Helping a friend train some mules

[Rod44]

Admin OptionsEdit Discussion Close Discussion Add Tags
Cancel
Delete Discussion

I was at a friend of mine “Big Bob” the other day to get in on breaking his mules. Very interesting method. He got the method from a guy that was 90 years old and still breaking mules (from his video tape). He wanted the mules untouched and wild. If they were handled enough to be halter broke, he charged $100 more. These were wild like deer.

I got in on the second day. The mules were handed with the utmost gentlenesss, no hitting or lound yelling. Yes, they had to do what was asked of them through persistance. The first day it took 3 guys to drag them out of the stall, today only one. You have to put them in stocks to harness them. Yesterday they kicked, today they didn’t. Hook them behind the tractor and drive (not drag them) with them 3 or 4 hours untill they are good and tired. They didn’t have to put them in the stocks to unharness them.

Today they harnessed easier, but still in stocks. Drove them about 3 miles, down a busy county highway, across a creek 4 times and over a plastic tarp. Then, went up to the Amish neigbor who has a good stout pen and unhitched from the tractor and drove them around. They did well!! After a couple hours driving around the pen he drove them a half mile home down the county road. He has been out everyday since without being on the tractor first. Up and down the busy county road, milk trucks, cars, logging trucks and horses and buggies and through the woods and streams. He is on his sixth day and they are driving great. I am really impressed with mules. It seems that if you show them something once and it doesn’t hurt them they are alright with it from then on. After six days they are more people oriented. You can go in the stall without worrying about getting kicked, going in and out of the barn they walk past you instead of running. I know some of you may not agree with this method but it really seemed to work in this case. No mules or human got hurt and they are well on their way to be a usable team in a week.

[Rod44]

A few more pictures – all picutures are of the second day being hitched.

[farmboy238]

You can’t argue with succsess! It is a breath of fresh air to see them trained by someone other than a “Qualified” Horse Whisperer! Jack Stroud accomplished a lot and Malcom is still training in Spencer, TN (but not for the public).

[Robert MoonShadow]

I would never trust an animal that was broke in such a manner… and thus, would never buy one.

[Rod44]

Luckily for you he doesn’t want to sell them. There are thousands of draft horses that have not been handled much and are trained by hitching them up in a six horse hitch on the disk with older broke horses. When the driver says go – they have to go just like these. They make good horses and within a couple weeks.

[J-L]

First off, thanks for sharing the pictures and the information. I find it interesting and that’s a nice looking little pair of mules.
Secondly, we still have a thread going on breaking them old school that sure raised some hackles.
I don’t really see anything wrong with it myself. If it works, it works.

[Plowboy]

It seems to me that this is a better safe than sorry method. The tractor boom prevents them from running away or baulking. In the video Malcolm Jessup drove the tractor slowly and Jack Strode drove the mules. I would say that this might be safer than trying to drive an ornery animal and having it get away from you and ruining it. A lot of retraining or not being able to retrain can be avoided with this method especially on rank mules that remember everything. I don’t think it is a bad experience just experience. I remember when Strode was alive the Lancaster paper would have ads for Strode broke mules at the big sales and they brought good money because they knew they were broke to work. It pays to have a bag of tricks when training animals because they don’t always need the same curriculum. If you train very many you will see quirks pop up now and then and if you have experience and a bag of tricks it is usually easy to work out the quirks. I have never used this method but if the need arose I wouldn’t be afraid to try it because cull horses are worthless right now. Sometimes a willful animal can be a great worker once you get them around to your way of thinking!

[Robert MoonShadow]

Rod44 ~ Please note that in my post, I never said anything about it being “right” or ”wrong”. Frankly, I’m not qualified to call that one: I’ve never trained a draft animal (although I have modified some’s training to fit my way of doing things). I’m just saying that to me, it’s training by submission, and not by establishing a relationship of friendship & willingness… I want a partner, not a slave. I also see a difference in training like this & in hitching a raw mule to a trained one (as in the “old school” thread} – I think that is a guidance factor involved then. Again, this is my opinion; it is most definitely NOT a declaration of judgement. As it was said, there’s many, many mules & horses now available {and also training techniques}, thus, I see no need to deal with an animal that is trained in this manner. I’ll do my shopping with people that have quality animals that are willing and calm workers.

