reining

March 24 2024

MULE CROSSING: The Language of Longears

Kyle Davidson Featured Mule Crossing, LTR Blog, Mule Crossing Bishop Mule Days, dressage, Little Jack Horner, lucky three ranch, Meredith Hodges, Mule Crossing, reining 2

By Meredith Hodges

Many of you know me as the foremost authority on the contemporary saddle mule, but what you may not know is how I earned such a title. Most of us who have become trainers began by riding and showing. Through our success, we gained recognition and subsequently clients who brought their animals to us for training. Our success with their animals posed a question for each of us at a critical stage in our careers and we had to make a decision whether we were going on the road to do clinics or something different. I opted for something different!

Instead of going on the road to do clinics, I thought long and hard and decided to do an equestrian correspondence training course instead. I opted for this after considering that when I went to clinics as a student, I was one of 20 people and only got limited attention during those clinics. When I put into practice at home what I had learned at the clinics, I realized that I had only received the highlights of training and it was full of holes! When I tried to contact the clinicians to ask a question, I was either answered by someone in the office, or not answered at all. The clinicians were most often too busy and out of touch. The one thing I didn’t realize by making this decision was the incredible learning opportunity I had opened up for myself that I could, in turn, pass on to my clients.

I did my resistance-free video training series in as much detail as I could possibly muster. Each video represents a year’s worth of training, but as we all come to know, you can never know everything. The more you learn, the more you learn what you don’t know. I did learn fairly quickly that the relationship between equine and owner is unique to those individuals. That is, I realized it made more sense that I teach people how to train their own animals. After all, you wouldn’t ask someone to go out and make a friend for you? The relationship is truly your own and I adopted the policy that as a trainer, my responsibility would be to guide people through the process of training their own animals for the best possible results. This has proven to be true far beyond any expectations that I might have had!

This decision afforded me more time at home where I could communicate with others and help them with their animals. It also afforded me more training time with my 30 head of mules, horses and donkeys. I have always done the training of my own animals myself. I had an assistant for awhile who kept the old school masters and other broke mules exercised from time to time. However, the actual training of the mules I did solely by myself because I wanted to keep learning new things that would enhance my training program and make it better. The new things I learned I documented in the form of books, videos and television shows. What began as a quest to train and show mules in every equestrian discipline expanded beyond my wildest dreams!

When they told me mules would not work well in a snaffle bit, I learned how to make that work. When they said they were not suitable for Dressage, I based my entire training program on those principles. When they told me not to give food rewards, I paid my mules for their efforts with a generous reward of crimped oats. When they told me not to talk to my equines, I spoke three languages to them: verbal language, body language and “touch” language. I can truthfully say that today I realize that it wasn’t the mules that were so stubborn, but rather…it was me! This positive kind of stubbornness did pay off, as I was to soon discover.

Beginning with the “A B C’s” (walk, trot, canter, whoa, back), my verbal language with them evolved over time into actual conversations. The tone of my voice indicated my pleasure or displeasure with their actions. Calling their names and then stating a command prompted their immediate attention. When working with multiple animals, phrases like “Get back on the rail!” and “Stop kicking your brother!” initiated a positive response and validated my expectations that they could indeed understand what I was saying beyond the normal commands. I watched their reactions to the tour guests we had at the ranch as they walked through the barn and met these animals. If a guest made a remark, the animals responded with an appropriate show of emotion. If it was a snide remark, they would lower their heads and splay their ears in a most dejected way. A positive remark would elicit a show of attention with ears perked toward the person who made the comment. This has shown me that they do understand English, even if they cannot speak it!

Body language is probably the most important of all the “languages.” These animals will mirror you and react to what your body is telling them. If you position yourself in front, you can turn them or stop them. If you walk up to them in an aggressive way, they will show fear. If you go to a gate or the stall door and wait with an inviting attitude, they will come to you. Of course, learning accurate body language is a responsibility that we must put upon ourselves to really be effective. I just watched the reactions of my animals to everything I did and said. If I received a negative response, I would change my approach until I got it right. When I got it right, so did they!

“Touch” language is simply how you touch your animal whether it is with your hand, a grooming tool or a whip. Touch needs to be empathetic but firm enough to do the job. Touch is a powerful tool. It can be soothing and relieve anxiety. It can be pleasurable or painful. Touch can indicate direction depending on how it is used. We begin with imprinting, or touching of the foal all over its body, but this is not the beginning and end of imprinting. Imprinting sets the stage for the kind of interaction you and your equine will have during your entire life together and can often bridge a gap of misunderstanding when the other two languages are not working. Never was this more apparent to me than just recently!

