Never Give Up

In 2021, I said I didn’t want to compete in the upcoming Rally for Rescues unless I found a mule to train. Why in the world would someone say that? Around March 4th I was scrolling on Facebook, and I saw this mule that was just rescued and I started asking questions about her. She had busted right eye at pick up and her hooves with terribly outgrown. They got her fixed up at the vet, but unfortunately, they had to remove the eye altogether. The rescue had no idea of her past. I knew if I said yes for her to be my partner for the challenge, it will be a CHALLENGE. As I had no experience with mules or one-eyed equine. I got her on May 14th and our journey started. I quickly found out that she bolted when pressure was applied, she was insecure about her right side (the side of where her eye is gone) and she was incredibly spooky and lacked confidence in herself. Many hours and days spent being dragged around, tears, unsure of what to do next, I tried many different tricks to stop her from bolting but nothing seemed to work.

One day, I walked away crying because I simply didn't know what else to do. So I decided to sleep on it. I woke up the next day and went right back out and started doing some bonding exercises, liberty work, join ups, and letting things become her idea. I started studying how her brain works and what she liked and didn't like. I would leave the halter and lead rope off in the round pen and start walking around with her and she would follow me around! We were getting to the point where everything we did with the halter on, now could be done without the halter. I started to teach her tricks like learning to smile, shake, Spanish walk, and side pass. Once she learned all of the basics she started to trust me and that's where things started to go in the right direction for us. We kept trying different things so she wasn't bored and she started leaning on me instead of bolting! The two of us were able to attend the Rally for the Rescues and place 5th out of 6th. Training an one eyed mule was the hardest thing I have done so far, it was so worth it to walk in that area and show off what we have done in our freestyle. After the show she was soon adopted and taken to a good home.

So many times I felt like giving up and I was emotionally and physically drained. I did not know what to do. But I did know, I did not want to give up on her like everyone else did in the past. I wanted to prove that anyone can do anything they put their mind too and that mules can do anything too. Never give up!