Important lesson: our mules and horses have off days, too – we must learn to recognize and respect that.
Yesterday, I was not feeling well. I had little energy, but being at the barn and working with Ruby always makes me feel good and makes me happy, so I went anyway (I go to the barn every day, or at least 6 days per week).
Since I did not have the physical capacity to ride, I thought we could do some light work in the round pen. (Here’s another important lesson – riding when your physical and mental capacities are low might not be a great idea – you could be more apt to confuse your equine companion with some sloppy cues, or miss any problems that might come up, or cause more problems, and there could be a chance that you could get hurt by not being focused or not paying enough attention.)
[Side note: Ruby used to dislike the round pen, but some gradual time spent in it has gotten her more comfortable with it. I’ve even let her graze and roll in there, so that she would be relaxed inside the fence, and associate the pen with good things. I still do not drill her in there – never drill a mule – but it’s a good place to get some really good work done.]
Well, we started out with a walk, and worked our way up to a trot. I am currently working to slow her trot so that she moves in a relaxed, more balanced manner, and so that she learns varying speeds. We also worked on our continuing studies in verbal commands, whip cues, and body language cues. All going very well. I noticed that her trot, although relaxed, lacked some push from her hindquarters. She is not – I repeat, not – a lazy mule, so this seemed odd. Well, on we went, so I asked for a canter, both directions, and in neither direction did she want to canter. My gut instinct said “This is not normal – what’s going on?” But the old-school thought, learned from various old-school folks along the road of my equine journey, was “You better make sure that your horse/mule does as you ask.” Well, I repeated my cues for the canter, very strongly (no yelling – I can't stand yelling - it’s silly and unnecessary – I was speaking boldly, theatre-style), raised the lunge whip to its “canter level” and popped the lash a few times in the air. She did go into the canter, but it was not smooth, and seemed almost “jumbled”, which is not her style, and she broke gait. I asked her to canter both directions – for about two rounds, but then stopped. I decided that my gut instinct was right. She was either reflecting my off day, or she was having one herself. I asked her to stop and come to me in the center, then I scratched on her a moment. I walked her a little in the outdoor arena (in hand), I asked her to back, then come forward again, and we were done. I acknowledged her off day and lack of energy, we stopped working, yet we did two more things that were easy and low energy so that we could end on a good note. She was grateful – I could tell.
I have been discovering that, although she is a rather independent girl, she is developing into more of the “pocket mule” type: following me around, asking for some quiet scratching time, looking for a treat. When I go back into the barn to put things away, after several minutes she will come looking for me, or holler for me. It’s very cool. She’s my buddy : )
I just bought a wool saddle blanket to try – purchased from an Ebay seller in Idaho. It’s 100% wool, 32x64 (I believe strongly in wool and mohair), the old-style fold-in-half blanket. I still love my 5-Star pad, but I’ve always wanted a blanket. The colors are lovely - it’ll look very pretty on Ruby.
Wish me luck – I’m starting a master’s degree program this week…I can see it now: sitting on a fence rail studying my little heart out, with Ruby nibbling on my homework : )