Little Jack Horner had gone through my entire training series right along with my mules and had learned everything that I taught them. He may not have made it to Fourth Level Dressage, but he made it to Second Level Dressage with gait lengthening and lateral work. He overcame his “donkey” behaviors and gave a phenomenal performance, jumping four feet in exhibition at Bishop Mule Days. His Reining was accurate though somewhat limited by his donkey conformation. Still, he could always elicit a supportive laugh and a wide grin! He competed successfully at dressage driving shows and won world championships in driving at Bishop Mule Days.

Little Jack Horner was to star yet again in the making of my biography, our latest Those Magnificent Mules documentary project. I doubt that I had driven Little Jack Horner in fifteen years. In fact, since he turned twenty, he had not done much but take part in more sedate roles in our TV shows and videos with an occasional bareback ride around the ranch. At 30 years old, I wasn’t really sure how he would react to being hitched to the Meadowbrook cart again after so many years, so I thought I had better do a dress rehearsal.

During the dress rehearsal, I discovered that Little Jack Horner didn’t know what to do once I put on the harness. He was tied in the tack barn and when I tried to ground drive him forward, he just backed up until he was out of the building, then he went forward to the hitching area. I was rather puzzled. Still, I went ahead and hitched him to the cart and we stood there for some photos before I backed him from the hitch rail. I verbally asked him to go forward…nothing. I did not have my driving whip with me, so I used the end of the reins on his fanny to move him forward which he then did, but kept going straight until he ran into the fence and stopped.

I thought this was very strange, so I asked my ranch manager to get my driving whip. With the whip in hand, I began to talk to him with the whip. A simple tap to the side and he turned from the fence. Another tap in the middle of his spine sent him smartly forward at an animated walk. Another tap to the other side turned him the other way and we were soon doing figure eights, stopping, backing and driving as if there was never a problem at all. During the film shoot, he did all these things and even offered several hundred feet of trot before he was too tired to continue.

It was during this experience that I realized that Little Jack Horner had become deaf and could not hear one word of what I was saying, even when I was yelling. I was sitting in the Meadowbrook cart, he had blinders on his harness bridle and could not see me, so verbal language and body language were of no help to him at all. Lucky for us, we still had the “touch” language that we had developed between us and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience of driving yet again.

It is evident to me that every detail that I had taken the time to learn in our 30-plus years together culminated in the results I see now with all of my equines. We have learned so much about each other! Now that we are all a lot older, a lot slower and a lot less coordinated, we are still afforded the luxury to continue to learn and grow together in a safe and enjoyable way. It doesn’t get any better than this!

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, EQUUS REVISITED and A GUIDE TO RAISING & SHOWING MULES at www.luckythreeranchstore.com.

January 12 2024

MULE CROSSING: Equine Behavior: Look Who’s Talking! Part 3

Kyle Davidson LTR Blog, Mule Crossing behavior modification, lucky three ranch, Meredith Hodges, reining, therapeutic riding 0

By Meredith Hodges

In Part 1 of Equine Behavior: Look Who’s Talking, we discussed the evolution of man’s self-discovery and how he applied this to his approach to equines. If we want to manage our equines in a healthy way and accomplish even the most basic performance with them, there is much to consider during the training process. In Part 2 of Equine Behavior: Look Who’s Talking, we learned that equines are honest in their nature, and produce quick and honest reactions to a stimulus. Therapeutic Riding provides and exemplary teaching experience for both the human and the equine. Those of us with our own equines can now derive much more from our relationships with equines than we ever thought possible.

During centuries of use, equines have been asked to perform many tasks, as they have always been essential in agriculture, for transportation in cities and as fighting partners in the military. People who worked regularly with these animals had an appreciation for their overall health and longevity. Although people were limited by their own experience, they would generally provide the best possible care because the equine was an integral part of their economy. Many horses, and most mules and donkeys, worked hard to build this world and support people in their endeavors. It is always amazing when one realizes the expanse of equines’ contributions to our wealth and welfare.

