MULE CROSSING: Train Your Own Mule!
By Meredith Hodges
Mules and donkeys are wonderful animals. They’re strong, intelligent and what a great sense of humor they have! But training a mule or donkey is different from training a horse. They are more like six-year-old children and require love, patience, understanding and a good reward system to grow into happy, independent, reliable and well-adjusted adults. Negative reinforcement should be used sparingly and only to define behavioral limits. The result is an animal that is relaxed, submissive, obedient, dependable and happy with his work.
Mule and donkey owners find it difficult to find trainers for their Longears because most trainers are unfamiliar with the psychological needs required by Longears to invoke positive responses from them. Trainers that are capable of training Longears are far and few between. It is difficult for inexperienced owners in remote areas to get their Longears trained properly. Also, Longears bond deeply to the people who train them, so it would be ideal if the owner could do the training him self. Many people attempt to train their own animals and they do manage to achieve a certain level of success despite the trials and tribulations of trial and error. However, this can be a long and frustrating road that leaves the Longears with unwanted bad habits.
We are fortunate enough to have a lot of books and videos available about managing and training Longears. However, it wasn’t that long ago that there was virtually nothing 
published on this subject and what was published was extremely limited and devoid of detail. Those of us who were training needed to rely on educational resources that were designed for horse training and modify those techniques to better suit our Longears. This still left a lot of room for trial and error…and a lot of frustration for both the trainer and the Longears.
Interest in Longears has grown exponentially in the past five decades. With this increased interest has come an increase in the number of Longears that need to be trained each year. The few trainers that are competent with Longears are finding it difficult to keep up.
It is advisable for the owners to be present during training sessions so the training integrity is as close to the same with the animals from trainer to owner. Owners usually need to travel long distances to visit an animal in training, limiting their own ability to learn with their Longears. This can result in problems once the animal returns home. Things will go well for a month, or two, and then the training deteriorates. The owner feels like their money has been misspent when the truth is, living creatures are not like cars that can be tuned up and stay that way only to be tuned up again.
Seminars and clinics can be helpful, but they can never replace the day to day routine helps the Longears learn to trust his owner and his situation with minimal anxiety. This limits his ability to become a safe, obedient and dependable companion. Mules and donkeys bond deeply to those who manage and train them. They develop warmth and affection for them, and a strong desire to please and serve. Without this kind of bond, mules and donkeys will often comply, but without true commitment to their work. Subsequently, when the pressure is on, their response may be to simply “quit.”
Lots of people complain about sending their equine to a trainer for two years or more, only to have the animal return and become a problem within as little as two or three months. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is! The owner MUST take an 
active part in the management and training of their Longears. Boarding stables are not a good option. Even if your mule or donkey is with a competent trainer, you need to plan on spending at least two days a week with him and the trainer, so your Longears can learn to trust you, too! Being present and interactive with your equine at feeding time, morning and evening, is only a beginning of building the trust between you.
People ask me why I quit taking outside Longears in training here at the Lucky Three Ranch. In all honesty, I had developed a waiting list I could not possible fulfill in a reasonable amount of time for reasonable cost. I would really rather enjoy seeing people enjoying the experience with their animals like I enjoy it with mine. So, I decided it would be better for me to teach people how to train their own animals. Hence, I developed my logical and sequential training series, Training Mules and Donkeys so that anyone would be able to employ it with little or no prior experience at all. Most of the management and training information is offered for free on my website at www,luckythreeranch.com and on my MEREDITH HODGES Facebook page. I can coach quite promptly and effectively by email, phone calls and letters. I do not text!
Time and time again, my training series has proven that this really was a great approach. It enabled me to reach people and help them to attain new levels of communication with their equines. People who never before had the courage, nor the confidence to even try, are discovering the self satisfaction and elation that follows when you attempt to train your own Longears! Most people tell me it is the best part of their day when they can work with their equines, no matter what they are doing together. They are quite surprised to find out how easy it is to establish a routine that fits with their other weekly activities…thanks to the intelligence and forgiveness of these wonderful Longears!
I had been involved with training horses most of my natural life before I began training mules at my mother’s Windy Valley Ranch in Healdsburg, California in the early 70’s. I trained there for six years before I moved to Colorado to start my own mule farm. I knew nothing about mules when I began training at Windy Valley Ranch. I tried all kinds of suggestions from other people and by trail and error, I somehow was able to get a lot of Longears trained, but I knew there had to be a BETTER way! I have to applaud 
the forgiveness of these wonderful animals in the face of my own impatience and ignorance. They were the ones that let me know when my approach to training was unrealistic and punitive, and did so in an all-knowing and careful way. My lessons with them were proportionate to my mistakes, so I was lucky enough not to experience any severe head injuries, or broken bones. When these kinds of injuries occur, there is something grossly wrong between the animal and the person that has been injured. It could be a lot of reasons, but the one thing of which I can be sure is that the Longears always acted honestly and appropriately. They cannot be any other way. The problems occurred because of my own lack of communication…I wasn’t listening to what they were trying to convey to me!
