Paula Curtis (00:42)
Today I'd like to welcome Steve Edwards. And if you know mules, you know Steve Edwards. He's a cowboy through and through. He's spent decades helping people build trust and get results with mules and donkeys. From his Arizona home, he continues to educate through clinics, courses, and his weekly Q and A show. His wisdom comes straight from the saddle. And I can't wait for you to hear his take on working with these incredible animals.
So welcome, Steve. It's great to have you here and great to have you as a part of the fair. Well, thank you. Thank you. Some kind of changing course these days. I don't ranch anymore, sold all the cows, don't have any mules, don't train any mules anymore. So this is my favorite thing to do now. I can go online, which I do every Tuesday, and I get to talk to people all over the world. And then I call my clients. I probably get 30, 40 phone calls a day.
And so I called different people, spent 10, 15 minutes with them and helped them help themselves because one of the downsides of today is people don't realize how much different that mule is and that donkey is than the horse. They're a different animal than the horse. you know, how did you originally get started with mules versus, and donkeys versus horses? That's kind of unique. You know, my
My parents didn't know what's which end to feed a dog let alone a mule or anything like that. My dad retired the Air Force and my mom was mom, you know? And so over the years, it just kind of was a natural thing for me. I kind of got a saying around the ranch is that you're born a cowboy, you're not made a cowboy. You know, a lot of people really try to make it and they do a pretty fair job. But the ones that are born seem like it just goes natural. So I was looking for a
another horse one day and I was going through the paper and it said here about this mule. So I thought, well, I've never really experienced riding mules that much. My first experience with a mule was the boss at the ranch said, go get your ropes. We're going to go get the mule. And I thought, go get my ropes, go get the mule, get my ropes. And you know, we head over to this corral and here's this critter over in the corner and he's snorting and blowing and, and chopping his teeth at us and kind of kicking toward us.
I said, what are we going to do with that? He says, we're going to pack it. I said, okay. So we roped him, spread him apart, throw the blindfold on him, throw the pack saddle on him, put 200 pounds of salt on him and away we went. And then every time we had to stop to get a block of salt off, we had to rope the hind leg and spread him apart again and throw a blindfold on him and pull a block off. And boy, I thought to myself, why in the world would you want to have an animal like that around?
What a miserable critter, you know, and they're not, they're absolutely incredible. I've never met a stubborn mule yet. have people all the time say, you know, stubborn is a mule, but I've never seen one stubborn yet. It's usually the people, but they're awesome animals. So anyway, the long story short, in the newspaper, I found this mule and I went to see him, took my saddle over, I had no idea if they were any different.
This mule's name was Casper and we went out for the longest 30 minute ride I've ever had. He tried to buck me off, tried to kick me, ran me through trees, ran downhill, ran uphill a little bit, mostly ran downhill. boy, he come close. I got one article I did called sitting on the neck of the mule and it's because you got to use a breech and a rear sit. It's different, you know? Long story short, the guy said, well,
Do you want to, I guess you don't want to buy this mule. said, no, I'm going to buy this mule because I'm going to get even with him. So I bought Capsburg as my first mule about 35 years ago. And ever since, uh, you know, I pick up a mule here and there, different places and people give them to me, or I go to an auction and buy them for 25 bucks and I learned from them. And I just went on from there. And sometimes those, those types of mules or horses end up being the most athletic horses that we learn the most from. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah. They, you know, it's one thing having one that's so fluffy that everybody just gets along with him and he'll do about everything. And everybody thinks he's a trained mule. No, he just got a disposition. But you take one that's that really been through a lot of people and has learned all kinds of really bad habits. I always say the mule is just fine till you open the gate. so how is, you know, for a person that's not worked with
mules, let's say ever, or, or donkeys, how are they approached differently and, and trained differently than they would be like, let's say a horse. So number one, once you have to consider as a mule is a donkey, a horse, and then the poetry is a mule. So you have three entities you have to deal with. Or a horse, you've got a quarter horse, quarter horse, you come up with a horse, right? Well, there are times when that mule is, we call it stubborn, right? But it's not, he's just asking questions.
