Working with a herd bound/buddy sour mule 

I respect you/ your training because you are constantly learning, questioning past methods & being willing to discuss when you find a better, more horse centric method. Many trainers just stick to one approach for all horses & have no interest in growing, learning better ways. Makes me wonder if they ever moved on to get wheels on their suitcases 🤔😉😆

What a beautiful mule ~ and lesson! "We're all mammals and we feel that need for connection..." Feeling felt and getting gotten :) Thank you Warwick, you've taught me to listen, watch, and respond to my little mule. And I'm so grateful.

I love these case study type videos where we can really see the change in the animal versus you showing it on a well behaved/ trained animal.

As a new mule owner, this is so helpful. I was a bit hesitant to try a horsey thing with her, but glad to see I was over thinking - again.

Subtitle: The Schillers Get a Rooster. Great video, thank you for sharing! My dog is barking at the rooster lol.

What a lovely mule! I have always wanted to work with a mule. Very smart animals.

That’s gotta be the fanciest haircut I’ve ever seen on a mule😆 What a sweet girl😊

I'm glad you addressed the Mule's mind . I have a Donkey and when he shuts down his mind that's it game over . I have to keep his mind engaged and trying to move the feet with no connection is impossible and he resents me .

Very cool Warwick. It’s like you’re representing the mirror neurons to the horse or mule. I had some experience with. A young mule that had been chased around (under the guise of being lunged) and she was so difficult to try and handle that I stopped trying . Instead I let her teach me to capture some of her natural behaviour and could point at any foot and she would lift it, and I taught her to bow too. She was amazing. So I can see the potential negative of trying to go through the body first instead of the mind with a mule. She started to really trust me when I acknowledged her gifts.

I had a feeling it was going to be about this! Rewarding the presence and attention primarily in my experience has been so helpful in building trustful relationships with horses.. Cannot wait to see the exception and how to go about that.

My mule, Gaulois (17hh, 900kg mule De Poitou) would freeze then take off so often when I bought him. He was severely 'managed' for his work in the vineyards here in France ( he was 11yrs, 28 in June). Following your advice he has gained courage and trust. When mounted I have learnt to blow on his ears, on the ground, a shoulder or haunch to move him away. So delicate and fine. Of all my equides (I have also three horses) he is the most affectively intelligent. Thanks for your ever evolving help. xxxx

I own a little mule mare and since i am focussing on her mind instead of her feet our relationship got so much better! Watching this video shows me that i am on the right path with her!

I have watched your channel since I started riding 6 years ago. We moved to France from the uk and were given a mule who I am working with. Its great to see you have a mule in your lessons. More mule output would be fantastic 😊

I would love to see you work with a horse that has anxiety when a horse goes around the corner on a trail and they can’t see their friend for a while. It would be really interesting to see you use this technique on a horse that is definitely having what I like to call a horsey panic attack. I hope you are coming to Oregon this year. Thank you for another great video

Can't wait for part 2. Thanks. ❤🌅🌵😷

Reward the smallest effort and go from there. Your advice is brilliant!

Super Great story. I'm on to that!

Another gem @Warwick Schiller !

Ive never seen a mule like this. Such a gorgeous animal! Over here they only come in tiny pony sizes, and are really rare

Got it. Thank you so much for the perfect illustration (getting to the mind using the feet and the other way round). Very helpful.🤗

Thankyou SO much from Alberta Canada ..I'm working on two youngsters and all these lessons are making it easy ..getting it right the first time so problems dont develop.We dont have fancy horses but they work hard for us and we need to work together . Your explanations make perfect sense even with our lowly cow ponies.. (actually works with the kids too!! Lol)

Thanks Warwick! I love my mule. It is great to see a vid on one.

Huge thanks...your subtle communication ist the key.So impressive.

So good to see this! Wow. I learned so much, again! I love how you explain things, and show us things. Looking forward to the next video! And yes, that mule is a stunner.

Loved this.

Love it!

Awesome! Can’t wait for the next video

Perfection 💚

Thank you for sharing! I learn so much from your videos

Looking forward to part 2

Super video. You are very good 👍🏼 Thank you for sharing.

wow (: this was quite interesting and helpful thank you,

This is great info! A lot to think about in a short little video!

This is a Mark Langley technique. Good idea!

Warwick, you should totally get a mule! I'd love to see some mule videos from you. Continuing education ftw!

When I see loose floppy ears in a horse I take it as the ultimate compliment...in a mule the compliment is just a lot more obvious :)

Thank you for this. I love your work so much. I've been bringing personal development & healing work to the relationship with my horses and its been life-changing. Just like your "mindfulness for horses" technique - best thing ever!

