‘Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!’ Meet the two mules making waves on the bloodhounding field

Meet the two mules who went bloodhounding on the two biggest meets of the year, behaved impeccably and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Miley and Willow, owned by Joanna Lowes, turned some heads at the Three Counties Bloodhounds Boxing Day meet, and again on New Year’s Day, with Joanna and her partner Joey Pryce on board.

Joanna told H&H the two molly mules had been on fun rides and in busy atmospheres, but nothing like the town and city centres where the meets were held, after which they enjoyed cantering on the beach and jumping the fences.

“They just lapped it up,” she said. “They were so calm with all that environment; other horses were dancing and prancing around, and they just sort of stood still, quite happily accepted kids coming up to stroke them, and just stood there and absorbed it.

“They did cause a bit of a stir; one horse in particular didn’t like them and wanted to keep quite a distance but on the whole, they were so well received. I did email the master in advance, to say ‘Would it be ok if we bring two mules?’ They said as long as they were well behaved, that was fine. And a few people commented afterwards that they were the best behaved out of everybody out on the day.”

Joanna said she worked with mules while she was an assistant to Monty Roberts, and there was something about their character she “fell in love with”.

“So when I saw one going cheap on Facebook marketplace, I went to have a look, picked her up and brought her home,” she said. “I backed her and got her riding, she started going out to do a few little showjumping competitions, then somebody on Facebook saw this and contacted me. They said they had a mule that was fairly troublesome, a bit bigger. She hadn’t really settled and due to personal circumstances, they couldn’t take her where they were going, and would I have her. So I ended up being gifted a second mule.”

So Willow, who stands about 15hh, came to join 14.2hh Miley, and was clearly the perfect mount for Joey.

“He’d never ridden a mule before he met me,” Joanna said. “And never thought he would!

“But he saw me riding her a few times, and I think by the time we’d gone through a bit of training and she was trotting and cantering quite nicely, he was actually itching to get on board. People laugh now that we’ve got a his and hers mule pack!”

Joanna said she likes the way mules’ brains work in general in a different way to horses’; they do not have the same flight instinct.

“They think through things a lot more; they internalise their feelings a lot more,” she said. “I think they’re harder to work with and harder to train, but that makes it so much more rewarding when they are on your side, and they do perform, and do well.

“If you grow up on the side of a mountain and get chased by something, there’s no benefit to running, as I understand it, they’re much better to stand still and just deliver a well-timed kick. In regards to training them, it’s got to be obvious there’s something in it for them. Training them with force or any overuse of pressure just doesn’t work, you end up with a resistant animal. But when you overdo the positive side and really make it clear that they’ll get a reward for compliance, they try to move mountains for you.”

More bloodhounding mules?

Joanna said she would love to see mules ridden more in this country; in the US this is much more common but in this country, “they’re often just here by accident”.

Asked what she would say to anyone who had not considered a mule, she added: “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

“Their movement is a bit different to horses; it takes a bit of getting used to. Imagine riding a cow, a very opinionated cow! And they honk; they do sort of a cross between a neigh and a bray with a sort of a honk in the middle. So when they do start going, they make quite a noise.

“It’s very obvious when they’re not enjoying something; those huge ears are like satellites, so when they do put them back, you do notice it. Willow, for certain, is very clear. If she doesn’t like something, the tail starts swishing, the ears go back and she’ll shut down and just say no, so you change the question and she says ‘All right’.”

Joanna said the ground is a bit too deep for the eight-year-olds’ tiny hooves at the moment so the plan is some unaffiliated dressage and jumping. And she joked that if a mammoth donkey stallion could be put to a thoroughbred mare, “I could breed an eventing mule”.

“Imagine that in six years’ time, going round Badminton grassroots on a mule, that would be the dream,” she said. “But don’t put that in Horse & Hound, someone will hold me to it!”

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