That's the donkey side. That's the intelligent part of that mule. They're extremely intelligent. And you think, are you getting it? I just did something. Aren't you going to respond? But the donkey thinks things through and then he does it. Okay. But he has to do it through leadership. And if you try to be his buddy, that donkey is going to put you on ignore pretty quick. Matter fact, the Mexican word for stupid.
is is a bull, you know, and we also hear that sign all the time, but they're not stupid or super intelligent. So when you're training, every move is a picture. And so as you go to put the halter on, you want his head dropped to the left head down and, and put the halter on. And when you're first to teach them that they want to see every move because the donkey says, I've got to protect myself.
The horse says, let's just run through it, get through it the best we can. The mule says, well, wait a minute, which one you gonna, might go listen to and then kind of does in between, you know? So when you, when you think about your mules, they learn from their nose. They don't learn from their mouth. So when you want a mule to learn to turn, you do it from the nose. You want a mule to learn how to stop, you do it from the nose, not from the mouth.
Mules don't care about their mouths. They'll grab a hold of that bit. And even though you think you're pulling them sideways, you ain't going to stop them. I don't do lateral flexions with mules and I don't disengage hindquarters. All right. Now, why don't I do that? Because mules run through their shoulders. You pull a mule's head around to try to do a one-range stop, which we heard so much about over the past 25 years, which is worthless. But anyway,
That mule can run just as fast sideways as he can straight ahead. And you are not going to stop him. Okay? And so why don't I do lateral flexions? Bending the head around, you know how that goes like that. Well, when I do that, I have to remember that that donkey's neck is what's prevalent in that mule. And that donkey's neck has five major neck muscles, just like a horse. A criss-cross-cross the neck, down through the middle of the neck, along the esophagus, and to along the shoulder.
They can stiffen that neck and tighten all five major neck muscles and to keep you from pulling on them and then they can run through their shoulder and go wherever they want to go. So the reason I don't do lateral flexions is because of that. When I go to bend them around to the right and the left pretty soon, all I'm doing is like we're doing, we're building up biceps. All I'm doing is making it stronger. So what do I do to soften up the neck muscles? Okay. What I do is I get them to drop down. Remember mules, donkeys,
horses, any equine have two brains, one on the right, one on the left. Okay. And they don't have the, the, lost the name for it. It'll come back, back to me a second. They don't have that muscle to go from right to left, you know, and so to teach them. you teach one side at a time. So what I do is I put them in a sur single. That's the strap that goes across the back and I adjust a rope halter. Now, rope halters have to be different on the mule. They have to have the knots.
don't want to be up here in bone which is really useless on a horse as well but you need to be down the knots or idea the idea of the knots if you ever see one of my videos the two knots in the nose teach the mule to stop it also teaches the mule to go to the right and the left now pretend these are the knots okay when I want to go to the left okay that's this way here I take and pick up on my lead rope this knot goes into the nostril
this knot comes away, so where does the mule want to go? Where the least discomfort is. Okay? So at the same time, these two jaw muscles down here have a lot of nerves. So when that halter goes over and touches that nerve system right here, between the knot in the nose and the part that goes here, that tells the mule, this is the uncomfortable side, this is the comfortable side.
So the cranial lobe is what I was trying to think about, okay, is doesn't tell left side, right side what to do. But when they feel the discomfort here and the discomfort here, they want to get away from it. So they go this way. But when I put that halter on and I adjust it properly, then I take two balan twine strings and I go from the halter to knot, back to my sur single, which is attached to a breeching. And then they just, I turn them loose.
and I let them go. Unfortunately, what we tend to do as people, we tend to be agrarian, use our hands all the time. So we tend to want to make our horse, make our mule, make our donkey do something rather than allow the tool that we're going to use, i.e. the halter, letting it do the job. Now bailing twine, no weight to it. Okay. It's pretty simple. You just tie the knots on the bottom of the halter and strings go back. And I've got 2,500 videos.
out on YouTube so you can always pull this up. But anyway, then it goes back and then I turn them loose. Now, because a mule learns from his nose, because a donkey learns from his nose, then as they're walking around, I'm not touching them. The bailant twine is loose, it's not tight, it's just enough pressure so that if he sticks his nose in the wrong place, it makes him uncomfortable. He'll get his nose down to be comfortable. Now, when we have the mule...