Nice mule, she’s got a great walk! On another topic, I’m sad we missed you this time in AZ. I haven’t been out of Tucson since the previous clinic date! (Damn pandemic is really rough for those of us with autoimmune issues) Thanks for another on point video Warwick! I really appreciate hearing your point of view - Maureen

The way the owner sits that mule is so interesting. They seem so at one with each other. The rider's body from the waist up is perfect sync with the mule's legs.

I wonder what a mule would be like as a riding companion. I like the looks of the mule in this video.🤠💕

Yay mule time😄

THANK YOU from a ''Horse Educator and Human Trainer'' in Québec! Make a book with all those super lifes principles! It deserves to be written on Gold! I love the way you express the subtile details that make HUGE benefic differences

This seems to relate to your polyvagal theory posts as well. It could be that mules have a stronger parasympathetic response, in general, than horses do--so the "shut down" or "balking" response is generally stronger in mules and donkeys than horses. But there's a spectrum in both mules and horses, and I am currently working with a young mare who is more like a mule than any other horse I've worked with (I'm not a pro trainer, but I've ridden or driven a couple hundred horses over the past 20 years, so have some basis of comparison.) She's brave, highly intelligent, playful, and extremely affectionate and interactive on the ground. She had plenty of energy to run and play. Sounds great, right? But, under saddle, she just decides she isn't going anywhere, and stops. Increasing force absolutely doesn't work. She's a very low-fear horse, so if I do get a response from increasing force, it's most likely going to become a fight. I don't want to go there!

Off topic but I use that exact hat at my job. Lookin good Warwick 😉

I love your work! Would you mind posting a video on how to get your horse to move sideways off of your leg instead of sideways into your leg

❤

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Title should be "Profound insight into life plus some great advice on how to work with a herd bound/buddy sour mule" 😁 The "get to the feet to get to the mind OR get to the mind to get to the feet" made me think of "if you have a hammer, you're going to see nails everywhere". I mean we're all limited by the tools we have, we all are co-creators of our reality. We approach situations in a way that is relevant to us based on the set of tools we can yield. And we don't very easily realize the end of the different ways to evaluate any situation is not necessarily where our own selection of tools end. After all the "move the feet to get to the mind" is already a very useful and advanced way to solve many problems with horses (compared to approaches like "master elaborate techniques to force the body and just ignore the mind"). If a mule shuts down with that approach, no matter how skillfully it is pushed... that is difficult to understand, how can that be when a horse responds so nicely, it must be because mules are broken horses... But having the inverse of that tool spelled out like that, having conscious knowledge of the possibility of getting to the mind to get control of the feet, well that's just opens up so many possibilities! That is like getting a chisel and saw and workbench to go with all the hammers.

Would you mind letting us know the resources that you used that caused you to change your way of thinking ? (Mammals nervous systems; needing to be seen, heard, acknowledged.) Thanks for your great content. LLL

How would you apply this appropriately to round pen work or just with a horse that’s not being ridden? My mare literally overnight after a barn move 10 days ago became extremely herd sour, not for my two geldings in her pasture, but for the group of horses over the fence in the adjoining pasture. I got her at an auction in October with no history on her but other than the first maybe week that I had her, she hasn’t had any issues with being herd bound. I asked for input and people kept telling me that her behavior isn’t that weird and that the problem is that she doesn’t see me as her leader and all of this but when I tried to work her through it in the round pen today, I noticed that just like you said, even though she was moving and tense, she’d have her inside ear turned toward me or come towards me or stop and look at me like she was seeking direction. I think this approach might be just the thing to help her through this because as you said, she’s perfectly willing to move her feet but her mind is still fixated on that other pasture.

Das klingt sehr logisch. Manchmal geht es von der anderen Seite her gedacht einfach besser.

I would like to know what to do when loping with two or more horses when out on the trail and my horse feels like she has to race to stay with the others. No problem if I’m at a standstill and they leave but at speed...it becomes a race.

I have a horse that will ‘jack up’ when other horses are being worked nearby. Will this be an effective method or any ideas for that one? The other riders aren’t into your methods.

But how do you deal with a horse who, on a trail ride, a mile or more out from the trailer or barn on the way back gets faster and faster and more and more anxious? My horse goes out away from barn or trailer well, does everything on the trail quietly, willingly and happily, works in an arena well, with no pulling to gate etc. Just this thing on the way home. I despair sometimes. Otherwise she's pretty near perfect - it seems to me, though obviously I'm missing something here.

How long did that take? An hour? 45 minutes?

What do you do with a horse who knows how to go through the motions but is definitely not with you?

For new horse/mule/donkey owners: Pressure for asking Release for rewarding