Muuli got her first shoes on!

I have been using hoof boots on Muuli since last year. I have "winter version" with studs and spikes on. I have Flex Hoof Boots with small spikes and Boa boots with studs. And I disliked both of them!

In pur part of Finland it is impossible to do any trail riding or riding in the outside arena during the word winter months if horse doesn't have shoes with studs or hoof boots on. Roads and arena will get to icy that is impossible to ride there.

Okay so the boots... One or two fell off almost every time I rode with them! Then I needed to ride back, put the boot on, continue and hope that they will stay on.  I got frustrated and asked the farrier to shoe Muuli!

Muuli has never been shoed before but she took all of this like a pro!

Here is the video I took during the one hour operation. Muuli got a bit tired at the end but luckily all 4 shoes were on on that point.

The farrier had only shoes size 000 with her and as you can see, they are a bit too big for Muuli. But because Muuli will have shoes only for 2 months, we thought that it is okay.

Muuli has also "anti-snowball pads" in her shoes and 4 studs/caulks (?) in every shoe to keep her from sliding.

Now after 1,5 months I think this has been the best decision ever! Muuli can trot and walk in her pen safely and she is so sure footed on the trails! One shoe fell off farrier came next week to nail it back.

I will get the shoes off after 2 weeks when we are going to the horse fair with Muuli, but until that. I will try to enjoy the shoes as much as I just can!

Muuli will NOT have shoes on during the summer time but I'm sure I will ask the farrier again next winter! We have the worst riding conditions usually 2-2,5 months in the winter so if I shoe Muuli for that time, life gets so much easier.

Shoeing in Finland costs around 100 euros in winter.

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What is going on?

We enjoyed for the most beautiful winter this year!

Oops, I totally forgot this blog! I really need to start update things in here too, but if I'm not, you can try to use Google Translator for my Finnish blog.

Last time I wrote in November when I was riding with my friend. After that weather got worse and all the roads were hard as stones because temperature was under 0 C. Dark also came so early so it was impossible to to go out to trail riding on a weekday after work.

So I started to take riding lessons! Here is a video from one of the lessons. We started wit the basics and the lessons lasted only for 30 minutes because this is so new for Muuli. Usually I just ride with her happily in the trails and I don't much "ride" during our trails.


Here is also another clip a couple of weeks before the first one. Muuli was afraid of one side of the arena and refused to go there. I tried to make her to go and then she bolted! Twice! It was totally my mistake to try to force her in to the corner.


But usually Muuli has behaved very well! I have trail ride with her A LOT in January and the start of February. Usually we have hac a company from our barn. Here is one nice video. I had GoPro in my chest during our ride.


At the end of January I drove to collar making course with Muuli and my friend and her mule. We were supposed to make my mule the collar too but.. When we arrived and walked our mules in the pen my mule spooked, bolted and I fell to the snow but I didn't let go! Muuli loped the pen around for the couple of times before she stopped. My knee hurt but not so much.

We made the collar only for my friend's mule Olle and I had hard time that weekend when I couldn't put weight on my right foot at all.

Then back at home my knee got better, I was riding but then it broke again! And again! Then I called to the doctor, went to MRI and result was broken ACL! I had the surgery a week later and right now when I'm writing this post I'm still not able to ride. Doctor said that I can try to ride next week when it has been 6 weeks from the surgery. I might first try some another horse just to feel how the knee feels in the saddle and if everything is okay, I might try Muuli.

If Muuli behaves well, I have no problems. But if she bolts and I fell down, it is not good thing for my knee. But right now there is not much I can do with Muuli. I can let her run in the pasture but I cannot lunge her because she has a bolting habit turing lunging! And right now I just can not fell and hurt my knee again!

I was very happy to get two of my friends to ride Muuli! Muuli has been in the trails many times and she has also done a lots of dressage in the arena! I'm really looking forward riding her again!