When we raise our children, we should begin with nurturing, love, affection and play. The way we play outlines certain behavioral limits for our children and helps them to understand boundaries, and to develop and learn to socialize in a positive and healthy manner. As the child grows, family interaction helps him to define his place in the world. Appropriate physical activities help the child’s body to develop in a slow and healthy way. School, in its natural and logical order, helps a child to react appropriately in society and in the world. This helps to develop the self confidence on which self image and self worth is built. Physical activities increase with intensity over long period of time. And yet, we expect our Longears to be trained in a couple of years? How can we even expect them to develop in a healthy way both physically and mentally and to learn so much in so little time?
At first, you might think there isn’t enough time to spend with your Longears to accomplish all this training, But I assure you, you have more time than you think. Just be realistic with your expectations at each stage of growth and training without the pressure of being hurried. We all need to slow down, stop “and smell the roses” to enjoy the little victories along the way with our Longears. Longears can afford you some very special memories if you only let them,. Some days are for learning and others are time for just plain fun and games. One of these days, you find yourself saying, I can’t believe he turned out to be so good! I never really felt like I was training him!
To learn more about Meredith Hodges and her comprehensive all-breed equine training program, visit LuckyThreeRanch.com or call 1-800-816-7566. Check out her children’s website at JasperTheMule.com. Also, find Meredith on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, MeWe 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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By Meredith Hodges
Mule foals are not too much different than human infants in their emotional needs. They require lots of attention, love, guidance and praise if they are to evolve into loving, cooperative and confident adults. In your efforts to get your young foal trained, bear in mind that he is still a child. If he is expected to fulfill too many adult responsibilities too quickly, he can become overwhelmed, frustrated and resistant. This is why it is important to allow your foal to have a childhood. You can turn this time into a learning experience by playing games with your foal that will help him to prepare for adulthood without imposing adult expectations on him when he is too young.
The first component of developing a well-adjusted adult mule is to establish a routine that will give your mule foal a sense of security and trust in you. Having a definite feeding schedule can help a lot. If you take a few minutes each morning and evening to scratch and pet your foal while your foal’s dam is eating and after he has finished nursing, he will associate you with a very pleasurable experience. If his dam is busy eating, she will be less likely to think about running off with him. If your animals are on pasture, a short visit once or twice a day with a ration of oats and plenty of petting while paying special attention to the intensity of your touch on his body will accomplish the same thing.
When your mule gets a little older and is ready to be halter broken, you can use your pleasurable status with him to your advantage. First, halter him and tie him to a fence with a safety knot (see DVD #1 n my Training Mules and Donkeys series). Leave him like this each day after breakfast for about half an hour, making sure to return to him every ten minutes. Each time you return, if he doesn’t become tense and struggle, untie him and ask him to follow you. If he refuses, just tie him up again and come back again ten minutes later and try again. If he comes with you, even if it is only one step the first time, take his halter off and play with him for a little while and then end the lesson. This will maintain your pleasurable status with your foal while he learns the things he will need to know as a young adult. In the next lesson you can ask for more steps before playing and ending the lesson
When handling your mule foal, always be sure to give him time to relax and accept a situation…and he probably will. Never get in a hurry and do not try to force anything—or your foal will be happy to oblige you with more resistance than you ever imagined possible! And remember, you can catch more flies with sugar than you can with vinegar, so go out there and have a good time with your little longeared pal. He’ll be glad to be your best friend if you learn how to be his best friend.
By Meredith Hodges
They are limited only by the imagination of The gift we have found with Longears is one that needs to be shared with others so that they might also experience the joy and pleasure these animals have to offer. In this hustle-and-bustle world, it is easy to take for granted the importance of love, sharing and simple pleasures derived from personal growth. Mule and donkey shows are a vehicle we can use to bring these things to light and revitalize the appreciation of Longears. The show ring is a place where mules and donkeys can exhibit the results of experiments with their owners and trainers, in exceptional horsemanship and performance, where challenges are met with both humor and enthusiasm. They can be pets, performers, pleasure mounts, or just plain hard workers.
