Training Donkeys, Mules and Horses with Love and Empathy

The Muleteers have kindly leant me their blog to talk to you all about some issues that I have been struggling with.... for once I may just climb on my soapbox or high horse (read high mule ;-)!


I was sent a video by a  friend recently showing some "amazing therapy for phobias" and was pretty shocked by what I saw... was this for real?  So let me tell you about it....

The patient had a longstanding phobia of having his feet touched and tickled so was approached by an eminent psychologist who said that he could help the patient quickly if he followed his 'programme' of behavioural training.  The patient was a trusting chap so said yes, the Dr was a professional after all.  He went along to the Dr's office and was quickly put in to a very small room, a bit like a cell with bars everywhere.  The Dr said it was essential for the patient's safety that he was tied up, OK he thought and was a little shocked when the Dr got a thick rope tied it around his neck and head and then tied the other end to the metal bar.  The patient pulled but he couldn't get free..... this was not the kind of therapy he had imagined but he was a trusting chap so went along with it.

So the Dr then started talking loudly and appeared nervous about what was going to happen, he was already out of breath - Oh My Goodness!  What is about to happen?!

So the Dr quickly leapt in and picked up the patient's foot, so quickly the patient lost his balance.  The patient tried in vane to get his foot back!  But the Dr held on grunting and panting and then gave the foot back - yikes!  That is not happening again thought the patient!  Then the Dr slapped him a lot and pushed him around some to make sure he was thoroughly petrified.  Therapy? WHAT?

Not content with this the Dr then ran around the back of the patient and grabbed hold of his foot from behind, any wonder that the patient kicked as he wasn't expecting it and he couldn't see!  No warning, it tickles and I don't like that!!  So what did the patient get next?  A rope!  Yes that's right he had a rope flicked around his feet and then one of his legs was tied up so he could barely stand properly....  in his desperation not to fall over the patient leant on his head and neck and nearly strangled himself because he was tied up.  All the while the Dr was talking about submission and success and how he was teaching the patient to have someone touch his feet and overcome his phobia.  Really?!

By this stage the patient was frozen with fear and had just about forgotten everything but survival, he didn't want to strangle himself to death, he thought the Dr was a very dangerous person and had given up hope of ever getting out of that cell until he'd given in and the Dr thought he had trained him out of his phobia.  So he did what he was told and the Dr picked up his feet and tickled them (hard to be ticklish when you're petrified) and huffed and puffed about having taught him.  Clever man.....?

This had all taken 7minutes..... the longest 7 minutes of the patient's life.  When the Dr said he was on the way to being cured and should come back for more therapy next week the patient smiled and said "sure".  He got out of that cell as quick as could be and ran away quick smart.  The Dr was totally mad and nasty and if he ever came near the patient again he would know what was coming and fight back before he ever got the head restraint on.... surely Dr's aren't allowed to do these types of therapy anymore?  Sounds more like torture?

The video was shocking and I felt pretty sad, it has played on my mind for the last two weeks, surely there are laws against this kind of thing?  You know what was even worse?  The 'patient' was a beautiful old donkey and the 'Dr' was someone who is supposedly an expert and really should have known better, what's worse is that this is being shared with others as the way to solve all your hoof trimming issues.....

It's rare that I speak out about these sorts of things, I see bad things all the time in my line of work with donkeys and mules and know that it is not a 'perfect' world, I know even I have been guilty in the past of uneducated techniques - I have learnt and am still learning the better and more compassionate way of  communicating with the other wonderful species we share this world with.  I have been lucky to be enlightened by so many caring people willing to teach others the better way of doing things, the loving and empathetic way, not the way us humans think works quickest!

I am not going to 'name and shame' the video or the organisation from which it came because sadly there are many like it and this is just an example.  What I hope to do is give you some food for thought about judging what you see yourselves and questioning some of these 'experts'.

