--- Janice McDonald <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> The second one is still around and he is actually
> mean.  The meanest,
> most calculating, evil horse I have ever seen.  And
> I met him when he
> was age 6 months and was just being weaned.  I have
> never seen this
> horse mistreated a day in his life, tho in my
> opinion, he is one I
> would have personally kocked the heck outa him
> several times.  And I
> dont think he was spoiled!  The first person who
> owned him ponied him
> everywhere with his mom, ground trained, like any
> normal horse.  She
> sold him when he spooked going through a gate and
> threw her into an
> electric fence and broke her collarbhone and left
> ankle.
> 

Oh, I thought you were talking about my mule Celie:)
Wait, maybe you were. On days like today, I think, you
know what, both the mules are going over to the mule
trainer. We do have a mule trainer in the area, he and
his son train mules, and gaited mules, and have won
world championships with them. Celie actually had a
gate phobia. Celie is the reason I have had to improve
my horsemanship. I'm not sure I would have done all
the searching I have done if it were not for her. The
Icelandics are easy, the KMSH is easy, at least they
are easy now compared to the mules, and after what I
have learned. When Celie was young, she would just
reach down and try to take a chunk out of my arm,
lucky she always like me, or I guess it would have
been much worse. Ok, so she doesn't bite anymore. She
did kick someone a few months ago though. She did have
a bucking fit with someone on her back as they went
through a gate once (gate phobia), she had it before
the incident and neither, nor her breeders have any
idea why. She fell on her knees and was still bucking,
as the poor Amish guy fell off with the saddle. He was
ok. I hate it when I get frustrated, like today, but I
have hope, I have hope that if I get better, we can
solve some of the things that go on and tasks will
become easier. I didn't get her to lead through gates
in a day, I didn't get her to stop biting in a day,
and I didn't get her to give me space and stop
knocking me over with her butt in a day. I suspect she
is a little bit on the difficult side:) Today she was
in heat and, boy, she is a nut, drooling and mouthing
a gelding over the fence, a real man, not like Snorri
and Dari who couldn't care less about her. 

I am going to stick with an image I have in my mind,
of me riding her, in the pasture, with a sidepull and
bareback and she is gentle and reliable, you know she
actually is like that, it's always up to me to find
the golden key to the most mundane tasks with her,
like some kind of magical game. It doesn't help when
people are watching and say, "I don't even know why
you fool with those mules".

Kim

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