[Ronnie Tucker]

i worked with jack strode trading mules selling and breaking mules i raised a lot of mules and sold jack several mules i had made it to high school with my mule breaking jack carried me on to college he did whatever was needed to get the job done it was left up to the mule as to how harsh the method might be he did not wisper nor did he talk loud the video is just a very small part of his tricks and really only for people with not much experience handleing mules if he were still living he would get a big laugh out of some of the methods that are tried these days he would say that fellow going to get killed he took many spoiled mules and made them in to good work mules ronnie tucker tn logger

[Rod44]

Robert – I realize you didn’t say right or wrong.

I had my doubts about the method at first, untill I saw it unfold. It is unbelieveable how the mules changed in two or three days. Bob says, now instead of running past him in and out of the barn they calmly walk past him. Instead of turning their butts to him when he goes in the stall they stand facing them. They are getting to like and trust him. Their will isn’t broken in this method. It is just training them that the people are the leaders. If they don’t get the idea in their head that they can fight and win, they are more pliable as the training proceeds. They are trained gentle, no hollaring, no hitting.

[jen judkins]

One of my best mentors once impressed upon me a very simple principle and that is, when training a horse (or a mule), set the horse up to do it the way you want them to, from the start, so they never learn to do something else accidentally (that you have to train them not to do).

So while there are a few things about this guys training that aren’t my personal style, the tractor certainly sets the mules up to do it right and that will certainly stay in my ‘bag of tricks’ going forward. As Dennis, rightly points out, every horse is different and you might need something alittle different than your normal approach for a difficult or challenging animal.

Personally, I enjoy seeing how others train, whether I’m learning a new trick or a technique I’d like to avoid…its all good.

[Rod44]

One of the tricks with the tractor is to have the beam high enough that their heads can be tied high enough that they can’t plant their front feet and be dragged. If they resist, it takes the weight off of the front feet instead and they come willingly.

[Plowboy]

Robert I believe that you are not completely understanding this process. The tractor acts as a safety net to keep them from getting away or learning that they can. Other than the use of the boom and tractor there really isn’t anything unusual about it except that it allows you to train two animals together in a team. Strodes mules were sought after by many folks over the years. Sometimes in the training stage you have to train the rankness out of them before you can make friends. No matter how you train animals you have to be the boss. Sometimes that involves making friends as the training progresses instead of ahead of time. Training is definately a case by case ordeal. I can see the merit in this method although I may never use it but the possibility exists that I may need it someday so I keep my options open. There is no reason to believe that these mules won’t be willing and calm workers or even their owners best friends and work partners. I wish you success in training in the future but my advise to you is not to close your mind to any methods that aren’t severe or cruel. You may run into a situation and know what to do someday if you remain open minded. Gather your bag of tricks and even if you have a few that you never use at least they are there just in case.

[J-L]

Plowboy just stole the words right out of my mouth. I may never use it either, but can also see it’s merits. I see nothing cruel or abusive there. They are learning the ropes as they go and under control.
I’m not sure why we now believe the mule/horse has to be our buddy to learn anything or be trustworthy.
The worst time I had breaking an animal was a mule who was someones best friend. Pet was more like it, with zero respect for people.

[Robert MoonShadow]

I don’t think that an animal “has to be my buddy” to learn anything… or to be trustworthy; however, just as with humans, I trust those that are my friends more than I do those that aren’t. Can others than those that are my friends be trustworthy? Yes, of course. But the trust I share with friends is deeper, more bonding than others. I just don’t see this method as being conducive to developing that type of relationship. I see a difference in the animals that have been submission trained (fear is but only one {extreme}type of submission training) and an animal that has actually been allowed to make the choice… of course, the tricky part is to give them motivation to choose my way. If the only way to successfully train or teach an individual animal happens to be this method, then I know that that animal & I will never “fit”… and so I wouldn’t buy it – or if I have, then I’d sell it. And yes, I did learn from this… I learned that I wouldn’t have a use for it; but it was enlightening, in that regard. As for the Jack Strode mules being desired = those 20 mules I posted about being for sale a while ago? Most were originally bought at the big auction in Tennessee, with a focus on buying Jack Strode-trained ones. I can’t say how any others are – or even if these are really trained by him, but I CAN say that Clarence’s biggest Belgian mule is at least 300# bigger than Ellie… who will outpull him any day of the week; because 1) she just likes to pull 2) she really likes Bonner – and will do ANYthing for him. Nothing wrong with these mules at all – but I see the difference, and desire it. This method most definitely seems an effective way to take a raw, even rank, animal and get it to working in a very short time. But I wonder… is there any other, equally effective method that’ll do the same results in the same time frame? I don’t know ‘horse whispering’ from horsesh**, so I ask those of you who might know. I’m not trying to argue, here… I’m trying to learn. I do thank you for sharing your words & views… whether or not I agree with them.

[Author]

Posts