Original Dressage training was concerned with the systematic conditioning of the body of the horse in a way that would make him a durable and viable war partner for soldiers. The horse was revered and allowed time for his body to mature and grow slowly. The training followed suit, yielding a healthy and formidable opponent in any competition. This goal was achieved only when the animal was trained in good posture, and given adequate time to complete each stage of training as his own potential dictated.

When proper attention is given to the development of balanced, postural core muscle strength from the very beginning, the equine develops strength symmetrically throughout his body as he grows. Muscles are stressed and relaxed at critical intervals, allowing for healthy mental, physical and emotional growth. When the equine feels good in his body, it clears his mind to concentrate on his performance. The result is an equine that is happy in his work and in his world.

Colonel Alois Podhasky (1898-1973), former head of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria said, “I’ve got time!…We can only achieve the highest goals in the art of riding when we increase our demands on the horse in a systematic manner.” (1)

The same holds true with any athlete. No animal can perform at their highest level and remain healthy without building the body correctly over a significant period of time. Forcing things and moving too fast through training levels does not allow healthy athletic conditioning to take place. This conditioning art is becoming lost in the economic world today as equines are no longer being used as a necessity. They have become a hobby, or a sport in more developed countries, and are an economic necessity only in Third World countries that are not equipped to provide the extensive care that a healthy equine demands.

Dressage training has evolved from a useful tool to strengthen and balance a useful horse to just another name in Big Business. Today, equines are thought of as economic commodity, or a breeding investment, and are used in events such as Reining, Cutting, Stadium Jumping, Racing, Steeplechase, Eventing, Hunting, Dressage and just-for-pleasure riding. Monetary investment is high, and never was the old adage of “horse poor” more prevalent than now!

Owners can expect to spend thousands of dollars in a year for no more than a pleasure riding equine, and the cost increases with the status of the activities. The cost of supporting an equine provides economic success to a multitude of businesses such as feed stores, tack and equipment, truck and trailer sales, drug companies, motels, gas stations, county fairgrounds, breed registries, brand inspection, clothing stores, veterinarians, farriers, and the list goes on.

In any business, moving product faster is always better because it decreases overhead costs. Anything long-lasting takes more expense to produce and does not afford repeat customers as often. The same product is therefore, less valued. But good business sense is in direct opposition to what is actually good and healthy for the equine. Good business sense is what drives people to train equines faster, and why people ask young equines to perform way beyond their level of capability, to promote a faster sale of the equine, which ultimately results in the untimely demise of the equine.

Breeding for bigger, better and faster equines, has given people the false idea that these horses perform almost solely from their heredity. This has changed how they are being trained and judged. Today, many equine competitions are no longer judged by an expert who really knows the definition of correct movement. We are inundated with terminology from the Masters that is most often misunderstood and distorted.

For instance, collection is defined by the United States Equestrian Federation as, “a. to further develop and improve the balance and equilibrium of the horse which has been more or less displaced by the additional weight of the rider, b. to develop and increase the horse’s ability to lower and engage his hindquarters for the benefit of lightness and mobility of his forehand, and c. to add the ‘ease and carriage’ of the horse and to make him more pleasurable to ride.”

To those who are not schooled in Dressage, collection can mean a lot of things that are contrary to the actual definition, including the belief that it means to merely break at the poll and arc the head and neck. People also believe that an equine is on the bit if he arcs his head and neck and flexes at the poll. What this actually means is that the equine has taken contact with the bit, and can feel the hands of the rider through the reins, and respond lightly and obediently whether his head and neck are arched or not. Vertical flexion is the result of correct collection that involves the entire body of the equine, when the equine is flexible from head to tail with the hindquarters properly engaged. It is not the act of bringing the equine’s chin to his chest. Lateral flexion is when the equine bends his whole body through his rib cage to the arc of a circle, and is not just bending his head and neck to your knee.

All of these movements take many years to cultivate if they are to be done correctly. There are specific exercises to do at every stage to make sure that the equine is developing properly and executing these movements on his own, with only the most subliminal support from the rider’s aids. Most equines that are shown today are not engaged sufficiently behind and are doing “High School” movements out of good equine posture. They are clearly on the forehand and unbalanced.

If one is to develop the equine in a sound manner, then one must learn to appreciate the smaller victories at each stage of training and during every lesson. One needs to learn to appreciate the incredible ways that one can affect balance and movement during Leading Training. Leading Training can teach the equine good balance, proprioception (body awareness) and regularity of the footfall patterns.

