Gotta Love That Dragon Mule!

This picture says everything about why I love the Dragon Mule.  Dragon has been the member of our gang who has to had compromise a little more than the others.  For a mule that loves to work and explore we've had to put things a little on the back burner.  My time is no longer quite my own and especially with being in the depths of winter she gets ridden occasionally by Smiley Human or even less occasionally by me.

I admit that I have worried about how this effects her and have thought long and hard about if it's fair to deny her one of her greatest pleasures…. but I have taken good advice and especially liked the advice that her 'job' at the moment is to fit in with family life :-) To be fair she seems happy enough with her lot in life and is very much loved, fed, watered and entertained (as much as can be managed - she'd always love more).

So this morning was one of my morning duties with HF under MH's control (much to his pleasure!), it was my turn to act as chief poo shoveller and to get Dragon ready for her ride with Smiley Human.  I was organising some hay and had the tarpaulin out, Dragon hasn't seen this for a while but thought it was great fun.  So much fun that she had to wear it and parade in it.  She is so unbotherable that she didn't even move when I plonked it very loudly on her back, I do believe that she flicked a ear at me as if to say, is that it? So I went back to my jobs and let her revel in her new fashion item…. Super Mule anyone?

She wasn't moving though when I was trying to sweep the yard so I had to go under her….

I love this mule, she is crazy opinionated and can whip you well with her Dragon tail but underneath it is a brain the size of a small country, a really willing heart and a softy.  No sooner had she whipped me with the Dragon tail whilst trying to do up her girths / cinches than she was happily burying her head in my arms for scratches.

Once she had swapped her Super Mule cape for her saddle off she pottered with Smiley Human, she hadn't been out for three weeks, the weather was good and she'd eaten a little too much good haylage - eek!  I was a little concerned about her behaviour for Smiley Human - who always just smiles at any antics.  I don't know why I bothered worrying really?

Smiley Human reported back that she had been perfect; the normal trains, bikes, tractors, cars, people and life in general firmly put in their place by brave muletta Dragon.

Then Smiley Human reported back that we had forgotten to put her stirrups on the saddle…..oops! Oh well, just a good job that she is a perfect muletta hey? I blame it on baby brain or the terrible cold that I have at the moment, many would say it's just my natural air-headedness.  Alas it's a good job the Dragon mule has brains enough for the rest of us :-) And a very good job because she'll be carrying a precious cargo in a few years time…..

Have a great week!  By the way thank you for all of your comments, even if I don't get chance to reply as much as I'd like I love reading every single one of them and its lovely to hear from old friends. We'll be back again soon!

A Competition Fit for a Mule (and Mini!)

Finally we have found a competition where all equines are welcome, long ears, short ears, mule, mini, donkey, pony - we are all allowed to compete!  We don't really 'do' competition here, we know we're splendid and our human is not really bothered about proving it :-)  

But then we heard about this great sport called Horse Agility (also now known as Mule Agility and Mini Agility in our house:-), we show how clever and bombproof we are by doing an agility course, it's very exciting and there's lots of different things to do and play with.  

The best bits are:

• All equines are welcome - everyone's very excited about us mules coming out to play, there are classes for horses, ponies, minis and donkeys - and soon to be mules!

• Every month there's a different course all with exciting things to play with and learn about

• We can 'compete' by video and get lots of useful feedback

• We don't need to travel anywhere to have fun, although we can go to events if we want to

• There is no need for spurs, whips or fancy clothing (not that those things ever feature much here!)

• We don't need to be mud free to play and there's no need to tack up so we can do 10 minutes practice when the mood takes us

• It's cheap and cheerful - FH has got most of the bits we need from ebay - hooray!

• It's fun!

We've not entered our first video yet as we need to practice each element of the course before we try the whole thing... this might take a while but we're in no rush!

There are some important things we have to remember.  Loose ropes are a must, there should be no pulling or pushing from equine or human and we should have fun, fun, fun.  Commands are to be given with as little pressure as possible, words and suggestion is best.  I have been practicing my back ups and stops from sign language alone and I think I'm doing well at training my human, she's starting to learn....

So Roller and I have been practicing some of the elements of the course tonight with FH.   Tonight we were having fun with.....

The Flags

Flags are an important part of many of the courses, we have to stand between them, back through them, FH has to wave them around us and other such things.  We duly sent FH off to buy some flags and she came back with some very suitable flags with the Queen on them!  

Catanian is eager to get in on the agility thing too, I wonder if classes can include felines?! She thinks she's a mule....

Well I was very impressed by this.... there would be no spooking at her Majesty, that would be most undesirable.  So I inspected carefully and then wandered around the flags being a good muletta....

Apologies for the less than glamourous backdrop of the muck heap.... needs must!

Next up was Roller, well he was wowed by the flags and felt very patriotic.  

Neither of us could work out what the fuss was all about.  It was blowing a force ten gale, the flags were fluttering as they should.   FH said she was very proud of us, strange human, they're only flags! Easily pleased FH is....

The Tarpaulin

Tarps are also a feature of many of the courses.  FH has chosen a nice bright coloured one which is very rattly and blows around a lot if the wind catches it.  I have seen tarps before so this was no sweat for me.  FH and I are practicing our 5 second halt on the tarp, I was so chilled I had to rest my back leg... a place for a mule to dream includes a rattly tarpaulin in a gale.... I'm dreaming of dinner.....mmm

Roller hadn't seen a tarpaulin before but Roller was not to be phased by such minor trivialities, he thought he would try out his show pony stand whilst practicing his 'stand' for 5 seconds on the tarp.  Very clever Roller and aren't you handsome!

This is just the start of our adventures, there's are lots more obstacles to play with, we'll let you know how it goes.  The Mini is not so sure about tarps and flags, he is a sensitive soul, FH says she'll get to know the obstacles and learn some techniques and see what The Mini thinks later, if he doesn't want to play he doesn't have to.  

Horse Agility is open to any equine anywhere in the world so if you want to give it a try all the info is here http://www.thehorseagilityclub.com