Luke Learning to Lunge

I've been teaching Luke to Lunge. I've entered him in his first CTR which is only a few weeks away. He needs to know how to trot in and and to be able to do a few circles on the line. Kyle had mentioned that Luke didn't seem to have a clue about lunging and he was right. But, Luke, being a mule, and therefore quite a smart boy, had caught on quite quickly.

We started our first session with just making sure he understood how to move away from pressure when in hand. You know, how to move his hindquarters and how to step over on the forehand. He really had no trouble with this. It's so nice working with Luke as he's obviously never been mishandled and is very trusting. But, he is a typical mule in being very sensitive to body language, and in being very expressive of his thoughts. That is one of the things I love about the mules. They will fine tune your skills if you just pay attention to them. I coaxed him into doing a circle in both directions at a walk.

On our second session, he had obviously retained all he learned on the first session and quickly improved on that. I easily got a walk and trot in both directions. As a matter of fact, he appeared to already find it kind of boring and let his mind wander. "Luke, whoa."  Trot, trot, trot, look at that bird, is that a turtle in the river..... "Luke, WHOA." dum, de, dum, trot, trot, trot, is that Marie eating hay over there...... "LUKE, WHOA! And I gave the lead line a good snap (he had a rope halter on) That got his immediate attention. He immediately set the brakes and turned to stare at me and he had the funniest expression. As if to say, "really, lady, was THAT necessary!" This is the problem with working with mules, it's so hard to stay serious as their expressiveness is so funny. But, after that I had Luke complete attention and he did wonderful. I did not work him long at all once he was paying attention to me and responding well. Luke is as light as a feather on the line and that too is so nice. Such a good boy.