I posted a topic about a couple of young mules that i am fixing to start breaking. Well actually i will only be breaking one mule and that will not be until late this fall or next Spring.
The other one is just turning 1 year old. And she is wild as wild can be. I never got to halter break her. I have only caught her a couple of times when she was just a few weeks old and have not fooled with her since.
The older mule which is just turning 2 was really doing fine on halter breaking and i was even able to put a saddle on him just to get him use to it.(never put any weight on his back or anything like that.) But that all changed about 6 months ago when i had him castrated. After that i could not even catch him to pet him.
Well i built a smaller pen out of cattle pannels. 16' x 32' and put the yearling in. I bought a big bag of apple treats and after about a week of sitting in the pen with her and feeding her treats. I have her eating them out of my hand now!
The first day she would run to the far end of the pen and was really nervious. I finally got to where i would toss the treats on the ground out in front of her and she finally got the hang of getting them that way. Each day i would when tossing the treat out. I would gradually toss them where she would have to come closer and closer to me to get them.
Then i would just drop the treats at my feet while i was sitting on the feed bucket. And it took about 4 days of doing that before she got comfrontable on picking the treats up that close to me. But she finally did. While she was doing that she had to use her nose to smell where the treats were at since a horse/mule can not see real close right in front of their nose. So by doing that she got use to my smell.
Then i got to where i would sit the treats on top of my boot. The first time or two of doing that i thought she was going to go over the pannels ! :lol: Whenever her lip would touch my boot while tring to pick up the treat would scare her.
But after a couple of days of that she overcame that fear. Then i got to were i could lean over and lay a treat down beside her nose while she was sniffing and she would take one that way. It was not but just a little bit after that she was taking the treats from my hand then.
And now that she has learned to do that she can go through some apple treats fast ! :lol: I even got the older mule coming up to me without any fear like he use to now! :lol:
So i think part of the way to break a mule is through their stomachs ! :lol:
The other one is just turning 1 year old. And she is wild as wild can be. I never got to halter break her. I have only caught her a couple of times when she was just a few weeks old and have not fooled with her since.
The older mule which is just turning 2 was really doing fine on halter breaking and i was even able to put a saddle on him just to get him use to it.(never put any weight on his back or anything like that.) But that all changed about 6 months ago when i had him castrated. After that i could not even catch him to pet him.
Well i built a smaller pen out of cattle pannels. 16' x 32' and put the yearling in. I bought a big bag of apple treats and after about a week of sitting in the pen with her and feeding her treats. I have her eating them out of my hand now!
The first day she would run to the far end of the pen and was really nervious. I finally got to where i would toss the treats on the ground out in front of her and she finally got the hang of getting them that way. Each day i would when tossing the treat out. I would gradually toss them where she would have to come closer and closer to me to get them.
Then i would just drop the treats at my feet while i was sitting on the feed bucket. And it took about 4 days of doing that before she got comfrontable on picking the treats up that close to me. But she finally did. While she was doing that she had to use her nose to smell where the treats were at since a horse/mule can not see real close right in front of their nose. So by doing that she got use to my smell.
Then i got to where i would sit the treats on top of my boot. The first time or two of doing that i thought she was going to go over the pannels ! :lol: Whenever her lip would touch my boot while tring to pick up the treat would scare her.
But after a couple of days of that she overcame that fear. Then i got to were i could lean over and lay a treat down beside her nose while she was sniffing and she would take one that way. It was not but just a little bit after that she was taking the treats from my hand then.
And now that she has learned to do that she can go through some apple treats fast ! :lol: I even got the older mule coming up to me without any fear like he use to now! :lol:
So i think part of the way to break a mule is through their stomachs ! :lol:
