Cow working clinic with Muuli!

Pic is taken by Ansku Kauppinen https://www.facebook.com/ak.galleria.fi/

I joinec a cow working clinic on May at Hietaniemi ranch. This is the same farm where Muuli was in training for 6 minths during Janyary 2018 to June 2018 so Muuli knew the place already but she has been afraid of the cows back then so I didn't know how she would react on them!

Here in Finland horses are not used for cow work. They are used with cows mostly just for fun and education but in some places like Hietaniemi ranch it is possible to learn how to do it and use cattle to train horses. We also have one big competition weekend every year in cow work.

On the first evening on Friday we were just doing a little 1 hour long trail ride with Muuli and Sanna and her horse Dancer. On Saturday we first just rode on the arena without cattle. Muuli was very tense and she saw the cattle from the arena and refused to go in to that corner!

So I was pretty sure our weekend would consist just smelling the cows from the distance


But when we had cattle in the arena, Muuli acted like she had done cow work for all her life! She walked straight to the heifers (at the other side of the fence) so I walked her inside from the ground. First we followed them and I praised when Muuli wanted to get closer or sniffed their asses.
The trainer Sanna was giving us instructions all the time.

We had 3 short sessions, maybe 5 minutes long each, and after them I mounted and had another 3 short sessions mounted! And yes, Muuli felt really like she had done this for all her life!
I have only one experience of cow work before. I joined a cow clinic last year in this same ranch and I borrowed a very good cow horse. The course was held by Jeff Sanders and this August I'm joining at Jeff's clinic with my mule.

..I just can't believe how good my mule is! She has not been the easy one but boy she is one of the kind!

Here is the video from Saturday and this is the first session with the cattle.

And here is the video from Sunday, our second session with the cattle. Also the other rider in this clinic was able to ride her horse!

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I took part in endurance riding competition today! We were in the beginners class and it was only 17 kilometers. All of us won if our average speed was between 8 to 12 kilometers in hour and horses pulse under 64 beats in minute.

We did both tasks and got a yellow rossette!

Here in Finland we compete under FEI rules and mules and donkeys are allowed to compete in all classes just like horses. But I'm pretty sure that I'm the first one who really did it!

Mules are rare in Finland and we have only 27 mules in whole country. I wrote to endurance riders Facebook group that I'm coming with my mule and I really was an expected quest today! So many came to ask like how is Muuli doing! I have Finnish blog and also an Instagram account so many knew that we are coming.

Endurance riding is very rare in Finland too. Most of horse people does dressage or show jumping. Only a few is training endurance. Today's competition had 40 riders and that is a lot!!

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Trekking with the mules in Umbria, Italy

I was traveling in Italy on May. We had a mule and donkey themed trip there with 7 other donkey and mule lovers from Finland! Most of us had our own mule or donkey. One Finnish lady who lives in Italy organized three visits for three days and the best visit was to the mules that were working in the mountains. These mules are used to bring down the wood from the hills that are too steep for the forest machines. We had a small demo with two mules how they are loaded and how they walk down by themselves and park next to the horse.

Roberto (the owner) told us that he always takes one horse with him and the mules are coming free behind the horse.

Roberto also organizes rides and treks with the mules so all of us who wanted to ride got a change to ride up the hill. Mules had only their pack saddle on so we literally sat on the wooden barrel!
The saddle weights 40-50 kilos and their load of wood is around 100 kilos!!

The mares used were mixed breed mares but a bit heavier that the mares used in riding in Italy. The father of all mules is Martina Franca, a big italian donkey breed that can also be used for working.
In the middle of the day we had a lunch and mules roamed free during that time. Only the horse was tied to the tree. We had delicious local treats, sausages, meat, honey, Pecorino cheese.. And off course bread and wine!

Check out Roberto Canallis home pafe of his mule and donkey treks! http://www.lamulattiera.it/

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