The equine will become strong and balanced in his core muscles (and all the elements that support his skeleton) using simple tasks that appear in the Hourglass Pattern and later through obstacles for coordination. Only after your equine is able to take responsibility for his own balance and negotiation of these movements should he be asked to go to the Round Pen to learn to balance on a circle at all three gaits. Only then will he be able to maintain equal weight over all four feet, bend properly through his torso and not lean like a motorcycle.

Only after he is able to sustain his own balance on the circle through all three gaits (walk, trot and canter), stop, back and reverse, and has been Ground Driven long enough to submit lightly to the bit through all movements, should he be mounted and asked to carry a rider. Even lunging on the lunge line should first be taught in the Round Pen, so when you do lunge him in an open area, he will know the cues to keep him on the circle and has the ability to balance himself.

You would teach him to lunge on the lunge line in the Round Pen first with enough slack in the line so it drags on the ground as he circles. Keep a slightly open fist on the line and close your first as the outside front leg comes forward into suspension. He will feel this pressure and bring that front leg onto the circle instead of going straight forward with it. This is the cue you will use when lunging him on the line in the open arena.

The equine that has had the benefit of postural core strength training will be safer on the trail and flawless in the show ring. If you take the time to develop your equine properly, during these seemingly boring tasks, you might very well discover a healthier and happier YOU!

It is difficult for judges without roots in agriculture to conflict with the roar of the crowds at shows as they see fancy movements. If the judge does not hold true to what is truly correct and allows himself to be swayed by the audience, the integrity of the equine industry is lost. Our equines will continue to suffer at the hands of ignorance because there are no clear standards by which to educate people. The equine that is properly trained should appear to be performing of his own volition. If he does not appear this way, and is constrained or forced, he is not in correct posture or balance and cannot perform correctly. The integrity of his movement is lost and the longevity of his life is compromised.

When you take the time to feed, maintain and train your equine as he should be trained as an athlete, his personality will begin to emerge. You will be surprised at the relationship you will have with him and the wondrous sensations you can feel when you are in true harmony with him. You will no longer be just an observer, but rather, a friend and partner in performance, and in life! You have laid the foundation for both of your personalities to grow in the most positive way and will develop the deepest bond possible.

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, EQUUS REVISITED and A GUIDE TO RAISING & SHOWING MULES at www.luckythreeranchstore.com

¹Tug of War: Classical vs. Modern Dressage by Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, pg. 38, Copyright © 2006 Wu Wei Verlag, Schondorf, Germany, English translation Published by Trafalgar Square Books, North Pomfret, Vermont, 05053, USA 2007 (Footnote: Podhasky, Alois, ibid: Mossdorf, Carl Friedrich (1989), p. 142)

September 21 2023

MULE CROSSING: Good Basic Training Includes Common Sense, Part 4

Kyle Davidson Mule Crossing Core Conditioning, Driving, lucky three ranch, Lunging, Meredith Hodges, reining, round pen, Training Mules and Donkeys 0

By Meredith Hodges

In Part3, your equine was properly strengthened and balanced in good posture during the more passive exercises in leading training over obstacles. Now, in the fourth and final part of this article, you and your equine will head to the round pen and learn how to balance correctly on the circle at the faster gaits. You’ll also learn the more advanced and quicker moves that are required under saddle and in harness.

Only after you have adequately completed lead line flatwork and obstacle training is your equine truly ready to move on to the round pen and begin lunging and learning to balance on a circle at the more active gaits. At this stage, he should be complying willingly, walking with the lead rope slung over his neck and with his head at your shoulder. By now, his core muscles should be properly conditioned and strong enough to support his skeletal system during more active use and more complicated movements. Note: The equine that has not had this prior lead line balance and good posture training will have difficulty in the round pen because he has not learned to stay erect and bend his body through the rib cage when on arcs and circles.

When you are lunging your equine, stand close to the center of the round pen, focus your eyes on the lower part of your equine’s haunches, and then give the verbal command to “Walk on.” Let your eyes and whip follow his haunches while you stand in the center of the round pen. If you want him to stop, say “Whoa,” and then move your eyes and body sideways so that you are more in front of him. Then raise your head and eyes to meet his eyes. If you want him to do a reverse, give the verbal command to “Reverse,” move your body sideways and crack the whip smartly in front of him. You should now be almost directly in front of him, looking him straight in the eye. It is the movement of your body that will make the difference between the halt and the turn. Notice how these subtle differences in your body affect what he does. If you practice these movements correctly and consistently, you will begin to see an improvement in your own body language and in your equine’s response. It doesn’t matter what anyone else does or says; you go right ahead and take the time you need to work out each maneuver with your equine. Accuracy is preferred over speed.

