USE AND TRAINING OF MULES

Olivier Courthiade, “Mule School at the Méras Farm”

President of the National Federation of Donkey and Mule Breeding

Thanks to Olivier Couthiade for sharing this text, a testament to another era and a wonderful field experience.

Methods and approaches have evolved, but these memories remain precious: they tell the story, passion, and expertise of the muleteers of yesterday, who paved the way for those of today.

My equestrian career began at a very young age at the Jardin des Plantes in Toulouse on the back of a lovely Gascon donkey with the noble name, if ever there was one, and one she lived up to very well, of "Marquise." Forty-five years later, her pungent scent, the infinite kindness of her eyes, and the immense joy she aroused remain ineffable. This undoubtedly predestined me for what came next...

I obviously didn't undergo the challenges of donkey riding instructor training, but "Marquise" and the kindness of her eyes captivated me forever. Moreover, fate would have it that I performed my military service in the final platoon of the 541st Military Remount/Veterinary Group of Tarbes, in the Foix-Lescun district next to the stallion depot (class 74/12).

I served as a Remonte rider and a military muleteer, resulting in a fine certificate... undoubtedly the most honorable diploma I can boast!

From this brief stint in the army, I learned a great deal, including a study of "in vivo" behaviors on young humans and on the genus Equus-asinus, which, let's be clear, tended to favor the latter group...

The experience with the muleteer, like my encounter with Marquise, left an indelible mark on me. The sensitivity, intelligence, and beauty of these extraordinary animals immediately fascinated me, especially since the contact was not easy.

Indeed, brutalized too often by inexpert, even malicious or vicious hands, constantly renewed with the arrival of young recruits, these animals inspired compassion in any man worthy of the name... Let's skip the horrors.

As for the superb anecdotes, and for those interested, I recorded a few in an article entitled "The Mule: A Head," published in the monthly journal Cheval Loisirs. In short... The Mule virus was permanently infected.

This is how, quite naturally, the Courserant Equine Producers' Union (09140 Seix) asked me in 1988 to lead a mule production program in the Pyrenees, subsidized by the Midi-Pyrénées Regional Council and managed by the Management of the National Stud Farm of Tarbes. Reproducing mules in Ariège was like throwing dry shavings on embers: the know-how, the taste, the passion were there. Before the war, that is to say yesterday, a thousand mules were born each year in the Ariège department! Almost exclusively sold in Spain. The "snag," and this is precisely why I was called upon, was that the Spanish were no longer buying, and it was necessary to produce a "turnkey" 3-year-old animal instead of a wild mule, to adapt to the new context, more "leisure" than "work." So it was done, and my stables welcomed ten small, shaggy Lombards in 1988. The starting gun for a 10-year-old + 2-year-old program was fired, and the Méras Farm Mule School was founded.

I had the pretension of knowing a little about them, drawing on my equine and military experience... I have since learned a lot...

The strength, cunning, and resilience of these young mules exasperated, discouraged, and disconcerted me as much as it captivated me. How could I make them understand, first, that I wasn't an enemy, and second, that they had to accept my rules? A real challenge. In this case, my experience training oxen (weighing over 2 tons compared to 55 kg at the time...) actually served me better than my experience training horses. It's clear that the use of force is impossible; the balance is too unequal... Caesar, a great strategist if ever there was one, also inspired me. He had a rule of using the methods of his adversaries to his advantage (whom he quickly enlisted once the confrontation was over...).

So I had to learn to be more cunning, more resilient, more stubborn than the mules themselves... In other words, to establish myself as the dominant one, that is, the one elected by the dominated, recognized by them as the one they could trust because they knew.

By the way, our policies could be inspired by the rules in force in animal societies... That could change the situation...

In short, being elected King of the Mules is no easy feat, but it's essential if you want to be heard. This requires one major quality: justice, very close to fairness. A mule can accept the harshest reprimands when it knows it has sinned. On the other hand, a word raised above another, and even more so blows, are inevitably, one day or another, punished by acts of revenge (see the legend of The Pope's Mule).

Based on these principles... How do you take action, in this case, regarding training? I deliberately skip over the phases of acclimatization, domestication, and taming, which are similar in all species and can be summed up in two principles:

1) acceptance of the tether (the dreaded fixed point), and

2) "tampering" from all sides.

Let's also quickly overlook the fact that mules, like horses, are rarely raised according to the rules of the art. We generally become concerned about them when, as the saying goes, "they have to be sent away," meaning to sell them, sometimes several years after their birth. It's not until we're 20 that we learn table manners, blow our noses, and say hello... or at least it's much more difficult than when these basic but essential skills are acquired in early childhood.

I have no hesitation in stating that a 3-year-old mule that's never been touched is a real primed bomb, if it wants to be... All my fellow muleteers will agree.

So I come to the particularity undoubtedly linked to hybridization. I affirm that apart from the genetic formula linked to the ethnicity of the mothers (blood or draft mares, ponies, trotters or gallopers, rustic or sports, etc.) there are two main types of mules, with fundamentally different behavior: donkey mules and horse mules. The distinction is easy: the first have an angular rump, called in hippology "mule scalloped rump", the second display a round and full rump. According to one or the other conformation, the behavior is radically different: Those who "pull" from the donkey offer enormous resistance in the neck, the poll and the mouth, they are reluctant to adopt lively gaits. Those who are like the horse, work willingly at gaits on the circle, and offer their mouth much more easily. They can provide very pleasant mounts and brilliant coachbuilders without, however, "trucking up" although I have never seen mules from Hanoverian or Friesian mares... they could surprise, especially if their father is a Catalan, extremely sanguine.