When I watch or listen to others talking about training equines I want to hear two messages in all they say, they must work with empathy and love.  There is no place in my world for machoism, quick fixes, gadgets or fear.  Some basic elements of donkey, mule and horse training that should be present in all situations for me are:

Love Not Anger

Always approach everything with love in your heart not anger, find something to love about the animal you are working with, some will be more challenging than others but they are never bad, naughty, nasty, evil, trouble, mean or any other such word you may use to describe them.  Animals react in response to their previous experiences, their environment, pain and what you are doing to them.  Animals do not set out to troublesome or 'naughty'.  If you go in to a situation thinking the animal is naughty that's probably what you'll get, you've already used an inappropriate label so you've set the relationship up the wrong way!

It is my real belief that mules, donkeys and horses know when you love them and when you don't.  Love does not mean sloppy kisses, treats and no boundaries, it means a lifelong commitment to learning about each other, communicating and treating each other with respect - a bit like a good marriage.

Slow Not Quick

How can anyone learn when they're in a rush?  If someone asked you to learn Vivaldi's Four Seasons on the violin in 1 week (when you can't even play the violin) or else you'd be pretty stressed wouldn't you?  Imagine that your teacher can't even speak you language.... even more stressful!  And yet we face our equines with these problems all the time.  Take things slow, learn the right language, break things down in to small steps - learning to play a fine instrument takes years of patience and practice and should not be rushed.  Small steps should be rewarded and sometimes you need to think of alternative ways of teaching, the best teachers never stick to the same 'teaching by rote' approach, they are creative, encouraging of small achievements and share in the joy of the journey.

Gadgets Have No Place

The equine world is full of gadgets that will help you achieve your goals quicker and supposedly with more 'finesse'.  In particular our horse friends are bombarded with gadgets - market harboroughs, pessoa systems, bits with shanks, cranks and ports, side reins, draw reins, spurs, whips, martingales, flash nosebands and the list goes on..... These items are never in the interests of the animal's welfare, very occasionally they may have a place in the hands of extremely experienced hands (how many of those are there?) but mostly they are used by owners as 'quick fixes' to stop their equine expressing natural behaviour in response to something the owner is doing wrong.  If you have a bit of metal shoved in your mouth that is then roughly yanked by strong hands (to try and make you 'go on the bit' - whatever that is) your natural reaction is to open your mouth and try to get rid of the pressure.... so what does your human do?  They tie your mouth shut  with a tight noseband so that you can't move it.... kind huh?  If you are tempted to use a gadget think very carefully about why you are doing it and put yourself in your horse's hooves, would you like a similar thing used on yourself? Also are your hands educated enough to be using such an instrument?  If you're not sure do not use it.

Never Fear

When you are trying to work out an issue with your equine always try to think about whether what you're doing is going to evoke understanding or fear.  Is your animal simply going to cooperate because it is fearful of the consequences if it doesn't?  This is no basis for a happy, harmonious relationship; trust me there will come a time where the fear will be so great that the fear is expressed as aggression and you may just come off worse.  In the cases of donkeys and mules it is often difficult to determine when they are fearful as they hide fear well, they will often freeze or just 'switch off' when they learn that fighting back does them no good.  It is your job to never push things this far, again put yourself in their hooves and see if you would be fearful and you'll probably find the right answer.

Listen to Your Heart

Whenever you are taking on board the advice of others please listen to your heart and have confidence to say no.  If you have a small inkling that something is not right then it probably isn't.  There are some wonderful trainers out there who work with empathy and love, there are others who should be ashamed of themselves.  Often there are words that can give you a tell - stubborn, submission, dominance, giving in, chase, fear, stupid, naughty, must, will, all negative words that will tell you all you need to know.

So if you're still here at the bottom of my rant, thanks for listening!  I hope that I haven't offended anyone and may cause just one person to question what they see a little more.  Sometimes I am beaten down by the number of 'bad' things I see in the animal world, but I do think occasionally you should speak out because saying nothing only condones.  I am by no means perfect and am still learning with every day, we are truly privileged to be allowed to gain the trust of our animal friends, may we never break that fragile trust which they place in us.  And when we do wrong may we learn from our mistakes and move on with a more educated approach.

Mule Agility

Greetings Muleteers!  Well what fun I had this weekend.  I knew something was up when a mule mobile arrived and I was shown inside.  Yes, yes, been there, seen that, done that, where are we going, when are we going?  Well the humans kept me waiting for another day..... sigh!

