Moole School

School is perpetually in session for my horde of mooles. They're all in various stages of growing up and coming along in their training. In terms of general baby goals for their ages, they are all fully on track to becoming solid citizens, with a few quirks here and there and things to always be worked on. 

Uma:

Uma is the same age as Pax, so now approaching 17 months. She is still TINY but filling out in her body. She's got that donkey haybelly which, as far as I can tell, is nearly impossible to get rid of on some of them. She came with it, and it looks much better but it's still there. Clean fecals, regular deworming, you can see her coat is good and shiny... she's just... full of hay. I asked the owner of the mini moole that comes to the driving competitions, because he also has a huge gut, and she said that even though he gets a tiny ration and heavy work literally 6 days a week, he just has it and that's that. Boo. 

She has really started to mentally mature a lot more over the course of her yearling year. She is still weird about a lot of things, like you can't just walk up to her in the pasture, nor can you put your hands on her body unless she is tied up, but I think that will continue to get better as it generally has been (slowly). Baby mooles are kind of like horrible obnoxious teenagers. You think baby horses are bad, try dealing with all of their crap but with a donkey brain in there!

Things she does well: halter, lead, tie, wear a flymask, flyspray, stand for hoofcare, stand more or less still to be brushed off, sort of stand for mane clipping, wearing boots

Things she does not do well: body clipping, trailering (haven't tried!), bathing (she likes water but not being sprayed with the hose yet), and not very fond of general touches from people if she wasn't expecting them - just needs more work on that!

Zu:

This little dude is continuing to impress me. It just goes to show that it is SO IMPORTANT to get your hands on these guys as soon as they are born. It makes ALL the difference. He has no meanness in him whatsoever and he loves people and attention. It is very rare to get that sweet adorable temperament in a zebroid, and it has to be cultivated. He's a testament to his breeder's program. 

He's a million times easier than all of the mules, which is really saying something. It's all because of his early formative training - they were all feral or mishandled, and he was neither. He was handled straight away as a baby, and it makes a difference.

Things he does well: Easy to catch, halters, leads, ties, trailers (although he has not been in my trailer), clipping, grooming, flymask, wears harness, wears bridle (but still learning about the bit), lunges in harness, starting to long line and learn about steering, ponies, wears boots and wraps, stands for hoofcare

Things he does not do well: Not a fan of baths (although he loves water), or flyspray (but he tolerates it), needs to be a little more secure by himself (the world is scary when you're alone without your herd!) 

Lendri:

I long lined Lendri off the property for the first time ever the other day, and nobody died! She actually surprised me with how good she was. She has technically been hitched once, but I feel that she needs to be much steadier in the long lines before we hitch again. There is so much that can go wrong when hitching a greenie so the more I can do on the ground the better. I still am not compeltely convinced that she is going to make a perfect driving moole - she is still so reactive to things sometimes - but I am going to give it the full benefit of my time, because she has come SO far and I'm not ready to give it up just yet. 

Things she does well: Easy to catch (runs over!), halters, leads, ties, trailers, mane and body clipping, grooming, flymask, wears harness and bridle, lunges in harness and sidereins, stands for hoofcare, flyspray, long lines, ponies, wears boots and wraps, has been hitched once without issue

Things she does not do well: Hates baths! Tolerates it but is pretty sure I am spraying her with acid. Still can be quite reactive and flinchy to basically anything that touches her that she is not sure about. 

Sriracha:

I ordered a new bit for Sriracha - it's a little butterfly mullen mouth driving bit that is mini sized. I should be able to use it on Lendri as well, as it is a 3.75" (standard mini size is 3.5"). For comparison, Lendri can go either in the 3.5" or the 4" that I use for Zu, but she does seem to prefer the 4", which is a single jointed sweet iron snaffle. I don't know that Zu will fit into it, but I might try it on him for giggles. I haven't tried the bridle on her since the last time when she stuck her tongue over it and cut it - it was only her second time wearing a bridle and I didn't want to repeat the incident until I switched bits. 

Things she does well: Halters, leads, ties, trailers, mane clipping, grooming, flymask, wears harness, learning to lunge in harness, stands for hoofcare, flyspray, happy to go out alone and do things, wears front boots

Things she does not do well: Not a fan of baths, still sligtly funny about her tail and back legs being handled (although getting better every time), having difficulty accepting the bit and bridle. She's only been not-feral for a few months so it's pretty good, all of it!

Tried the (sans bit, sans adjustment) blinkered bridle on Zu... as you can see he really cares. He was looking around for a minute though going, uhhh I can't see?

How not to wear your flymask

Insert Clever Title Here

I'm trying to figure out how to clump and categorize my writings about each equine. Sometimes I feel like I jump around from blippet to blippet without a lot of structure or lead ins, and it sometimes comes off as either confusing or as just a bunch of things thrown at a computer screen. How would you structure it, if you were me? A post per critter? That seems excessive, there are so many of them and several of them get worked every day if I can help it. A post per day? It would never happen every day. And how do you keep people straight on your particular goals for each, when they are all simultaneously going? There is a lack of structure in my writing and I need some suggestions as to how to order it better to make it a more coherent read!