It goes without saying that breaking-in methods will vary greatly depending on whether you're dealing with horse mules or donkey mules. The former are perfectly suited to the methods commonly and classically practiced for horses. As for the latter, their training is greatly facilitated, in the early days, by the widespread use of the yoke throughout the Iberian Peninsula and Occitania. This yoke, known as the "Landais yoke" or ladder, consists of two ash or acacia bars (the upper and lower "shovels") pierced with three or four symmetrical mortises through which strong straps will pass, framing the collar and regulating the distance between the mules. These bars are joined by two uprights of the same wood, in the middle of which is attached a strong iron ring or shackle (the moulade) intended to peg the pole or attach the draft.

Wear plates on the collar side, a recoil hook on the opposite side, and sometimes a few leather loops or hooks designed to carry forest tools (such as Sapi, axes, mauls, etc.) complete this instrument. The use of the Landais yoke is inconceivable without special tools called "Landais collars," made of large rye straw cushions reinforced with horsehair and fitted into two plane tree splint holders covered with wear plates. To hold the yoke in place, these headless collars are topped with an iron cylinder (the "hand" or "rack") into which the upper blade of the yoke is inserted, first for the stationary right-handed mule, then for the left-handed mule, which can be moved on command.

This extremely clever harness has the merit of being extremely simple. It eliminates the need for bridles, reins, saddles, and swallowtails! That's all! It can only be used with donkeys and mules off flat ground, due to the rigidity of their necks (this defect becomes a strength here). Horses adapt very well to the method, provided they don't have to restrain themselves. The only difficulty lies in the particular shape of the collar.

It should be noted in passing that only one master saddler, now retired and therefore elderly, possesses this expertise in the world. The National Stud Farms, regularly contacted for over five years, have not seen fit to address the subject, even though they house no fewer than two saddlery/harnessmaking schools in their stallion depots...

I would like to point out that, apart from mules, admittedly few of whom work in this way, all donkeys are affected... and that beyond our national needs, a large number of developing countries could be helped by this simple animal traction technique.

In terms of training, the enormous advantage of using a yoke (the same applies to cattle) is that it unites the two "learners." This considerably limits individual escapades and constitutes an important and "non-violent" form of coercion.

The whip or goad are used as a "command stick," primarily to implement the vocal training to which mules are so sensitive. This is a matter of custom. The Basques goad, the Landais whip; the principle is the same and corresponds to the following law: the animal "goes to harm," that is, moves forward as soon as it is prompted by the prod. It goes without saying that the trainer must exercise great tact to avoid upsetting the students. Once this lesson is learned (it is fundamental since it determines the impulse), the sight of the whip toward the chest is enough to induce forward movement, accompanied, of course, by the vocal command.

To achieve haunch movement (to press against or, on the contrary, move away from the pole or to straddle the line, for example), simply use the whip inside or outside. Here again, learning is extremely quick, thanks to the yoke. Moving backward is more difficult to achieve; it should never be required during the first lessons. It is achieved by engaging the ears, a sacred area, which is particularly sensitive in mules. This operation must be performed with great skill, in the utmost calm, and with little at first, just a single step. A game of attraction and repulsion quickly sets in, familiar to every muleteer and drover in the world: these are the famous notions of "bubbles" or "auras" developed by our modern ethologists.

Once the animal is accustomed to the yoke, it becomes much easier to integrate it into traditional breaking-in if saddle reins or pack saddles are used, because "the dominant one is in place," partly thanks to the yoke.

I've talked a lot about tact, skill, and tenacity...

This is where the limiting factor in using mules lies.

The current mood is not one of rigor, learning, humility, or difficulty... We now want to learn everything in lessons, without paying anything (except for the manual, and even then...) and especially without paying personally. This is incompatible with the use of sophisticated, intelligent, and sensitive animals.

The "animal sense" (a clever blend of observational skills, tact, sensitivity, thoughtfulness, divination, accuracy, and many other qualities, including instinct and authority) are essential if one wants to live in harmony with mules. In my opinion, these qualities are innate. Various training courses and courses can only develop this kind of gift, but in no way create it.

That's the Creator's business!

As for the mule's uses, they are strictly the same as those of the horse. It's no surprise that a mule from a galloping mare gallops, a mule from a trotting broodmare trots, a mule from the womb of a draft mare pulls, etc.

Only prejudices, customs, or routines hinder its use (apart from the qualities necessary for the muleteer, see previous paragraph).

The mule has no Not popular in France. It's said, without knowing anything about it, of course, that it's small, shaggy, stubborn, mean, and a good mountain porter.

In Spain, although treated roughly, it's much more highly regarded, and some ganaderos don't hesitate to use it as a mount.

In the USA, a new and nonconformist country, grateful to the one who allowed it to conquer the West, the mule is held in high regard, and "great masses" are dedicated to it.

Regardless of the country where it's bred, this brilliant hybrid, whatever anyone says, lives much longer, eats much less, and is far less fragile than the horse. So we must face the facts: the mule represents the pinnacle of Horse Civilization!

Since its creation in 1988, more than a hundred mules, mainly from the Pyrenees, but also from Andalusia, Seynard, Savoy, and Poitou, have studied there...

Roughly speaking, their destination is divided into:

30% viticulture

30% forestry-agriculture

20% long-distance travel (wagon, pack-saddle, mount)

20% various leisure activities, shows, and events