Eventually after much faffing around on their part we were ready for the off.  I entered my mule mobile straight away, the flight mule attendant brought my in transit snack of a carrot and off we set.

Gosh MH you do drive like an old lady.... actually that's fine as it means I can balance easy and eat my hay, this is great, if I travel I gets hay not straw - yippee!

Here we are.... woohoo, have you seen all that grass, my goodness me, I have come for a Dragon sized picnic.

 

Well it seems that FH had other ideas.... she appears to think that we are here for a training day?  Apparently she thinks she is training me to do Horse Mule Agility with a group of other equnes and their humans, I think I am training her to do Mule Human Agility.  Whatever, I'm sure we'll figure out who's in charge.

 

 

After lots of showing off to my new fans (they was amazed at my mulificent, good looks and willingness to show my human up ;-) it was time to tackle some obstacles.

 

First up was the curtain thingy, I went through no problems, I was so quick the photo does not show my prowess... Here I am mostly concerned with the grass not the curtain, looks tasty!

 

 

Next up was the hoopy thing, yep I went through and over that quick too and the camera thing didn't catch me..... errmmm FH look at the grass..... come to think of it there is a theme here in these pics??

 

Then off to 'Scarey Corner', why is this scarey?  That's right FH you lead the way and I'll follow like a good muletta should, someone has even left me a helpful sign for directions :-)

 

 

Me and FH is rebels though and decided to go the wrong way round this one way system, just in case you didn't get my best side on camera!

 

 

Then on to some other obstacles, first I had to walk across a wooden bridge and through some barrels and over a tarpaulin, I was so speedy the camera didn't catch me, needless to say I was teaching FH some real agility tricks, in between there was a bit of grass munching - yum!  It was even better because our trainer insisted that me eating grass was good as it kept my brain happy.  I like this trainer she gets my need for feed!

 

Next up is the podium, I think this should be renamed Mule Mound.  I gots my little, itty, bitty muley hooves up there as quick as I could, no place I'd rather be than up high!  FH was well pleased with me. 

 

 

In the spirit of fairness I wanted to give my back hooves a chance too, but then the urge to eat got too much..... it's ok though mules can multi task!

 

 

Then there was some of that ground worky stuff where I had to go backwards, bend round poles and trot next to FH (she's slow but I tried my best not to overtake, it would not have been sporting).

 

 

The human was definitely getting better with this agility thing, we'll have her jumping through hoops in no time.

 

Just one last thing FH, how about the grass eating obstacle?  Can we tackle that now?  If I can just get my head down another couple inches I'll complete that task.

 

It was time to go way too quickly but alas I had eaten enough grass to brag to the minis about, had taught FH some moves, had conquered every obstacle put in front of me and made loads of new equine and human friends - not bad for a day's fun.

So when are we coming again FH?? That was quite fun, although I'm ready for a snooze now!


 

Recycling - Mule Style!

Household chores are best done with mule power!

FH there is loads of trash on the floor!  Those plastic bottles need crushing and recycling.  What do you mean we gotta crush these things for the bottle bank?  Can't you humans manage to do anything without our help?  Us equines are not here to tidy up after you lot!

All of this stuff really needs sorting out.....

OK, fetch my halter FH and I'll come help you with your trash, you humans make far too much mess you know.

Hmmm I am now suspicious... this looks a lot like one of those Horse Human Agility obstacles to me?  Do you need my help again with the Human Agility? Really, those bottles are not scarey to stand on... you humans are so easily scared.

So first you need to eye up the problem...

Then you put your best foot forward, this 'Bottle Bank' obstacle is easy peasy!

It's important to crush these bottles good and proper!  The less space they take up the better.  I know they make some popping sounds but honestly FH they're fine, they won't bite you.

Best way to do it is plunge in and get all your hooves in there

Is that good enough for you?

What do you mean we need more crushing?  In that case we need to bring in the heavyweight.... errrm  Roller!  We need your little feet for a task.  

Here I am! Mmmmm do you know what Dragon?  Some of these bottles have had apple juice in them, yummy, can I eat them please?  

Crush them?  Oh if I must.... This is kinda fun actually...