The donkey balanced top of his hip, top of his wither, top of his head, straight across. Now what do we have? We're rounding out the back and we're driving off the hindquarters, right? So that's an example of using the halter to do the softening of the neck muscles and the shoulder muscles. Well, this is halter foundation because what they're looking for is being comfortable. If you understand just three things, comfortable, uncomfortable, ass, tail, demand.
you can train a mule. So when I pick up on that lead rope and I just roll my hands, that then puts just enough pressure on the mule where he wants to respond to it. So there is some of the things that I do. Most of the time I try and get people to understand, allow the mule and the donkey to make their mistakes and they can do that without you touching them. Does that make sense?
that does. think that's really interesting because when they come into pressure, they're coming into their own pressure. And then when they're releasing the pressure, they're, they're doing it themselves. Self-release. Self-releasing. I mean, we tie horses up and once they're educated, we tie horses up and expect that if they back up, they would come forward off their own pressure and that's self-releasing as well. a mule, when you pull on a mule, you are not going to out pull him. Okay.
So I, you'll hear me say all the time in my YouTube bump, roll your wrist. Cause what people don't realize is that leading from A to B, you're training your mule, your donkey, your horse more than you can imagine. Most people think they have to be in the saddle to train, which is completely incorrect. Okay. And not only did I find that in my own knowledge, but when I was in Brazil, I was there for international equestria. I was invited there in 06.
in 2012 and I was the only mule trainer there and everybody's going, mules, ugh, know, we always hear that, you know? And so the horse that they ride, this was the largest Andalusian horse dealer and farm in the world. And they had this farm there. I was watching these beautiful horses, there's mirrors lined inside the barn and watching these horses doing laterals, you know, and turn on the forehand, turn on the hindquarters.
and this rider's not moving. It's beautiful to see. So the owner of the farm says, who wants to ride this horse? I threw my hand up. I want to get a ride on that. And then they put me on this little tiny thing they call a saddle, you know? And I sat in that thing and I was amazed. I barely put a leg on him and his horse moved. I barely picked up my hands and his horse moved. And I looked at the guy. I said, this is a three year old and he does this? He says, yes. He says,
This is the fourth time anybody's been in a saddle on his horse. The fourth time they did all their work on the ground. There's where we kind of mess up is as, as wet in the Western world is we don't spend enough time on the ground because if you can't handle a lead rope, why are you got your hands on the reins? That's my main thought. Right. Right. It's like, it's almost like if you think of riding as like a picture.
And you think of your groundwork or ground school as puzzle pieces or ingredients, foundation. So everything that we want to do in the saddle, we can first show them on the ground. And it might be pieces here, pieces there, but pretty soon it makes a picture. So when we get on them, this horse has already, or mule, has already done it on the ground. And it feels like a horse that we've ridden before.
But it's the first time we've, we've ridden it, but that's just because we did thorough groundwork. Something that interests me quite a bit. So we live in Tennessee and we, we see burrows and donkeys all the time in pastures with cattle and they're like predator control. They're like a little alarm systems, you know, so you'll hear them bray and you'll hear them make noise when something comes into the, into the corrals or the pastures. But could you tell us a little bit about the mule's instinct to go after predators? I've seen them go after dogs and things like that.
Can you tell us a story about that or tell us kind of shed a little insight on that? A lot of stories, I can tell you about that. Number one, you never want to put your mule in the pasture with any calves. They will literally mother up to that calf, keep the calf away from the mother and starve it to death. And sometimes, you got to remember that equine's world is ass, tail, to man. Where do they get that?
Well, the lead mayor, when a new mule comes in and come in to visit her, she pins her ears. She asked, don't come in. And then the mule keeps on coming in. So she tails by pinning her ears and switching her tail, ask tail. Now the demand come because the mule kept on coming. She spun and kicked. Okay. And if you watch some of the, you can go on YouTube and watch Brazilian cowboys working cattle and you will see.
that the mule is there's nobody in the saddle and the mule keeps the mother away while the cowboy, the mule goes and works on the calf. They do it natural, it's natural instinct. But the downside is mules will kill calves, mules will kill colts as well. Okay. They're more on the killing side than the donkey is, which is more the detective side. Now the downside.
of the donkeys in cattle to them pretty quick and castrated in other words. And, never, you don't, you gotta have a lot of experience to be around a jack because they're vicious. So, so let's go back. Usually your mini mules, the little guys, you know, are the best ones for cattle and sheep. they're, they're not as aggressive as your larger donkeys, your draft donkeys and this sort of thing. So, but it's natural for them to want to take and protect their area from the predators. See.
