Muuli and Tiina in the indoor riding arena!

When I broke my knee in January and got to the surgery in February I had to get someone to ride Muuli during my sick leave. I was off from work for 3 weeks but doctor said that I should not ride for 6 weeks. Muuli had just got brand new shoes under her so it would be a shame to let  her stand in the pen for 6 weeks.

Luckily my friends Tiina ja Sonja were able to ride Muuli! Sonja had ridden her a few times last summer and Tiina had only lunged her but hasnät been riding her until now.

Tiina is very talented rider so she could also teach Muuli some new things in riding and dressage!

After my surgery she took Muuli to "her" barn where they have inside riding arena. Muuli has been in arenas before but not so many times. We don't have inside riding arena at our barn. Muuli has always been okay in strange places and arenas but off course new place and quite new handler is exciting!

Me and my husband drove to the arena to see Tiina riding. I got some great pictures and my husband took video.


All the action was accidentally left outside the video. When we arrived Tiina was already riding Muuli. But when she had got on, Muuli spooked something and bolted but Tiina managed to stay on! And when she was loading Muuli to the trailer after riding Muuli took off and was running in the road! And I didn't have the camera with me. It happened because Muuli refused to go inside the trailer and the yard and the road was covered with ice. Tiina could't hold on in the icy yard.

After that Muuli walked happily in the trailer lead by my husband and they left back at home.

If you are western spirited person you might notice our nose band. And I know you are thinking "poor mule, what an abuse". But feel no sorry, noseband is loose as it should be and it also has the place in Muuli's tack! We don't use noseband to shut her mouth and she is totally capable to pull her tongue out if she feels to. Luckily she doesn't do that anymore.

Please notice too that we don't use spurs or whip with her, so maybe nose band is not that bad?

Muuli is wearing new pad in these pictures. I bought her used Reinsman Tacky too pad and it rises the saddle from the front. Now arter a few weeks the pad seems to fit her fine! Saddle is not sliding forward anymore (off course we are also using britchen) and sweat marks are better than before.

Sweat marks

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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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Working in the round pen, loping on the field, visiting the indoor riding arena..

I am currently working at the horse farm and we have also B&b quests in here. So my job is to take care of the boarding horses, make the breakfast for the quests and clean the rooms. I work here as a private entrepreneur for 10 days.

I took Muuli here with me with the idea that I have plenty of time to work with her too. At this barn we have roundpen, indoor riding arena, outdoor arena and great forests to do trail riding.

I got a photographer Reetta Ollila visiting us at the one day and here I tell about that visit.

First I cut Muuli's awfull long mane away. Her mane doesn't grow very long and it looks quite untidy in it's natural shape.

I tacked Muuli up at the aisle of the barn. Muuli is used to stand there in cross ties. Then we headed out to the round pen. My idea was to do a bit groundwork before riding. And it turned out to be a perfect solution, because after it the mounting was very easy and unstressfull for Muuli. She has a bolting background and she gets very tense when I sit on the saddle. I need to take her head almost to my leg to prevent her from bolting. And then we just stand there until she feels relaxed.

Before mounting I took an empty big barrel to the arena and I wanted to see, how Muuli reacts when I give her a lots of pressure to get her over that weird thing.

These are the cases where she tempts to bolt when I ride. For example if I try to ride over big puddle on the road and give her more pressure, she refuses, turns and tries to bolt. This time I managed to get her twice over the barrel. The problem was the barrel, it was too short so it was very easy to go around.

The weather was challenging to photographer. We had sun and very dark clouds taking turns in the sky.

Muuli had bosal hackamore just because it looks better in the pictures. I can handle her better with the PeeWee-bit. Lickily I had photographer friend with me to call an ambulance if I fell down badly. I walked and trotted a bit in the round pen and after maybe 10 minutes we headed to the road.

This was the second time riding Muuli on the open field and first time alone without horse/mule/donkey companion. And Muuli was perfect!! No bolting or any hesitation. I trotted and loped short strides for the pictures and walked a lot with Muuli. I think we were in the field maybe 20 minutes total.

After the field I continued riding in the indoor riding arena. We don't have one back at home, so I wanted to get Muuli used to it. This wasn't the first time she was in, because Muuli was living in this stable for 3 months right after I got her from Spain. But we didn't use indoor riding arena much back then. The last time she was in arena was a year ago.

There were some working equitation obstacles inside the arena and Muuli didn't really have tolerance for them. So she refused to go to the other side of the arena. This is exactly the situation where she bolts quite easily. She is afraid of something and I try to encourage her to go closer and I don't let her turn away from the scary object.

Here Muuli tried to escape from the scary blue barrel

She tried to turn, but I was ready and did one rein stop and there we were going merry-go-round for a couple of turns until she calmed down. By the end of our 15 minutes session we were able to ride around the arena without problems.

Then I got down and we returned tot he pen with Muuli. Reetta took some conformation pictures and we also played with the donkeys a bit. I had Muuli's bosal with me so we tacked biggest donkey, Lumi, and rode her around the pen for a couple of time. She wasn't very amused but all the other donkeys were!

Reetta and Lumi

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