Smart mule!! Broke to drive in two days!!

by Ival McDermott, Freehold, New Jersey

On a whim, I three-way traded my broke-the-best mule Rusty, for a fat, sassy molly named Ginger. Ginger was trained up by Bob Klim for his wife Debbie, but the two never seemed to hit it off. It was a good trade; I got a mule that loves to run, Ginger got a owner that loves to ride, and Rusty got Molly Lenhart, an eight year old trail rider that needed a mule just like him.
                                                           Driving Rusty

Within a few days of the big trade, friends came out of the woodwork to make offers on the dandy Amish-made easy-entry cart I had bought for Rusty. When I was getting Rusty, Debbie and Jerry Lewis of Flying L Mules, had insisted on hitching him up to show me he could drive.  “I doubt I’ll ever do that,” I said. But he was so good at driving, it seemed a shame to waste all that talent. Before long we were giving rides to the neighbors and winning a trophy or two in local driving events.  Even with me at the lines Rusty was a natural at driving!!  He was so good at backing the cart out of tight places I often considered asking him to get in the truck and park the trailer for me, but that’s another story…

They say that when you are breaking an animal to drive the main rule is – one or the other of you has to know how to do it.  I figured that, after Rusty’s expert instruction, I was now the knowledgeable person for the job of breaking Ginger to drive!  I had never ground driven Rusty, but no problem – I had learned that skill from another expert – my first mule Buster.

He was an expert at demonstrating all the possible wrecks and disasters which could conceivably occur in harness.  We had gotten as far as ground driving with a PVC pipe travois, which he broke to smithereens regularly at each session. In one memorable clash involving a truck tire and the round pen, Buster broke every ring, snap and buckle off the harness. That ended our ground driving career, but I decided I had learned about ground driving from the best.

When I got Rusty, I had my harness repaired and resized for him. Now I rebuckled everything out to the last hole and squeezed Ginger into it.  We had worked on Gee and Haw on the leadline, but it took only two tries for her to realize I wanted her to walk with me behind her instead of spinning around to put me on her left.  She is a smart mule!  It was all I could do, not to get the cart and have a go at it. But the one thing that stopped me was the potential for doing something stupid and giving Ginger a bad experience.  One thing for sure – she would never forget it!

So I called in a real expert, Lyn Kamer, a woman I had met through Competitive Trail Riding. She had a reputation for a wealth of knowledge and a no-nonsense approach to equines.  She agreed to my plan - she would work with me to break Ginger, rather than require me to leave her for training.  She gave me homework and told me to call her when Ginger was ready. With the help of my friend Liz Turrin, Ginger and I zipped through the homework in a single evening.  We started with Liz, bumping along beside Ginger, putting weight on the traces. Except for a few withering glances at us, Ginger was unperturbed, so we quickly went to the pipe travois and dragging a noisy singletree.    One thing Ginger did not learn (I told you she is smart) was to obey a whip.  The minute the whip appeared she stopped dead and refused to budge.  I decided to leave that to the expert.

Finally the morning came to take Ginger to be broke to drive!! That cart was burning a hole in my pocket, so to speak!! After endless waiting it turned out the first thing we would do was to harness up Lyn’s mare and give me a driving test.  I guess I must have passed, because as afternoon turned to evening, we led Ginger, harnessed and rebitted with Lyn’s stout Liverpool bit, into the small arena.  Two sturdy male assistants, Lyn’s friend and a 12 year old neighbor, were standing by.   I was on the headline – just a long leadline from the halter, and Lyn was on the lines. The menfolk were on the traces.  Their job was to use their hands as clamps to hold the traces firmly to the shafts without actually hooking them – ready for instant release if necessary.  Ginger was skeptical about Lyn’s heavy breaking cart behind her (I was a little skeptical too – the cart looked like it had broken countless steeds over the course of several centuries…) but a little wrassling and wrangling and she was in.  The menfolk clasped the traces tight to the shafts, Lyn gripped the lines, I squeezed tight to the leadline, and off we lurched!! 
Ginger went up (smart!!  forward, back and sides were unavailabe!!) but went forward too, and we were doing it!!  At one point she thought about running away, but Lyn on the Liverpool stopped that idea with the first running step. She freaked at the shafts in her first turn but got back on track. There was so much going on she hardly noticed the whip, gently tickling her backside to signal directions. Whenever she had a problem we stopped, I patted her and gave her a carrot from the stash I had tucked down my drawers (for easy access). Bit by bit we upped the ante; the menfolk hooked up the traces and climbed on the cart, Lyn sidled alongside the cart and sat on the edge, then I did the same. Ginger was driving for real! Almost as soon as we started, Lyn said, “That’s it for today, let’s give her the night to think about it.”

I don’t know about Ginger, but I laid awake a long time debriefing the experience in my head.  Lyn said it was obvious Ginger had not driven before and it would take several sessions to get her broke. I gave myself a sensible lecture on the importance of patience and listening to advice, especially when you are paying for it.

Ginger and I had stayed overnight at Lyn’s and in the morning, one of us (can you guess which one?) was eagerly eyeing the harness as dawn broke.  This time we closed off the small arena and used the bigger dry lot and the large adjoining grass field beside it. Ginger spotted the cart right away and it took several tries to persuade her to stand with it behind her to get hitched. She had evidently also been thinking overnight, as she was far worse behaved right away, rearing and refusing to go, but I had a new supply of carrots tucked away and I was not afraid to use them! A few turns around the dry lot and then out to the field.  Bumps, ruts, obstacles like trees and bushes, she took all in stride.You could tell she was not a happy camper, but she did it. 
I was itching to take the lines. “Not ‘til she has trotted and stopped, and we won’t get that far today.”   I suffered in silence, trying to think of the importance of doing the job correctly. Ginger plodded along grumpily for awhile, and then to my delight, Lyn clicked her tongue and let her trot! Ginger likes to trot, and immediately her ears flopped over and she pranced along through the field daisies and Queen Anne’s lace like she had done it all her life! Lyn stopped her and started her a few times and then handed me the lines. I was driving my mule.

“Now you remember, don’t even think of putting her to your cart up there at your farm!!  You have to come down here and drive with me another weekend before you do anything by yourself!!” “Oh, of course not!! Don’t worry!!  I would not think of it!!”  The dirt road to heaven is paved with good intentions…

Somehow, my cart got taken over to the farm and put in the arena.  Somehow several assorted girlfriends got called to come over and help out. Somehow Ginger got harnessed and my handy carrot stash replenished. 
The girlfriends were brimming over with helpful advice (mostly numerous safety tips) ‘til I told them, “Hey, I’m the expert here, you guys are just hired to hold onto the mule… Anyway, don’t worry; Ginger drives!!”   

And drive she did, just beautifully around the arena and out into the field beyond it.  And drive she does, behaving so nicely when I take her out on the dirt roads of New Jersey that soon everyone here will want a mule!! Thanks to Lyn’s great teaching!  Thanks to my helpful friends and to Bob Klim for all his training!  See, I told you she is a smart mule!! Broke to drive in two days!!