They're a prey animal. Everything else is predators. They're in the bottom of the food chain. You and I are predators. they were naturally like, when we work our cattle, we have to have dogs in Arizona. It's tough. I mean, it's some of the nastiest country you ever seen. So we have to have our dogs. So we have to train our mules to be able to that when the dog is coming close into their area, my dog, my board of colleagues usually will see the swishing of the tail.
or even a pain in the ears, you can almost see my dogs move out of the way. And if the dog don't know the mule or don't know the area, the mule will give him a light tap. Listen, if you've been kicked by a mule, he knows exactly where he kicks. Exactly. So I've literally had them just tap me on my arm or on my leg, just barely give me a tap. If they want to break me, they can. So yes, they are useful protection. But I also got to remember is that your kids are predators as far as they're concerned, they're small.
So I hate seeing kids around donkeys and mules without a helmet. That's my number one thing anyways, to wear helmets. But you got to remember that when they're short, they're going to be a predator. So does that answer your question? It does. It does. And have you ever seen personally, have you seen like ⁓ a, a mule or a donkey? Have you seen one go after like a, a coyote or a, have you ever seen one go after a dog? yeah.
yeah, all the time, you know. One of the things I tell people is that they say, well, you know, my dog comes over that way and my mule bites him or kicks him, you know? And I said, why didn't you allow the mule to do that? They said, what do you mean? I said, look, that mule's already said with the tip of the ear, that dog's too close. Why aren't you fixing it? Okay. So how do you fix it? How do you fix it? You do two things. You, especially if you've got a snaffle bit or a correctional mouthpiece.
You go right, left, right, left, right brain listen to me, left brain listen to me. Anytime you want a mule or a donkey to understand what you want from the saddle, you do it with the right brain, left brain, because you have the cranial lobe. They don't have one, so we can't tell the right side, left side what to do. So when this happens and they, they tip an ear, always fix the problem before it becomes a problem. Fix it when it's small.
tipping of the ear or tipping of the nose. When it does that, you can just go right, left, right, left. And then also use your legs at the same time. Right, left, right, left. In other words, that tells them that that's uncomfortable over there. And it's good. If you look over that way, you're going to be made uncomfortable, but you stay straight between my reins and you're going to be comfortable. It's so different to driving a car. You let go of steering wheel. If you look off the right, where's the car go? To a rumble strip, right? So
when those dogs and horses or mules are together, it's the number one thing you want to do first and foremost is make sure you have a trained dog. Not a lap dog. It's just going along for the ride and getting this sort of thing. You got to have a down on him. So when that dog comes too close and that mule is going to get aggressive, you'll say they're down weight. Okay. And the dog will go into a submissive position and the mule then will go off. So you got to have, you're going to go out with dogs, with mules.
You better have ⁓ a dog that has a handle on it. So if you were to run into somebody and, and they, let's say they've been with horses their whole life and they just got themselves a mule and they're going to go do some trail riding with it. What are some key foundational principles you would tell them or instruct them with so that they would have a clear understanding of how to get along with their mule for a good partnership throughout their relationship?
Number one thing I always say to people when you purchase a mule, you purchase disposition, not color, not training, not confirmation, disposition. That's, is, is frustrating to me to have people watch a video and say, man, look at that mule crossing creeks. Look at that mule go down the road. Look at that mule with a dog up on its front end. know, look at all that dog and pony show stuff. Okay.
Dog and paw, that's all it is. If a mule in a 10 foot circle, you should be able to tell if that mule has a foundation. Notice I didn't say training has a foundation. If in a 10 foot circle, they can turn on the forehand, turn on the hindquarters and side pass in a 10 foot circle, you have a mule that is, you can communicate with and communicate with correctly. Cause think about that. They naturally already do this. Turn on the forehand, turn on the hindquarters naturally.
What do we have to do? Put a cue on them so that they know to turn on the side pass, turn on the forehand or side pass when to do that. So when you go and you purchase a mule, don't listen to all of this dog and pony show stuff to where and see some little 10 year old girl riding around in this sort of thing. You take and have them show you in a 10 foot circle what the mule does. Is it actually trained? Now, if it's a snap of a bit,
I'm gonna be using two hands direct training. If it's a finished bit, I'm gonna be using one hand and I'm gonna be riding 80 % of my legs, 20 % off my hands. So I'm gonna be looking for then that small focus of training. Now, before the training, I should actually be looking at confirmation. Now, one of the things that we do, we have to consider is that mules are missing a chromosome. So they do not have
that chromosome to be able to breed and they, has there been mules in the past that's been bred? Yes. And they've confirmed it by DNA testing that they actually had a mule, but that's extremely rare. So let's go back. When we're breeding, when you're buying a mule, you'll want to buy a mule that is meant for trail work. Not a quarter horse type mule. Okay. With a high hip that's meant to be low working cattle, because what happens is you got the hip. You sure you got that dry power.