Errrm what am I doing again?  I seem to have fallen asleep a little bit....

Oh yeah, squashing for recycling, my tiny hooves are great for the job!

I like this recycling agility thing, it's so much fun!  There is only one thing better than recycling fun....

Striking a pose for the ladies!

Recycling all done, human trained for agility just that little bit more... she's coming along nicely!  Must be time for some sunbathing and a snooze now?

Training Mules: Page Update

FH has finally got around to adding some extra info to our blogsite pages after much persuasion!  Apparently she reckons that some info on training mules might be useful?  Hmmm we reckon training humans to understand mules is a better title for this page!

Here it is, we taught her all she knows ;-)
http://www.muleteers.com/p/training-mules.html 

Look out for some more updates soon!

Stubborn as a.... Human!

Shock horror! My human is definitely a mule..... I have long suspected that FH exhibits mule-like tendencies but today confirmed it.

FH has been rather busy preparing for muletide and with a lack of time paired with my beautiful mud pack she decided that riding was out of the question but understood that I needed to do something so got my going out gear on and we set out for a walk.

We got out the gate and I wanted to go left and she wanted to go right..... hmmmm.  Would you believe it muleteers, FH had an almighty 'Mule Moment'.  Oh My Mule was she not impressed when I told her it was my turn to choose where we were going!

FH can be mighty stubborn when she wants to be, try as I did to stomp my petite hooves and swish my tail and urge FH left she planted, glared at me and said we were going her way or no way. I think FH may not actually be stubborn but may be thoughtful and using her 'self preservation' like us mules, hmm maybe she knows something I don't?

Chill FH, no problems, I'm coming.....

Off we set but FH was not happy with just walking today, apparently I was supposed to be training her, well OK I can do that!

It would appear that when walking with my human I should be entirely captivated by their every movement and should mirror FH like we are dancing.  Well that was easy, I followed FH and she couldn't catch me out by stopping suddenly and turning like a mad thing, I even managed not to stand on her toes, bump in to her or make the rope have tension in it - aren't I clever?!

Then FH thought she would be clever and try this mirror game in trot and canter (hah you should've seen how red in the face she was!!), well as before I was perfecto!  I stopped immediately when FH did and trotted when she blew me kisses, really FH is that all you can manage??

Then it was time to do the boring game that I really don't like, this one involves standing still for a really long time (think FH needed the rest after trotting up a steep hill!). Apparently your human should stand still where you place it, there should be no tension in the rope and we should both stand and shoot the breeze without fidgeting.  Well muleteers I was made for relaxing... I can do this chill out thing for ages, no fidgeting, no ants in my pants ;-)  FH did pretty well, I was impressed at her obedience, next time we'll see if she can leave the camera alone, here she is looking very smug!


FH then started the placing my feet game, this is where we use lines on the ground or objects that I have to place my hooves on perfectly, it's up to FH to make sure I am exactly where I should be.  The workmen have been re-surfacing the road so there are lots of new bits of tarmac.... thanks for that!  FH used lots of them as markers on the road for me to step up to and around.








This one was a little more exciting, someone had put this two toned brick in the lane, FH decided I should put one hoof on one colour and the other on the other, simple!  It was a little bit rocky though.... oh well, no match for mule hooves.

After a good long while of playing games with FH I decided it was time to just walk and relax, we even had some snacks on the way, have to say the hedges are getting pretty desperate these days, the leaves are nearly all gone and there are only meagre pickings for such a growing girl as me..

Finally it was time to go home.  And would you believe it..... FH decided that we could go left this time!  See I told you, definitely a mule masquerading as a human!  FH only took me to inspect the neighbourhood trash heap, charmed...  FH did explain that these are actually sandbags masquerading as trash bags, ready for the next flood FH and I are both a little confused about their disguise, it looks a little odd?  Anyway next time I pass I have no excuse for jumping at the trash mound as I know what it is, like I would've done anyway? Think it was FH that needed to check it out but she always likes to blame these things on me.

Gosh Muleteers, I can tell you that training humans is extremely hard work, especially when they are as opinionated as FH, someone once told me that mules choose humans that remind them of themselves, hmmm I must consider this further....