not a mule fan for Sure now!! long....

Maura, You do not know the Bandit I care for when the owner is away.

Tinknal, That was hoot. Laughed 'till I cried,,,
OP not funny at all,,,, YET.
The offered youtube will never be funny.

I've only had one honest to goodness runaway, the kids pony ... typical spoiled kid pony ... and I was driving her. She hadn't been driven for awhile and she was not pleased at having to work so she took off down the dirt road. It was in Nevada, so road went to sand quickly in a big open area. I pulled her off into the sand and when she decided that was way more like hard work that she had in mind I started trying to wear the little buggy whip out on her little fat black rear end. When I let her quit finally, she was very glad to stop and I never did have any trouble with her in harness again.

LOL, I had a horse that took to running away. I asked my foreman what to do. He said "you can ride him as fast as he can run, right?" I said "yeah". He says "then let'im run!"

We finished moving the heifers to pasture and he settled down while I rode the fenceline (about 8 miles) but when we hit the gate for home he wanted to run. I turned him loose. 3 miles to home through fresh tilled wheat ground. I ran him until I had to whip him to walk. Never run off again.

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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi


Libertarindependent

Too bad you had such an experience.

Too bad you're against all mules due to an experience that was human induced.

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Only she who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible

One of the things the riders were always told in the Ray Hunt colt starting clinics was to not touch the halter rope/reins on the colts if they started to run. He said if they were running out of fear, constricting their freedom to run would lead to bucking. If they were allowed to run until they realized nothing was happening, they would simply slow down and stop, especially if there were other horses in the arena or pasture.

My grandfather was the one that told me to let a runaway horse run and then when they started to slow down, keep them running until they were more than ready to stop. Of course, that also was also assuming you were out in open country with no roads, no traffic and no fences.

My cure for barn rats is to just go back home and run them to nubbins in the sand pit.

__________________
Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi


Libertarindependent

There's several things besides proper harness, that was forgotten when hitching those fresh animals. That was to load that wagon as heavy as it could be loaded.
The amount of distance that a team will run is in direct relationship to how much resistance they have. I love long hills with a fresh team.
When hitching a team that isn't cooperating bring the wagon tongue up to a tree or hitch rail, so that the animals can be tied while hitching. Your husband started a fight. The mules just finished it.
When you are having problems with a team STOP and WAIT. Let things settle down before continueing. It lets you and the animals think.
I guess there are a couple of other things that I would have added. Those being a buggy whip and a set of brakes on the wagon.
If a team wants to run, you can only hold them back for so long. So be ready to go. And make them run themselves inside out. Then a little more.
By the way. The difference between a horse team running away and a mule team running away is that the horse team will go through a fence and the mules will go run through the gate.
But they will both run in similar conditions, if man puts them in a less than good situation.

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That which is tolerated by the first generation is magnified in the next.

CIW