Lunging involves a lot more than just running your equine around in a circle. It affords you a tremendous opportunity to see the affect your body language has on your equine’s reactions. Lunging also helps you to understand how you can fine-tune the communication between the two of you while developing balanced, cadenced and rhythmic gaits in your animal. So start slow and don’t let things go beyond what you can easily control.

With the use of the “Elbow Pull” (instructions on how to make an “Elbow Pull” are given in the Equus Revisited DVD), your equine will begin to build muscle over a correct postural frame. This is much better than letting him develop muscle out of good posture, and then having to go back later and break down established muscle that is out of frame and causing problems. The “Elbow Pull” is not in any way abusive. It is, in fact, a “self-correcting” support, designed to simply suggest to an equine that he stay in good posture. If he stays in good posture, he feels nothing uncomfortable. But if he gets out of good posture, it puts a humane but firm pressure on his poll, his bit, behind his forearms and over his back. This is not unlike the grandmother who insisted that, to assure good posture, you walk with a book on your head. It may have sounded silly at first, but as you got older, you were happy you did it because it taught you good posture that eventually became a healthy and habitual way of moving. The “Elbow Pull” serves the same purpose for your equine and provides support when he cannot consistently hold good posture—he learns a healthy and habitual way of moving.

Before your equine learns to balance with a rider, he must first build muscle so he can sustain his own balance on the circle before carrying a rider. This is also true if you want your animal to learn to lunge on a lunge line. An equine that has not had enough time in the round pen establishing strength, coordination and balance on the circle will have difficulty on the lunge line, because even the slightest pressure on the line will pull him off-balance. Loss of balance will cause stress and even panic in your equine, which can result in him pulling the lunge line right out of your hands and running off. This is not disobedience but rather, fear caused by a loss of balance so do not punish him for this reaction. The animal that has had strength built on the circle before lunging and riding will not exhibit these undesirable behaviors, which are often misinterpreted as disobedience.

Lunging will begin to develop hard muscle over the core muscles and tendons you have already spent so many months strengthening. It will further enhance your equine’s ability to perform and stay balanced in action. As this becomes his true way of going, you will notice that even his play patterns begin to change dramatically. Be sure to be consistent with your verbal commands during these beginning stages, as they set the stage for better communication going forward.

After your equine has learned verbal commands while lunging, your next step is to train him to be equally responsive to verbal commands in conjunction with the drivelines. This is done first in the round pen, and then in an open arena, (which will introduce him to a larger space where he will need to become even more responsive to your rein cues).

I have found that, in most cases, the larger the animal, the more docile the personality, which seems to be a general rule of thumb. I have also learned that, if a donkey or mule has a tendency to bolt and run, it’s because they don’t necessarily agree with what you are trying to do or how you are trying to do it. Even though horses usually comply fairly easily, it is important to remember that any disobedience on the part of any equine is ALWAYS the handler’s fault. Regardless of the personality type of an equine, he will always have an honest response to any stimulus. If you ask in the right way, you will get the desired response.

If your equine wants to bolt when you ground-drive from behind, walk beside him and gradually lengthen the distance, one inch at a time, until he has accepted the drivelines correctly—no matter how long it takes. But don’t work on lessons more than 20 to 40 minutes every other day, and make sure he gets his crimped oats reward for “Whoa” and “Back.” I give a lot of “Back” commands while ground driving close to an animal, and I repeat “Back” frequently at every increased or decreased distance behind him. Keep things at a very slow walk until you feel relaxation through the drivelines (there should be no hint of pulling). Stay calm and deliberate and go slowly—be willing to take all the time in the world, if necessary. Whether you are just beginning training, or are already working under saddle, while you and your equine are going to and from the work areas, and during any ground interaction, always review the lessons in showmanship covered in DVDs #1, #8 and #9 of my series, Training Mules & Donkeys before moving on to any new exercises. This will help your equine to really and truly bond with you on a very personal level. If you have multiple equines, be sure to treat every equine as your very favorite whenever you interact with them.