But the downside is confirmation wise now the hip is higher than the wither and what do we have a downhill hip. So where's our saddle going all the time? Forward the front. Mules are V shaped in their shoulders. Horses are H shaped in their shoulders. So with a mule with it being V shaped in their shoulders, that saddle will want to go forward. So what's the most important part on your saddle? The rear cinch has to be the tightest. The rear cinch is the tightest, front cinch is the loosest. Now,
You have a front cinch and you have a rear cinch. And notice that front cinch is at an angle. Why is that? Cause mules conformation is different. They carry their weight down low, horses carry their weight up high. Okay. And when they do that, because of that belly, if you over tighten that front cinch, because that front cinch is at an angle, it will bring the saddle forward. Now mule scapulas go up and down like pistons.
So every time that scapula comes up, it hits that saddle. What do you do? You break down the scapula. What do you end up with? A pasture ornament. Okay. So with having the bone structure of a donkey and the muscle structure of from the horse, then we have to depend on the rear cinch. It must be the tightest and it is not two billets. It is two tie strips, two tie strings.
with a nice wide cinch. like I use, I've designed, you'll see in my cinches I've designed, I have the four inches wide, the perforated neoprene on the top, their cordura on the bottom, okay? And they have elastic on the inside, which expands and contracts with the animal. Now, with the having a wide cinch in the back, that then helps the saddle from keeping it creeping forward. The front cinch, if you look at my videos, I have to literally stick my arm through it.
The back cinch is snug up and tight. And what the breeching does and the breast collar, those two help balance the saddle. The breeching is not meant to hold the saddle forward. Breeching is only meant to balance the saddle and then the breast collar balances the saddle. So as the cinches get loose, those two entities plus the tightness of the rear cinch helps keep the saddle in place. So going back, confirmation, when you're purchasing a mule, okay,
And the big thing is with mules today is, is the gated mules and you're going to be spending 15 to $20,000 for a gated mule. Okay. Really you don't have to because a mule has a very natural walk. Okay. And it's called a single foot and they can just clip along really nice. And a lot of people look at that and say, Oh, he's gated. No, depends on the animation on the front or the rear. Let's go back because of that, that single foot.
They're really nice to ride. Really nice. So you spend a lot of money for a mule that you don't really know how to put into a gate anyway. And so confirmation wise and speed wise, think about this. If you're riding a gated animal and everybody else is riding an average gate and you're flying and going out and you're making everybody else miserable while you're so-called riding. Okay. You've got to be thinking about your other riders. So think about when you're buying one.
You look at them confirmation-wise. And as you look at them naturally standing out there in the pasture or standing in the corral, look and see if their neck comes up out of their shoulder or if the naturally the neck comes down framed up. If the neck comes up out of their shoulder, that's more of a competitive type meal. And you can do the same thing with horses. All right. But it's a competitive type meal. It's bread quarter type, know, for gym planas and stuff like this. When the meal is balanced, framed up.
top of hip, top of the withers, top of the horse, top of head, like a horse, right? Okay. That means they're driving off their hindquarters, it rounds out their back and you get that nice ride. But when they're doing that naturally, their confirmation is naturally that way. That's the one that you, that you buy because it's going to be the natural one to make life easy on the trail to keep your saddle in place. So, disposition, confirmation, and then training.
That's great. And, and in one of your presentations for the fair, you get into the saddle fitting of your mules and the importance of the saddle fit. And that is so essential because if they're not comfortable, or if you're causing sores and rub marks and those sorts of things, you're going to have all sorts of behaviors coming up that are just due to pain. Yep. Now see, mules don't show pain like horses do. They brace into it. That's what makes them so good in harness and packing. They got a collar on their neck for pulling a wagon.
Well, that's a lot of pressure, but they can do it. They can, but they won't brace into pressure or horses back, go back away from, you say, so it's really important to understand. They don't show pain like horses do. You can have a mule colicking, standing up, not eating, standing almost perfectly straight. And you'd never know he was in colic situation where horses, what they're laying on the ground. They're kicking each other, kicking at their side, using mules will stand and brace or donkeys stand and brace.