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Dylan and O saw the chiropractor again on Monday. This is their second visit from her, and I'm really happy with the progress so far. I've obviously been out of the saddle a bit this past month, so Dylan hasn't gotten the same work as O, but he was far more 'out' than she was. She had adjustments that needed to be made for sure, but not like he did. 

Apparently the chiro is working

Dylan on nightly patrol

We're working to build his back muscle up better. He has a big giant stallion neck and a well muscled hind end but he is really lacking right in the middle. Part of this is being out of work for a couple weeks (or well, it didn't help, he is looking kind of saggy), and most of it was the fact that he was so out all the way down his spine that he just never could properly use those muscles. These Spanish types really like to be upright and compact, and it's hard to get them to really go over their backs properly and use them correctly. So in addition to saddle time (when I get back to it, which should be soon!), I'm going to add in more trail riding and lunging in the chambon. While Dylan isn't exactly going to cut it as a back country mountain climbing type of horse, he is perfectly capable of doing some of our local trails, as long as I can drag someone along with us to keep him company. I know a few takers who would like to join me I think! On the lunge line, he's not been working in a chambon that I know of (or at least not anytime in recent history) but it will help him once he learns. 

I'm sad to say the rain has struck down another event for us, this time a driving clinic that was supposed to be held this coming weekend. We are supposed to get flooding rains tomorrow, and nothing will be dry by Saturday, so they cancelled. It was a good choice to make, but a real bummer as it was supposed to be both a private dressage lesson and a group lesson on cones and marathon obstacles - something I want to soak up as much information as I can on. Crossing that off our list, we now only have two shows left in the spring season, both back to back. They are the really big spring HDTs around here aside from Sunrise Ridge, so I'm getting excited and nervous. So much to do still! I need to get a new spare for my trailer. I need a health cert for O for the out of state one. (It will be my first trip to Oklahoma!) I need to work the mare should it ever stop raining. I need to make sure everything is in order with hotels, travel, and feeding my nag-ivator B2. We are staying with one of my college professors in Stillwater for that weekend, but need a hotel for Pine Hill. I can't remember the last time I stayed in a hotel for a show - usually I just camp it out in my truck - but if I'm dragging B2 along with me I have to take good care of her after all!

Look at little Sriracha. How good is she being!

 I've had her for just about two weeks now and she has come along SO well and so fast for what she is. I really think Lendri was mishandled because it took her so much longer to come around, months and months and it was gentle and slow progress. If I could walk near her without her running off it was a success. Sriracha is very different in that while she was never handled by humans before, she also had never had a bad experience with them that I know of, and therefore while she is still watching me to make sure I'm not actually a predator, she doesn't necessarily expect bad things to happen like Lendri did. She is curious and gregarious, and it helps that she loves carrots just as much as the rest of them do. Carrots really help to leapfrog their abilities, from "I really am not sure of what you're doing right now and I'm highly suspicious of this" to "hey if I just let you do this thing I get a carrot, now I want to let you do all these things because I might get carrots!" It sounds like a cop out training method, and I'd agree with you that it is with horses, but it really does seem to help the mules learn that there is something in this for them and if they stick around and give it a try, good things will happen. God knows you can't force them, just teach them that they really do want to give it a try. She walks up to me in the field and follows me around, and stands to let me pet her face and neck while out loose in the field. While she is still a little weirded out sometimes by hands, and still completely freaked out by having her legs and belly touched, she was completely satisfied to let me brush her neck, shoulders, and back with no issues. She's letting me stand next to her more comfortably as well - sometimes being that close to them makes them uncomfortable and they scoot off, but she is learning that it's all right. We'll continue on with the brushing and the petting, eventually getting to her legs and belly and tail - all bits they don't like touched. I was able to brush her belly a little and legs a little today, but had to hang onto her in order to keep her from pitching a huge fit. It's going to take awhile before she is comfortable letting me touch any of those parts. She needs a trim but I'm not willing to wrangle her just for the sake of it and set her back. She'll get there. 

Speaking of grooming, Pax is going to have super amazing locks. Her tail is already past her hocks and is thick. Her forelock is suddenly all kinds of wavy and it's long too - longer than any other horse on the property aside from Dylan! 

So much HAIR

As compared to P, who has barely any forelock at all:

Maximum derp

Lendri is just like, stupidly adorable. How cute is she?!

We tried a bit to do some double lunging yesterday but that concept is kind of beyond her still. She would get going fine, but would then would try to use it as an evasion, scoot sideways against her reins, and find herself turned around. She is so very round that the saddle will slide if the reins pull a bit too hard, which sort of doesn't help anything. So, we worked on me walking on either side of her instead of her going around me in a circle, which went better. She is fine about letting me jog along behind her when she is trotting, although she can get a little strong sometimes. Overall, for a feral little mule who knows nothing, she is really coming along!