I did some groundwork and positive reinforcement with Muuli earlier this week. Here is one video where Muuli is lifting the whip from the ground. I praise her with my voice and then I give her a reward. I have oats in my fanny pack.

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Muuli's October in pictures

Even that this post is supposed to show pics only from my mobile, this is taken with my camera. It is so dark already after work that it is impossible to take pics from moving objects with my phone.

Based on my Finnish blog that has been online since 2015 it seems that October is the worst month for blogging. It it starting to get dark earlier every day and I need to leave work very early that I can ride in the day light. From November till end of February I don't have that kind of problem. It will we dark even that I leave work early, so I don't have any reason to go to the sable early.

But let's go to my October!

I was working at the farm last month and I took Muuli with me. I had got my drivings license for a horse trailer a month ago so I borrowed the trailer from our barn and drove to Porvoo to get Muuli. I backed the trailer pretty nicely in the arena so I could close the gate when I loaded Muuli. My cas was in the safe place at the other side of the gate.

Then I hauled Muuli back home. It was dark and rainy but we managed the 50 minutes drive.

Back at home Muuli had her first night inside her box since last spring. At our stable horses are turned out 247 during the summer time.

I use rug on Muuli during the winter time. Usually she has a rug on when it rains. If the weather is clear, she doesn't have the rug on. But in my area we have a lots of rain, so Muuli will have a rug on almost every day.

So you might quess that I have to wash all my rugs regularly, usually I do it once in a year. Last summer I washed many of them but I still had one dirty one. We horse owners from our barn were planning to send our dirty rugs on a laundry but I couldn't find the dirty one! It was blue striped 150g rug and last thing I remember was that it was very dirty and stinky. So how can I loose that kind of rug somewhere in our garage?!

When I was trying to find it I found another rug that is in the picture. I had no clue where I had gotten it from. It was used maybe couple of times and it fitted Muuli well. I posted a picture to my blog's Facebook and asked if someone had sold it to me. It didn't take long time until one of my friends replied that I had bought the rug after her pony passed away.

Finally I also found the rug I was looking for and sent it to the laundry.

Then I tried to find information about "uneven nostrils". My mule does that when she relaxes after the training session. She is not doing it right after the training but does it occasionally if I stay in the arena with her and for example chat with someone. So it might also indicate that she is getting bored.

I took a picture from her uneven nostrils and asked about it in Mule Girls Facebook group. I got many replies but no-one thought that it is okay and that it is a mule thing. It might indicate pain in her mouth, teeth or somewhere else. Her tooth has been floated in every 6 months and the next time is tomorrow, so I'm interested to see what the vet will say.

I also read a couple articles about new research about horses' calming signals. If you are interested about that, please go to this page. It is quite interesting and now I'm looking all the videos and pictures from a bit different angle.

Swedish donkey breed society is making a book about donkeys and they asked pictures for it. I had pics from my mules' hooves so I sent them. They also need picture taken from the front so I tried if mobule picture would work or do I need to use my camera.

 

I want to feed straw for my mule to keep her in good shape. She gets fat easily. Our hay producer brought us a handfull of "hailed crop" to taste. Off course Muuli loved it, but it is not good feed for equines. It has way too much sugar, starch and protein.

Here in Finland it is fed for cows but not for horses.

 

I don't usually ride much at the arena but in October I had to ride there a couple of times. I don't want to go hacking when it gets dark. I'm pretty sure Muuli doesn't have any problem with darkness but because she is still quite green, I don't want to risk my life.

On the arena I focused on mounting (hard for Muuli) and standing still (hard for Muuli). So mainly I just mounted, unmounted and stood still. I trotted couple of circles and did some lateral exercises.

Muuli also pooped on the arena so I had to clean it. I took the pictures after. I don't know how Muuli would have reacted if the fork would have fallen down. So please don't do this at home.

During the night time Muuli has only straw in her box. And during the day time she gets hay. This should keep her fit and in normal weight. the first winter that I had her she got quite fat and I don't never want to see her like that. She is still too fat and could loose 50 kilos.

