4 in hand with Manuel the Mule - Emma Massingale #Video

Last night I wanted to take the four in hand out across another part of Bodmin Moor for some more carriage training, however I felt like Flint wasn’t quite right (nothing serious) so when looking around for the fourth member to take….literally right in front me (which is often the case!) was Manuel the Mule!
I thought can I really take him without him ever being a leader or in fact without doing any training at all with him recently?! Then I thought that isn’t strictly true, everyday I have been investing in my relationship with him, developing his confidence and letting him show me his character! (which he has plenty of!) This has resulted in him growing and changing a lot and most interestingly he is now desperate to come everywhere and be involved in everything I do. I said to Jeremy and Mike that Mulie was going to come as our 4th team member! (I won’t type their comments! Lol) In the worse case scenario Mulie could stay with Nahla in the lorry or come along lead off the back.
When we got to the moor, I consciously thought I would be super laid back as are all the Connemaras which set a great tone for him to copy, we harnessed up with all the wild ponies about and set off!
His big ears were like radars pointing out all the firsts he’s never seen before, like lots of wild ponies with foals hooning about, sheep, loads of traffic, cattle grids etc etc , anyway the point of writing all this is maybe to share that investing time in the relationship can often be more of a leap forward in training than actually training!
I hope you enjoy seeing Mulie thrive in his new life. He’s very special. Have a great weekend everyone! Emx
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