Because showing mules and donkeys is relatively new, there is much to be gained by participation. Those who feel that their animal is not of show quality can still attend shows and learn a lot about Showmanship, grooming and training skills. This development of new skills can make the difference between show quality or not, particularly in performance events. Newcomers to showing also give the audience something extra-special. The enthusiasm of the newcomer is often very contagious and the audience always finds Longears shows incredibly entertaining. They feel that this is something that they too could manage to do and enjoy. Those who feel they just cannot put in enough training time can still participate in a lot of the plain old fun classes that the show rosters include. There are enough mule and donkey clubs today that sponsor all kinds of shows and all one needs to do is contact any one of them to acquire the information that you need.
Geographical locations and transportation can also restrict showing opportunities. With a little help and a lot of ingenuity, these issues can be resolved. One just needs to decide which shows would benefit them the most and then plan accordingly. If the show is some distance away, families, or groups, can pool their efforts and cut expenses dramatically. The growth of the mule and donkey industry has increased the number of shows throughout the country. They are now more numerous in remote areas and easy to reach. If you live in a really remote area, you might want to start a Longears Group and host your own schooling shows, or you can always request permission to ride in the Open Classes at Horse Shows in your area. Either way, you are doing important work in the promotion of Longears!
will not give you an accurate feeling for any specific task—you must plan your course of action. If, for instance, you set up your mule to bend through and impulse out of the corner, you can close your eyes for a few seconds down the long side and feel the balance that comes out of that corner when the movement is executed correctly. In this particular situation, once you’ve closed your eyes, you may notice that your animal is starting to leans lightly to the inside. A squeeze/release from your inside leg, sending your mule forward and into the outside rein, corrects the balance and keeps him going straight down the long side.
If he “ducks out” with you and begins to run, keep your connection on the rein that he has pulled as best as you can, and try to stop him by pulling on both reins together with a light squeeze/release action. Try to verbally calm him, and when he finally stops, praise him for stopping. Then, turn him with the rein that he has just pulled out of your hand, and return him to the task. Do not try to pull him around with the other rein, because this will cause him to lose his balance and will frighten him even more. If he is praised for stopping, he will not be afraid to stop. If he’s punished for running, he may never want to stop.
I ride my equines diagonally through the aids to get the best lateral and vertical response. I want to maintain a good forward movement, which means that the impulsion must come from the hindquarters and from the push forward. Think of your hands and legs as four corners of a box that contains your mule. If you push forward on one side at a time from, say, left leg to your left hand, it leaves the other whole side of the animal unchecked, and he will proceed forward with a tendency to drift into the “open” side. This is why you have to ride alternately and diagonally from the left leg to the right hand and from the right leg to the left hand. It is why you ride from back to front, leg to hand, in a diagonal fashion—it pushes your mule from the outside leg forward into a straight and balanced inside rein, and from the supportive inside leg to the outside rein—he remains upright on the arcs and sufficiently bent. The wider the space between your legs and between your hands, the more lateral “play” you will feel in your mule. If you keep your hands close together and your legs snugly around his barrel, there is a lot less lateral “play” and a great deal more accuracy when doing your patterns. Think of your legs and hands creating a “train track” with rails between which your mule must move. The wider the space between your hands and legs, the more “snakier” his movements will become.
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.
For instance, we had a 3-year-old mule learning to lunge without the benefit of the round pen. The problem was that she refused to go around you more than a couple of times without running off. Assess the situation first by brainstorming all the probable reasons she might keep doing such an annoying thing. Is she frightened? Is she bored? Is she mischievous? Has she been calm and accepting of most things until now? And most important, is my own body language causing this to occur?
As mental changes occur, so do physical changes. As muscles develop and coordination gets better, the animal will gain confidence. As a trainer, you will need to do less and less to cause certain movements. For example, in the case of the leg yield, you may have to turn your mule’s head a little in the opposite direction to get him to step sideways and forward. As he becomes stronger, more coordinated, and understands your request, you can then begin to straighten his body more with less effort. Granted, we have begun by doing this the wrong way, yet we have put our mule “on the road” to the right way. We have assimilated an action in response to our leg that can now be perfected over time. In essence, you have simply said, “First you learn to move away from my leg, then you can learn to do it gracefully!”
In training horses and mules, there is really little difference in one’s techniques or approach, provided we maintain patience and understanding and a good rewards system. The major difference between these two equines is their ability to tolerate negative reinforcement, or punishment. The mule, being part donkey, does not tolerate punitive action very well unless he is fully aware that the fault was his own and the punishment is fair. For instance, you ask for a canter lead and your mule keeps trotting, one good smack with the whip, or one good gig with the spurs, is negative reinforcement that will bring about the desired response, but be careful of an over-reaction from an overdone cue. More than one good smack or gig could cause either a runaway or an extremely balky animal. This kind of resistance comes from the donkey and requires a much different approach when training donkeys. The horse part of the mule allows us an easier time of overcoming this type of resistance in mules, making them different and easier to train than donkeys.