All equines react naturally and honestly to the people and things around them. So, when your equine is behaving badly, you need to ask yourself, “What was it that set him off?” It is important to have some general information about the animal in his natural state to understand why he reacts to things the way he does, but it is invariably the handler’s fault when things do not go well.

Even before training sessions, it is important to understand that you cannot put all animals together all the time. For example, because of their natural male aggression, jacks and stallions should be kept separate from other animals, in order to avoid injury. Though male mules are generally castrated, they, too, exhibit aggressive behaviors that can be injurious to animals other than those of their own age and stature. Foaling jennets and mares need to have their own space when birthing and raising their young to avoid stressful situations that result in bad behavior. Being aware of your animals’ needs and tendencies will help you keep all your equines happy and healthy.

You must also understand that during training bad behavior is generally brought on by fear caused by a loss of balance, be it mental or physical. Mules and donkeys experience mental loss of balance when their handler is often aggravated by them and rarely praises them. They need to feel that they are pleasing the handler and if he cannot be pleased, they eventually get tired of trying and bad behaviors start to arise.

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, and provides 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 will be more willing to comply. Truly bad behaviors become non-existent, and simply annoying behaviors are no worse than those of 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. Give him the benefit of patience, kindness, respect and plenty of time to develop. Condensing the training program to teach “things” to your equine, with no regard for the time it takes to build muscle over a correct frame at any given stage is abuse and will produce bad behaviors.

Subject:

Affection and Dominance (11/28/01)
Bucking (12/1/04)
Buddy Mules (5/5/03)
Do Mules Hate Dogs? (1/31/01)
Dogs and Donkeys (12/8/01)
Donkey brays during show (08/09/07)
Donkey maturation (1/12/05)
Donkey Not Responding (10/2/01)
Donkey Paws The Ground (9/12/03)
Donkey Shows Teeth (7/15/05)
Escaping Mule (2/19/04)
Fair weather mule? (3/14/04)
Father/Son Relations - Playing? (3/25/02)
Feeling un-safe after training (8/31/03)
Fence Jumper (12/28/04)
Gelded Male Or Female? (12/15/04)
Gelded Mule Breeding? (2/28/05)
Gelding Mounting Mules (1/1/03)
Herd-bound ness (2/23/02)
Horses Attacking New Mules (9/1/04)
Introducing new mule (1/27/05)
Jack Biting At Open Sores (6/1/05)
Jumping fences (2/19/02)
Limiting bad behaviors (07/25/07)
Loaner mule (1/5/03)
Lunging in a Small Pen (2/3/02)
Mare Suddenly Rearing (8/11/04)
Mule biting horse foal (1/10/05)
Mule Charging Back To Stable (4/11/02)
Mule foals (10/2/03)
Mule Kick Questions (10/31/04)
Mule Pawing Ground (11/29/04)
Nipping and Biting (9/7/05)
Not Into Ring Work (5/5/04)
Problems Getting Into The Lead (9/11/04)
Quicksand (3/19/02)
RE:Training Abused Animal (5/10/05)
Rearing and Pawing (07/25/07)
Response to claim of abuse (4/5/02)
Run-a-way riding mule (5/1/02)
Self defense (8/23/04)
Separation Anxiety (4/15/05)
Stubborn mule (7/4/02)
Touchy Mule (4/4/04)
Training Abused Animal (6/11/05)
Training Abused Animal (5/9/05)
When to wean? (12/1/03)
Yearling Jenny Resists Halter (9/29/01)