Certain personality types such as slow learners, over-achievers or sensitive individuals do take longer to come around, but when treated with plenty of patience, kindness, trust and respect, they usually do. These personality types may not necessarily be suitable for driving, but they can be quite suitable for under saddle. In fact, once they do come around, the more “difficult” equines, especially those that have previously been neglected or abused, often bond more strongly with you and look to you as their “protector.” They are grateful for your patience and kindness. These are sometimes the ones who will end up having more “spirit” and thus, more athletic tendencies and ability.

Because I have dealt with many animals that were high strung, I have learned that they require tremendous patience, but I also know that they can come around. You might just need to back up and do things even more slowly and more meticulously than you ever thought you would need to, but if you do, you should see some positive results. If you lower your expectations for a while and try to have more fun with the basics, chances are that your equine will, too.

Always make sure you work in areas that are adequately and safely fenced so that, if your equine bolts, you can more easily catch him again. If he bolts, DO NOT, under any circumstances, hold onto the reins, lead or drivelines. Just let go of the lead or drivelines if you are on the ground, and let the reins loose if you are in the saddle. Whether he is on the lead line, in the drivelines or under saddle, when your equine realizes that you aren’t going to play “tug-o-war,” that he will get a reward for staying put, and that it is a waste of his energy to keep running, he will bolt less and less until the unwanted behavior has stopped.

When ground driving, you should not worry about the whip while in the round pen, as the walls will help guide your animal in maintaining the correct position. What you really need to do is keep even contact on both lines (reins) when going in a straight line (or, when in the round pen, on the circle). To get your equine to begin stepping laterally, slightly tighten the outside driveline while maintaining contact on the inside driveline, so that he cannot complete the turn. Stay directly behind his haunches and urge him forward. This will cause him to begin to step sideways, with his face to the wall. Take only a couple of steps this way, and then slowly straighten him out again—you can build-in more lateral steps as he begins to understand what you want. Be sure to reward him with crimped oats every time you halt.

Once you begin ground driving in the open, you can then carry your whip in your right hand. Feed the line into your right hand under your third, fourth and fifth fingers, and then up between your thumb and index finger. The whip handle will be held in the palm and also come up between your thumb and index finger. Tilt this hand to tap the right and left sides of your animal’s body. The left-hand driveline is fed over the index finger and held by the thumb, and then falls down through the palm. To set the bend for the leg yield (opposite from the way your equine will be tracking), shorten the inside rein and hold it steady. Not too much of a bend—you just want to be able to see his eye on that side. Then squeeze and release the directing (right-hand) driveline to indicate that you want him to move in the direction you are squeezing and releasing. Be sure to give plenty of release between pulls so he doesn’t go too far sideways at first. This should be a leg yield action and not a “side pass.” The “side pass” will come later, as he better understands what you want. If he doesn’t follow your leading rein, you can encourage him to move over by tapping him gently on his opposite side. It can be very awkward at first, but with time and patience, these movements (both his and yours) will continue to improve.

Only after he is light and responsive to all commands in the round pen and he ground-drives well in the open arena, should you mount him and begin riding in the round pen. When he is light and responsive in the bridle in the round pen, you can then ride in the open, but continue to work in the open arena on perfecting his technique and his responsiveness in the snaffle bit.

You need to be willing to spend the time to teach these things slowly and in an order that will make sense to your equine, so he is not faced with learning too much too quickly. As you have probably already experienced, when you hurry through this process, he may be able to do certain movements, but he will not be responsive to your cues. Unresponsiveness is a sure sign that there has just not been enough time for the lessons he is learning to become his habitual way of responding.

If an animal is trained with sequential, resistance-free training techniques and is given adequate time on groundwork training (a minimum of one year on the lead line and a second year on lunging and ground driving), he will warm up to other people more easily and will be more “sensible” than those animals that are not trained this way. Each new owner should take the time to review these techniques with newly acquired equines, just to create their own personal relationship with that animal and dispel the negativity of any prior relationships the animal might have had. Spending time doing simple basic groundwork training before actually riding allows your relationship with your equine to develop in a safe and healthy way. It will teach both you (the handler) and your equine how to communicate clearly and effectively. The exercises described in this article will condition your equine’s body so he can more easily carry a rider (whether the rider is balanced or not), and help your equine to be more capable of executing whatever demands the future may hold.

Remember that patience, kindness, respect and consideration from you will yield the same qualities in return from your equine. When you take the time to cultivate a good relationship with him, you will find that you have a much safer and happier riding and driving companion.

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