And next thing you know, they flop over debt. Okay. So you really have to be aware of your mules and donkeys. Okay. Now what's really important to extremely important is your feeding program. You'll hear me talk about the feeding program. You don't want to turn a mule or a donkey out into a pasture. All you're doing is turn them out into a smorgasbord. They cannot break down the sugars like horses can. And horses really don't do that good of a job either.
But mules are even worse, donkeys are even worse because if you look at the crest of their neck, across the top of the ribs, along the dock of the tail, they got those big fat pockets. Okay. And where is that, where does that come from? From the carbohydrates that's in the feeds out there in the pasture. I developed a feed and you see it in my articles that I've got, called mules can't stand prosperity. And I feed a
pellet. I haven't fed hay in 40 years almost and the pellet breaks down does a good job. But see when you feed a mule you want to make sure you feed them correctly because if you're feeding them alongside of a horse that horse is dominant. Mules are extremely subservient to a horse. They'll allow that horse to eat all of his feed and just sit back let him do it you know and of course a horse will founder himself but I kid the people all the time if you say you're
horse is so smart, let's put a five gallon bucket of grain in front of him and then put a five gallon bucket in front of that mule as he who founders himself first. So feeding is really important. I suggest everybody being a 10 by 20 stall and you feed them accordingly. It's up to you to keep your mule, your donkey healthy. And the way you do that is you look at their, their road apples, what they look like, you know, uh, and they, got another, I got other articles on that, you know, and then the water intake.
And then your salt intake needs to be all thought about. Each mule should have its own and horses should be doing this too, but people don't unfortunately, but especially mules and donkeys because they can't break down the carbohydrates, they ended up having grass founder. They ended up having all kinds of joint problems. Most of all the big fat pockets and then it's really hard to deal with the saddle. So there you go.
Good tips. think that's great. People, people that have mules, have to understand they're dealing with a unique individual that is going to be different from a horse. And I think a lot of people will get into them after having had horses without the basic understanding that it's, it's an entirely different animal. And I like how you're talking about, you you've got, you've got a horse and a donkey inside this being, and then you have the combo. you're dealing with three individuals.
You've got the confirmation. You've got to be dealing with all of that. They are going to be moving into pressure more than your horse would have, and they're going to tolerate that pressure better than a horse. So like these are all, if you don't understand it, you're going to give your poor mule a bad rap when in reality he is just being who he is, a mule, not a horse. Well, we're looking forward to watching your videos in this year's fair, Steve. We appreciate you being part of the fair.
Yeah, well, I appreciate the invitation. I, you know, I've actually quit time 75 down and I actually quit doing expos and I used to travel all over the United States. pulled a, a 40 foot toy hauler from over, 19, from Oh seven up until just about five years ago when I had to have both my hips replaced. I've got 32 broken bones and, and to replace hips. And so I had to, I kind of had to start backing off my writing.
and training and this sort of thing. But now, you know, I can help people on the phone. I can help people with videos. Everything is free. We drop the F bomb on people all the time, we'd say, you know, free. So you go, you know, you go and you want to know about my my Mule Riders Martin girl. I've got all kinds of free videos. You want to know a lot about hobbling, all kinds of free videos. You want to know about feeding all kinds of free videos. And I also I also since I love these animals so much, I want you to understand people have to understand
You got to take care of them. Okay. We can't do the old thing like we used to do. Turn them out in the pasture, bring them in, go to work. Okay. But those animals work. Today, Fluffy is just a pet, you know, and they don't work. And so you've got to treat them different. Okay. But there's certain things you should be doing. You should always, every first, every first part of the year in the spring have their teeth floated. Okay.
Even if some veterinarian says they don't need to be floated, I guarantee you every single animal, a T should be floated every year. And that way they're balanced or framed up. Okay. That's number one. Number two, you want to trim them and shoe them. The downside of the mule is the donkey feet. Everybody says, it's hard. It doesn't chip. The problem is they're not understanding the whole process of that foot. The foot is looks like this. This is the back of the foot here. Okay.
