Is Wacking the Mule Necessary?

One of the assessment tasks that all of my animals failed was making transitions under saddle. Pitiful really, but in our defense, we spent the winter months doing stuff we could do out of the wind, in the stall or on the front porch.

So last week Clay and I carried a bunch of fence panels out to the far corner of the paddock system and set up a 40ft square pen as a square-round pen. I've been taking the animals out there to review gaits and transitions.

Chester was first. You know how Condolezza Rice looks when she is tense and angry, well, she may have an identical twin in Chester. He always starts his day in a very bad mood, then after 15 minutes he is over it and generally willing to do whatever. My goal on the first day was to get him to do all three gaits on verbal command. We immediately had to downsize that ideal to using a lunging whip. He would walk and trot but he did not want to canter. After about an hour of trying to encourage him, gently and not so gently, I had to just walk out of the pen frustrated. I got a cup of tea and considered my options. I wanted him to canter and the sun was going down. He was in isolation from the herd and not happy about it. I wasn't going to take him back to the herd until I saw him try to do it.

I have a 10 ft long fiberglass antenna that I found on the road one day. I carried it back to the square-round pen and went inside. I asked Chester to walk-on and he just turned to put his head over the fence and look at the herd. I just wacked him on the rump with some degree of force and repeated my request to walk-on. He jumped out and went into a trot. Then I asked for the canter again. He stayed in that same disjointed trot so I swung my stick at him again, but not wacking. Presto chango, we had a canter! I bridged him and he stopped for his reward. We did it 7 times each way and he got to return to the herd.

On the second day, it only took shaking my truck-antenna, and on the third day it only took me saying "Can-ter!"

I really don't like wacking an animal and I don't do it if I think there is any other choice.

Then I found the following video. I am inspired to try something new.



ps. Cracker started his gait training, but that is a whole other story.