the side, away from the direction you wish him to turn. The rein will tighten on that side and will drape around his hip. You will have the sensation of pulling his hip around with the rein. If you are turning right, ask him to “gee around” and give short tugs on the direction rein, while keeping him straight with the other taut rein by holding steady. He will probably want to pull forward the first few times, but hold him as steady as you can, and if he doesn’t want to move his haunches over, just tap him LIGHTLY with the driving whip on the direct rein side. After a couple of tries of “gee-around,” ask him to “haw-around” and track left. Have patience and he will eventually get it. When he is doing fairly well at executing his turns on the haunches and turns on the forehand on the drivelines, you can progress to doing them under saddle. Just remember to keep things slow and accurate. Speed will only bring confusion and resistance at this point. It is better to opt for perfection at a slower and more controllable pace. When you are both more practiced and coordinated, you can add speed.

Your donkey should be willing to trot in the round pen with just his tack. Up to this point, he has learned his turns at the walk both on the drivelines and under saddle in the round pen, in the open arena and over obstacles. Now he will learn to trot on the drivelines and under saddle. Begin with the usual review, then after he has lunged at the trot, put on the drivelines and drive him at the trot. If he gets balky, your assistant can trot ahead of him with the treat bag and no lead line. Initially, if he goes too fast, just slow him down easily by giving the command to “Whoa” and create a drag on the lines. Your assistant can help if necessary by stepping ahead of him with her arms up, as you did when you were lunging him. Have him go around only as many times as he is willing in the beginning, and reward him for his efforts.

When he has complied on the drivelines, you can then mount him and try him under saddle. Your assistant should remain in the middle with her lunge whip and back up your verbal and leg cues with action from her whip. After a few hesitations, your donkey should understand what you want and be happy to comply. Just remember not to overdo and your assistant should stop using the whip when the donkey is complying with your cues. Also, remember to stop him any time there is resistance—regroup and then try again. This will let him know that you wish to halt any time there is a problem. When we get into lateral moves, this will be of the utmost importance with your donkey. He needs to learn to not just bully his way forward and out of a difficult situation. If there is a problem, most donkeys will attempt to evacuate the scene in slo-mo! It is better to teach them right from the beginning to stop and wait.

When he trots well in the round pen, you can begin to add trot to your sessions in the open. Always review first then add the new movement at the end of his lesson. After the review, begin by having him trot through the hour-glass pattern on the drivelines with your assistant, then without. It will be shaky at first and you may feel like you’re riding a drunken sailor! Just be sure to make your rein and leg cues as subtle as possible to prevent over reactions and keep him encouraged forward with a loose rein as he is going forward. Learn to vibrate the reins rather than pulling—this helps to minimize over-reactions. Soon, your donkey will be doing the pattern smoothly on your commands alone.

When he has learned the pattern well, he can progress to the perimeter of the arena at the trot. Do this only AFTER he is going well in the pattern, or you may find the pattern impossible after he learns the trot on the perimeter.   After he has learned to trot smoothly and obediently without interruption, you can vary both of these exercises by walking part of the pattern, then trotting some, then walking again. Do the same on the perimeter of the arena. It is best to walk the short sections and trot the longer ones. For instance, in the hour-glass, walk the short side of the arena and trot out of the corner through the cone gates to the next corner, then walk the short side and repeat the trot out of the comer, through the cone gates in the middle of the next comer. On the perimeter, he would walk the short sides and trot the long sides. When he is exhibiting good control, you can then add circles at various points along the way: around the cones in the hour-glass and along the long side of the arena and in the comers. Always end his sessions with the walk, halt, then back.

Using the trot on the obstacle course requires that you be very definite about where and when you do it, so plan ahead. You may ask him to trot straight over ground poles or a tarp, but he must be willing to stop immediately on the other side. In the beginning, having your assistant waiting with a reward on the other side will help to encourage him to comply. When you take her out of the picture, be ready to treat him for good behavior yourself while ground-driving and under-saddle. When your donkey has completed an obstacle, he should always be willing to stop and wait for your next command for as long as it takes. This is the foundation for learning to stand quietly both in harness and under-saddle. This means that you, too, must learn to approach him slowly and quietly from behind while in the drivelines and to sit quietly when halted under-saddle until you present his reward and ask him to move on.

When executing the mailbox, bridge or tractor tire, you would trot to it, halt, then execute the obstacle and trot away. This teaches them to be careful about executing more difficult maneuvers and to listen carefully to your cues. Always stop for a reasonable amount of time in the middle of obstacles like these, as you need to have time to pull mail out of the mailbox, check for loose boards on a bridge and, later on, execute the turns on the forehand and haunches while in the tractor tire. This keeps your donkey alert! When he is listening well and responding accordingly at the trot, you can add the turns on the forehand and haunches while in the tractor tire. He would do his turn on the forehand with his front feet in the middle of the tire, and his turn on the haunches with his hind feet in the tire. Cue him the same as you normally would, just don’t let him step out of the tire and reward him lavishly for even just a couple of steps in the beginning. He will give you more as he understands what you are asking of him.

Trot him into the straight back-through, halt and back out. You can even add an angled back-through at this point, as he is now ready to begin to move his shoulders and haunches while moving. Just be sure to lead him through, drive him through and then ride him through at the walk. Then you can do it at the trot. Start leading and ground-driving over raised obstacles such as cavaletti, using the same formula we have established: Lead and walk with the assistant behind with the driving whip, then without the assistant; ground-drive and walk with the assistant, then without the assistant; and ride at the walk with the assistant, then without the assistant. Finally ground-drive and ride at the trot with the assistant, and then without the assistant.

The donkey is an animal that was born for no other purpose than to serve. If he understands what you are trying to convey, he has the innate desire to please. Remember this and be patient with your donkey. Each individual learns at his own pace, but rest assured, he will never forget what he has learned!

To learn more about Meredith Hodges and her comprehensive all-breed equine training program, visit LuckyThreeRanch.com, MEREDITH HODGES PUBLIC FIGURE Facebook page, or call 1-800-816-7566. Check out her children’s website at JasperTheMule.com. Also, find Meredith on Pinterest, Instagram, MeWe, YouTube and Twitter.

Covered in TRAINING MULES & DONKEY: A LOGICAL APPROACH TO TRAINING, TRAINING WITHOUT RESISTANCE and EQUUS REVISITED at www.luckythreeranchstore.com.

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