I bought the rug on the picture from my friend. Horseware rugs are very good quality and quite expensive, so I was happy to get this one for 50 euros. Horse rugs are usually too big for Muuli at the neck, so I sewed this one smaller and took 20 cm off from the neck. Now it seems to fit fine. I had already sewed the rug for this pictures.

I don't like the rugs that have fleece liner inside. This one is 50g slippery liner so it is as warm as fleece lining.

Even that I didn't have much time to ride Muuli, we were hacking too! We had very nice weather this autumn and these pictures are from the last warm day at this year. We were hacking with Muuli's friend Elsa and her owner. We had great time and Elsa and Muuli works great together! They are both slow ones.

I bought a new helmet last month, Back on Track EQ3. I really like it! It fits my head extremely well and is light. This is the most expensive helmet that I have had, but it only cost 170 euros when I got great discount. Mu previous helmet was 30 euros via Facebook flea market.. It is not very vice to buy used helmet but at that time I didn't have money to buy a new one.

After our trail I let Muuli to roll on the arena. She really liked it!

I had bought 12 round bales of straw for our barn and it was time to get first 2. We don't have space to keep them all and I don't have a truck to get them all from where they are located. This straw is from my parents' field but the field is rented to the neighbor who cut them and baled them for me. They have 4 layers of plastic so they won't get bad.

This straw is much more moist than average straw that doesn't have wrap over it. But it smells good and is not dusty at all. And Muuli and the horses likes to eat it!

After 2 weeks the first patch of mold appeared. It seems that weather is too warm to open this kind of straw. Luckily the patches are easy to take off and the rest of the straw is good quality.

This picture shows how small spot I managed to back up the trailer!

I had bought this giant sized slow feeder net last summer. Finally I remembered to take it with me. Now there is no need to fill her net every day. We five straw from the slow feeder to make the loss smaller. If we gave it straight to the box the horses would just stomp and pee over it and wouldn't eat it anymore.

Muuli has Flex Hoof Boots already but I found another boots at her size for very reasonable prize from Finnish ebay. The size is 000 and it was supposed to fit her.. Well, they were way too small and now I need to resell these.  Luckily they were cheap.

We also had the biggest horse show in Finland in October! Helsinki International Horse Show. I got press pass because I have my Finnish mule blog and I was there for 2 days. It was great and I promise that some day we will be there with Muuli.

I also bought Muuli a bag of Stud Muffins. Mainly because Stud Muffins sponsors Wallace the great dressage mule in UK. Wallace was in the news this summer when her rider wanted to compete with him in dressage but mules weren't allowed. It took only a week until the rules had changed and they could join.

So if I give Muuli some Stud Muffins too maybe she will become as good as Wallace..

I ordered measure made tack for Muuli and finally I got the first pieces. I got bridle and padding for her britchen. The padding is almost as expensive as the britchen was but the padding is much better quality!

I will post better pictures from the tack as soon as I get them all. I ordered a lot!

I fit the bridle on and noticed some thinks that need to be fixed. And it was my mistake to tell wrong size for the nose band. It is too tight in the picture and it is in the last hole!

I love the browband!

At the end of the month I also received Boa hoof boots from Belgium. My friend from Hepscheid Longears Trails is very good bargain hunter from local ebay so she bought these boots for me!

I now have 2 boots size 00 and 2 boots size 0. The chart told me that smaller size, 00, is better for Muuli but when I tried these on, 0 is better. I can use bigger ones on front hooves and smaller ones on the back. Now I will use these on the summer time if Muuli gets sore and I can use my another boots during the winter time with studs on.

I also posted a short video in Facebook to show how Muuli walks and trots with Boa boots. She is also wearing her new bridle.


The last pic is taken bu our barn owner. It is taken after a short 1  hour trail ride in awful weather! Usually I don't even go to the stable if it rains but we had already made a plan of trail riding together so I needed to go. And I'm happy I did.

Pic by: Heidi Blom

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