Buying A Mule - Should You Buy A Young Mule or An "Experienced" Mule?

[Music] all the time I get phone calls and says I want to buy a twelve-year-old meal and I say to them why 12 years old always got lots of experience well so what does that mean does that mean that you can just ride the mule and you'll know what to do ant wrong answer does he mean that he's got lots of experience so if he sees the elk on the side of the mountain he ain't going to get scared wrong answer ant oh if he sees the bear on the trail he's not going to be afraid ant wrong answer folks I don't care if he has hauled out a hundred elk out of the mountains if he's chased around pigs and jump fences I don't care how many times he's been up and down the trails hauled fat people skinny people whatever it don't make a bit of difference you cannot put in the size of a nut walnut they have brains on each side they have the cranial lobe which tells the right side what the left sides doing left side the right sides doing but the part that really handles the information is the size of a walnut they cannot it is impossible for them to remember everything what's possible natural flight because the fright flight because of right they are going to use that natural instinct of running off because is the best way to keep them from being in a problem horses mules and donkeys mule will run off just like the horse will y'all they'll buck they bite they kick they're an equine it is part of their life to help them protect themselves to what they perceive is a problem now you're at the Grand Canyon you get one in behind the other the mule doesn't have to think he's done that probably several hundred times that's different one in behind the other you're okay pretty much do you still got to think once in a while yes and and that's something to be considered but think about this I have been at Yosemite pack and Freight five meals behind me and then all of a sudden my gilding I was writing it's all government mules government horse he looks up and sees a bear this mule this horse has been there for almost four years seen lots of bears lots of bears lots of people we're going down a trail five meals behind me and next thing you know this bear young bear comes down off of the hill and onto the same trail we're on and of course all the Mules our ears are up my riding horse is up and everybody's thinking oh man look bear what is the leader gonna do that leader is the horse what's he going to do whatever he does is what the meals are going to do because equine have a leader herd leader now what was my horse to him my horse was sucking back a little bit thinking about turning going the other way wait a minute we're on a narrow trail probably as wide as my arms are long it is straight off on the left-hand side probably a thousand feet that's a big old gradual hill on the right-hand side I don't have a lot of places to go and especially turn around five meals and go the other way oh wait a minute I got an experienced horse here that seen bears mules that seen bears well why isn't he going on because it's a different situation it makes no difference every time you see something different it's going to be in a different place different smell different side of the mountain you see what I'm saying they've seen the Bears I've seen these bears looking over a fence and almost touch I'm going by but it makes no difference they're an equine flight and Friday so what do I do I use my legs with my Spurs and I tap him right side left side I say in the right brain go forward left brain go forward with my Spurs that makes where I'm at uncomfortable that means going forward ie toward the bare comfortable oh wait a minute he's uncomfortable that's right but if you go ahead and don't use your Spurs if you go ahead and try to do it with your hands in your seat you are not going to have anything but a wreck oh wait a minute I've got an experienced horse this worse was 12 years old been at Yosemite a lot of years been up and down the same trail understand if it wasn't for me the herd leader communicating with my hands my legs in my seat I would not be able to get that horse to go forward I'd be running back through about your meals maybe a bunch of hikers and stuff it'd be a mess so I used my spurs right-brain left-brain with my Spurs and then at the same time I'm slapping my leg and I got my Dahle rope around the horn and a left hand on the reins and I've said hey hey there get out of here hey man that bear turns and takes off this horse thinks hey his head go straight up his ears go straight down and he starts trotting toward this bear like okay there we are what would have happen if this 12 year old horse what a turn and taken off your they have a heck of a rack so age don't mean nothing let me tell you something else on my ranch when I was training mules and selling mules to sell have training them to sell I would have three to five-year-old mules they had a foundation they knew what turn on the forehand turn on the hindquarters side pass stop everything within a 10-foot circle they knew how to have a foundation controls when I pick up on the rain I've got a hoe I go to the right or left I get turns okay a three to five year old I am punching cows on the side of a mountain three to five year old I am chasing mountain lions with the dogs a three to five year old I'm packing elk out of the mountains are here now let me ask you something would you rather have one that is young that has a good foundation with no bad habits to speak up or would you rather have a 12 year old that's probably got several bad habits why is it that when they have a meal for sale that this meal they don't tell you about the good things bad things they tell you only about the good things how many wrecks has you been in for heaven sakes you see what I'm saying folks it makes no difference of age now it does make a difference in this in that a mule matures at seven years old roughly in a general thought the other thing is there needs need to be closed you can either have a veterinarian do some x-rays on it or and I like to look and see if the knees are are close by if the hairs are still curly around the knees or if the hair is long but the best way best way is x-rays okay now do I want to take a three to a five-year-old and hammer them all the time up side of the mountain moving cows and stuff no I'm going to give him a break I'm gonna ride him a day he's gonna get three days off I'm gonna watch his temperature I'm gonna watch his breathing but guess what I'm gonna do the same thing with a 12 year old yeah their bones are more silent and this sort of thing but few of them can handle a whole day of punching cows without rest so usually like it at Yosemite you know we had a couple riding horses and we had our pack mule and that's what they give us on ranches when I go to work there and they have horses they give me five horses we wrote him one day give him three off and we fed him accordingly so don't go be looking for a 12 year old with lots of experiences look for a meal that has a foundation pick up all the feet with ease you can ride him within 1/10 Circle and see the man the meal standstill and quiet you can see them when you get on you can see the mule stands telling quiet when you're sad Lehmann brushed him you can see the meal back up on the light rain you can see the mule go right and left and and let's go at this by the time he's three years old he should not be in a snaffle bit unless you are training he should be in a finished bit and I got other videos out there for face bit and I can talk to you more about that but look folks if you're buying a finished meal there's not going to be two hands making them go it's going to be one hand smooth and easy my video so you want to buy a meal that'll help you out a lot if you want to call me and ask me a question be happy to and remember folks make sure you get a vet check make sure that you have your dental that look at him for further dental work and you make sure your farrier looks at him and most of all don't let anybody tell you that this mule doesn't need shoes if any farrier is worth his weight at all he's gonna see that contracted heels are going to be a big problem that's one of the biggest problems with mules they have the donkey foot and because they have that donkey foot it gets contracted it expands and contracts and when the back of the hoof comes in small that frog comes in narrow like this the smaller the Frog the less the blood pumping up and down the leg so you've got a small foot in the back be careful you got trouble besides that it could take your farrier two to three years to get it contracted he'll fixed that's why you see their legs so crooked it's okay folks there you go 12 year old is fine if it's got training has a foundation 20 year olds fine if it's got a foundation all right so hey Happy Trails you let me know what I can do to help come on get on my website be happy visit with you our website is www.pevs.com you'll also see me Instagram Twitter all that trick stuff give me our let me help you have a good you

Channel: Queen Valley Mule Ranch

Views: 37,041

Rating: 4.8731499 out of 5

Keywords: mule ranch, mule training videos, donkey training videos, mule training, donkey training, mule videos, donkey videos, queen valley mule ranch, steve edwards saddles, steve edwards, queen valley saddles, mule owner, equine training videos, buying a mule, owning a mule

Id: BWyhXk0j7MU

Length: 11min 56sec (716 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 19 2018