First ride on an unridden MULE!

[Music] this week has brought all my training to a climactic high point of potential validation when I got this Mali mule six weeks ago she was wild and basically untouched it was a major challenge just getting her loaded [Music] [Applause] [Music] it took me four days before I was able to touch her I worked her in the round pen for three weeks and finally got a saddle on her I focused on gaining her trust and moving slow process was more and as much about me gaining control over my own fear and oh yeah the best part is I've never done this before fueled by a desire to get deeper and stay longer in wild places for the last six weeks I've been breaking this basically untouched mule there's a lot of good things going on for training this deal right now you guys kind of scared just a little bit so y'all watch my eyes when she puts Bob staring at her fret shoulder and then watch this what's this did you see me I turn I turned my shoulder back and then she turned right Ford we're gonna get a little training here I've committed to working with this mule almost every day since February 2nd oh I've worked in the rain cutter we've worked in the snow we've worked at night too we've done whatever it took I've got this barrel in here and I'm gonna try to get her to jump it what I've done is I'm moving the barrel closer and closer to the fence and trying to get her to run in between the barrel and the fence which is a challenge for an equine animal to be squeezed and forced to do something Finch down a little bit here come on nope now she's gonna start giving me trouble and I ain't gonna take it help you do that it's gonna be hard good good see now that was easy make the right thing easy the wrong thing harder yeah nope I messed that up especially won't do that again no she does I'm gonna get her even harder good okay she just learned that I whack her when she does the wrong thing when she does the right thing I'm happy yeah yeah I see that's not your part it's not hard to do the right thing it's just a little bit scary sometimes now I'll move the barrel directly against the fence so she passed in come on good yeah there we go attagirl [Music] there we go there we there we go good girl good girl that's exactly what I wanted her to do it's March the six we've had this mule since February the third second and I'm starting to toss some stuff on this mules saddle got a saddle on her and I'm trying to get her used to just anything that could happen I've got all this stuff in this round bin because horses and mules are so scared of just random things okay now she's just going on point that's good [Music] I've got this bigger saddle honor I started off with a really small cheap little light saddle this is a much heavier mule saddle specifically made for mules I've been leaning on her and putting weight in the stirrups for several weeks preparing her for when I finally crawled on her back I've intentionally not been in a hurry the validation if I've done it right will be in how she responds when I finally climb on will she buck or will she trust me I was intentionally moving slow when it came to getting on her back a negative experience at this stage can lead to difficult problems in the future I wanted this and needed this to go right so I took my time I didn't get entirely on her back but this was the first time that I had put all of my weight on one stirrup [Music] cute that was my mistake [Music] well we'll see how she acts but I'm planning on getting honor today this is the day you've been waiting for I tell you what it's funny what your mind does I'm constantly thinking about getting on her back when I'm out here training her when I look out the window and see them out here I'm constantly thinking about what it's gonna be like to be up on her back when I'm fully committed on her back because once you throw that leg over there's no going backwards for the last several days I've been been putting this mule up pretty close to the fence where I can kind of hold her a little bit mainly just to keep her from moving because she's uh she's wanting to move on me a little bit [Music] she's just wanting to move a little bit I'm gonna come over here do that so just letting her know that that's okay [Music] this you gotta be ready for anything on a deal like this yeah good real good yeah good girl yeah I'm honor well now I'm gonna just get off of her all right [Music] well that was a success that was a success now I will just get right back on her [Music] coming over I'm coming over [Music] yeah Berger yep good move right let's get a little move let's go [Music] man I shouldn't have drank so much coffee this morning my heart racing she can't sense that the heightened sense of awareness you feel when you're in a situation like this feels almost superhuman I don't think the human experience is fully lived until you've been on the back of an animal like this humans have been retaining equine animals since the dawn of your time and it feels good to touch something of so primitive more [Music] the deep sense of accomplishment that I felt when I got on her back and she didn't buck was hard to describe I stuck to the plan and it worked it might have been a more exciting story to say that she bucked and I wrote her out but I'd rather have done it right been patient gained her trust in the long run she'll be a better partner because of it we didn't have to get rough with this mule to do anything with it we would took it real slow and but this is a big milestone me just being on her back she's calm and hey this is a success this is a big success for me for the last six weeks all I've thought about it's getting on the back of this mule and now here I am they say mules are the most difficult equine animals to train I never trained a horse or a mule before and I really didn't have a ton of experience with either the process of breaking this mule has changed me I've accomplished a goal that I would have seen equivalent to traveling to the moon a year ago mule Skinner's almost seemed like magicians doing things that I didn't have any reference to achieve I took a chance and accomplished my goal this is really just the beginning of training Izzie it'll be years before she's a finished animal but I think I've got a leg up on Earth never lose a mule this is fine as I'd seen hollowed through the hills you know my dad gets a lot of real crazy ideas about all these crazy things he wants to do but when he first started talking about getting the meal and breaking it how much Rocky I wasn't so sure he'd be able to

Channel: Bear Hunting Magazine

Views: 1,860,750

Rating: 4.5118432 out of 5

Keywords: mule training, project hunting mule, horse training, clay newcomb, bear hunting magazine

Id: t9TmMEsezhY

Length: 11min 29sec (689 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 31 2018