The mule gets contracted heels, the heels start coming in like this. That's contraction. Okay. Where do they get that? From the donkey. The donkey's foot is a horrible foot. And what's the problem with the being contracted and coming in like that? Well, what's in the middle there? A frog. What's the purpose of the frog? Pump blood up and down the leg. And the problem is when that foot starts getting contracted and starts moving in, we don't have a good healthy fat.
a fluffy frog, then we don't have, we start getting a hard frog, we don't get the blood pumping up and down and we end up with a lot of hoof diseases. So should they be shot? Absolutely. People say, well, my mule don't have to be shot. He's got a hard feet. That's one of the problems, you know, and that's a quarter cracks they do come in and they do, they do become a problem. So, you know, don't listen to somebody who says I've never shot my mule. I'll pick up the foot and show you how you're crippling up that mule.
Okay. Next thing you have to think about is, is the bit their palette is donkey. Okay. You look at their head, you see a donkey. Right. So that palette is completely different. I designed two bits for the mules, for the pallets, so that they'll be comfortable. And believe me, if you ever have a runaway with a mule, they can reach around, grab a hold of that shank of that bit, get a hold of it and run sideways and run just as fast sideways as they can straight ahead.
I do expert witnessing for equine accidents and I can't tell you how many times people said they bought a mule from the guy and they went out for a ride and the mule took off and the guy said, pull up on one rein, you can stop him. Well, they ended up getting a helicopter ride out because you don't do that with a mule. They'll keep running through it. But when it comes to these mules, don't ever offer me a green mule or a broke horse. I'll take the green mule just for his abilities alone.
Well, good, good advice for everybody. And we really appreciate you coming on today, Steve. You bet. Thank you. You betcha. I hope I didn't take up too much of your time there. No, that's great. It was great. I've trained mules all over the world. You know, I've trained mules on the Sinai desert and Egypt and Israel and just, I get emails and videos all the time from Israel. Everybody thinks all hell is broke loose over there, but it hasn't. You see the mule riders, they're coming off of mountains, enjoy riding, you know, and
and this sort of thing enjoying life. you know, it's, thanks a lot. I hope folks get a little bit of an idea about these mules. I got 2,500 videos out there. It's all free. We have our weekly show on Tuesday, that there again, I answer questions. I will call you everybody that calls and says, Steve, I got a question. I'll call you, you know, it's what I love to do. I want to help you do it yourself. I've got one guy that just sent me a video. Here's the mule standing.
with the come along rope on, it's on the ground, it's not tied to anything. He's taking a leaf blower and blowing this mule off, okay, to wipe him off. And then he picks up all four feet and then he puts the saddle on. Now how many people can say that they've taken a leaf blower and cleaned up their horse, you know, and did all that with being ground tied, you know? So that's part of what I like to do, but hopefully it can help you all out and we can help some other people out. Thank you.
Thank you. And, and for those of you watching this video, you can find more about Steve, ⁓ both on his bio page for the online fair, as well as just looking up online, huh? And your website there. You have a YouTube channel. YouTube Facebook. YouTube channel. Do I, do I tell everybody your YouTube channel, Steve? You know, I don't know much about it. All I know is you put in there, ⁓ Steve Edwards mules and it'll come up. ⁓ Dave, my media guy.
He says we've got over 2,500 free YouTube out there. And we also have Facebook too, I guess, you know? So I don't know anything about it, even how to get there, but anyway, tells me we got it. I believe him. And we've got all those links on your bio page on our website. that's good. They can just click on those and. Well, hopefully people can see they need to, they need to take that. They need to spend time with their horse and their mule on the ground rather than in a saddle, you know?
I can tell you that when I did clinics over the years, very seldom put people in the saddle. If they couldn't handle a lead rope, they weren't going to get in the saddle, you know? And then when they did get in the saddle, especially if they insisted, I showed them how many mistakes they were making and why their mule was what it is because of their mistakes. Mules don't make mistakes. Donkeys don't make mistakes. People do. Yeah. That's some good wisdom right there. That is. Right. Well, thanks. All right. You take good care and...
and great, great having you as a part of the fair. Well, thank you. I got a little poem to let you go. All right. Perfect. Well, they're born in old Kentucky and others raised in Tennessee, but you'll find them in the Sierra's mountains, but that's the only place they'll be. They're working up in Idaho and Oregon and such, then Sierra's in California while they're riding by the bunch. But you can ride and you can drive and you can pack. It comes to versatility. There's nothing that they lack. Some folks say they're stubborn, but you'll only hear that from a fool.
Cause the animal is best of them all is definitely the donkey and the mule. Thank you very much. Thank you, Steve.
