[Ag-eq] a visit with children

[nfoster at extremezone.com]

Jewel:

I've owned 3 different mules and found none of them to be nasty.  They tend to
be a bit more aloof than horses, but this isn't always true either.  One of my
mares was very friendly and loved attention from everyone.  My other mare and
Jack tend to be more one person animals.  Jack will not allow people he doesn't
know to walk up to him.  He's not nasty about it, he just moves away.  Once he
knows and trusts people he's very friendly.  When I have him saddled and
bridled he knows his job and is a professional.  He tends to like small
children better than adults and is more forgiving with them.

Mules are used to take tourest to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  The canyon
mules are well trained and well behaved.  They put up with lots of people who
know nothing about riding.

Mules can be a bit more difficult to train than horses.  They are less trusting
and usually less forgiving of mistakes.  If you are patient and use natural
horsemanship training, you will have a loyal companion.  You have to earn their
trust.  I think mules have gotten a bad reputation because so many were badly
trained, which made them nasty.

To me the mules make a sound between the whinny and the bray.  Every mule I've
ever heard sounded different from a donkey.  None of my mules have been very
vocal.  Most donkeys I've been around were much more noisy.

Even though I love my horse Cruiser, I still admire a good mule.  Jack is to
arthritic to carry much weight, so he's retired now.  He was an excellant trail
animal for years and has earned his retirement.

Nella










Quoting Jewel <jewelblanch at kinect.co.nz>:

>
> I imagine that, somewhere in NewZealand,someone has a mule,but they are,
> extremely thin on the
> ground.
> It is great that Jack is proving that mules can be really nice animals as, in
> general, they are
> portrayed as being nasty bad-tempered critters that would have the back out
> of your breeches in the
> twinkle of an eye if you were foolhardy enough to turn your back on them!Do
> they whinny or bray, and
> if the latter, is it ,similar to a donkey.  Going by sound alone, would you
> be able to tell if it
> was a mule or a donkey that spoke?
>
>           Jewel
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: <nfoster at extremezone.com>
> Sent: Monday, May 13, 2013 5:21 AM
> To: <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [Ag-eq] a visit with children
>
> Yesterday one of my coworkers brought her grand children over to see the
> animals.  They were both under 5, so had lots of energy and questions.  They
> were frightened at first, but were much more comfortable by the time they
> left.
>
> They fed the goats apples and carrots, so then the goats wanted to follow
> them
> everywhere.  They also fed Jack and Cruiser and had pony rides on Jack.  As
> usual Jack was a perfect gentleman and walked slowly and carefully.  In the
> beginning they were afraid of Jack, but after sitting on him they were
> willing
> to take a few steps and after a few steps they didn't want to stop!  Jack is
> 30
> and seen and done most everything, to my knowledge nothing upsets him.  He
> seemed to enjoy his little outing.  I love being able to share the animals
> with
> other people this way.
>
> Nella
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
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