# Young mini mule nipping/kicking HELP!



## lblue

We just bought a 1 yr old mini mule as a companion to my mare. She hasn't been handled a whole lot and has lived most of her days in a fairly large herd of mini horses and donkeys. My husband has been dealing with her more since I've had a knee injury that's keeping me out of the pasture. At dinner time, he's been feeding her part of her grain by hand to get her used to being touched. (I'm feeding her a mini feed, not that much at a time only once a day to make sure she's not too hyped up on feed.) She will take a bite and immediately lay her ears back and turn around like she wants to kick until she's ready to eat another bite. She has taken one kick at me when I was feeding her. Only thing I can think is that she wants the whole food ration without us bothering her. I know she was a bit scared when she first came here almost 2 weeks ago because she left her mother, but this seems more like her being ornery or seeing us like herd members. 

Tonight he went out to give the mare her apple and take her fly mask off and was petting the mule who just reached up and bit him on the forearm. :x I've been giving her time to get adjusted so I haven't been forcing her to be haltered and worked with but that will start soon. She ties out well and is fairly easy to handle on a lead rope (for the most part). I have been spending quiet a bit of time just sitting in her corral to get her used to our presence without forcing any type of contact. 

I know how to deal with horses.. but how should I handle her? I've been reading up on mules and she's incredibly smart. I don't want to spoil her by reacting wrongly. Should there be some type of punishment every time she turns to kick or tries to bite or how should it be handled? I REALLY appreciate any input. I'm at a loss.


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## MiniWhinny

Hey there. So I can think of only one thing. She doesn't respect you. But respect comes with trust.

What is trust? Equines are, as you know, herd animals. But you are also part of their herd essentially. Trust and relationships depend on where you are in the pecking order. I'm going to break this comment down a bit. This will be a long post lol, sorry.

Okay so the behaviour whilst feeding... basically your mule just wants to be left alone in peace to eat. She finds you being around a negative thing and so she is giving you a "no". Is this okay? Well, no. It's not okay for a dog to growl you if you hang around when he is eating, its not okay for us to tell someone to **** off if we are eating, and so its not okay for a mule to do that either. But you could either handle this the quick and typical way by hitting your animal every time she tells you to go away when eating (which is a different kind of "grrr" to a "grrr" in a paddock) or you could go around it a much better way that is positive and will end up with your animal constantly giving "yes" as an answer. How do you do this? To find the answer, we have to go to the problem in the paddock. 
Okay so your mule bites, kicks.. is she pushy? Basically its a thing of dominance. She's not trying to get above you, she has already done this. She is not trying to be mean or nasty, she is displaying typical behaviour of any equine who is higher in the pecking order. You need to change this. You need to be on top. This doesn't happen by carrot cookies and lovely niceness and pink fluffy wands. You have to be stern, aggressive, and you have to get what you want. Don't worry about you mule getting offended. If she bites you, kicks you, pushes you around, anything related to that, its as simple as putting her in her place. This does not mean whipping her or anything, and you may not even have to lay a finger on her to do this. 
In the wild, if a higher horse (donkey, mule, zebra) is challenged, he will most likely give a warning before acting out. He will probably back up on whoever is trying to be pushy, indicating he is going to kick. But usually, he wont need to kick, because backing up is usually enough to send a cheeky, push-your-luck equine away, depending on his ego and personality.. you know, some horses go, OKAYY OKAY your still the top, others will go, COME AT ME BRO. They aren't all the same. If a horse pushes, gets a warning, and persists out of ego but doesn't really have what it takes, he will get a good whopping bite on the bum or a kick in the chest, end of story. 
Now you need to be the higher mule in this situation. If your mule tries to challenge you and make you know your place by "bad" and aggressive behaviour, you need to say no. Back up on the mule. Do the chicken dance, or wave your sleeves, make some sort of energy to send your mule off. If she decides to persist by backing up you as well, which she could possibly do, you need to get more aggressive. If you have a halter or rope, throw your arm out with the halter as if you are going to throw it at her (don't actually), and you don't have to hit her, that just could be an equivalent to a kick that doesn't strike or something. If that doesn't work, you will need to even resort to smack on the bum. Now this is not cruel, okay, I know we don't like hitting animals and we don't want to hurt them, but your mule is not going to sulk in a corner for the rest of the day, she will get over it. Equines cant discuss things by talking, they do it by body language, and horses and mules kick and bite each other all the time. She will take a smack just like she would a kick, and that should be enough to make her go okay, I'm not higher then my owner here, she/he is the alpha. 
If you can win trust and respect in the paddock, that should also reflect in feeding time. 

Another thing when feeding and in the paddock is, do not move away or fret when aggressive behaviour is shown. In the paddock, of course do not stand there, defend yourself. But when feeding, don't do anything. Don't be scared, don't feel annoyed. Just carry on with what your doing. Just stand there, and if she decides to be a wanker, stay calm and show her that no matter what, you are relaxed and nothing fazes you. In time, she should learn to relax as well. It all takes time, and you have to be patient, but that is in my opinion the best way to deal with the feeding

sorry for the long comment, there is a lot I wanted to explain about this. 
Good luck


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## jmc

MiniWhinny - great post! I just adopted two 4 month old mini-mules, and while I've already been working on the alpha mare thing (Thistle thought she was... we're about halfway to helping her understand I am), I wasn't sure if I needed to approach this differently than with a horse... apparently not, what you describe above is the same approach I used with my young gelding. He still challenges me on occasion, but when I let him know I'm still The Leader, he's good


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## MiniWhinny

Some people think mules are stubborn but they are not. They just think about things a lot. Horses hit and run but mules evaluate situations. They didn't evolve on the plains like horses, they lived in mountains and places where it was not easy to run, so they have a stronger fight instinct. Horse and mule behaviour towards each other is somewhat the same, although a mules may require more "push" since they are not as flighty as horses.


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