Mule Crossing-April 2007 - “Dancing With Mules”

Lucky Three Sundowner was foaled at my mother’s Windy Valley Ranch in Healdsburg, California, in June of 1980. Two weeks later he and his dam, Candy Etta, an AQHA registered mare were shipped to the Lucky Three Ranch where we continued the superior mule breeding and training program that my mother had started. Sunny was a tall, gangly little bay mule foal with an affectionate and willing attitude.

His show career began at halter and progressed to Western Pleasure and Reining by the time he was three years old. He won the World Championship in Reining as a four-year-old in 1984. Though he did really well in these events, he still seemed tense and nervous. For the next two years, I decided to focus on more relaxing events for him in Western Pleasure, Trail and English Pleasure. People didn’t easily accept mules in these kinds of events and still thought of them as stubborn and uncooperative.

During this time, there were small mule shows and some schooling horse shows that we could attend to test our skills, but most people really didn’t believe mules could do all the different events that horses could do and did not want us around. A picture of Colonel Alois Podhajsky hung over my bed since I was small and I have always been in awe of the supreme levels of horsemanship that dressage horses could attain. My dream was to be able to dance with Sunny in dressage, but without anyone to help us, how could we ever achieve that level?

In 1986, a fellow mule lover and I attended the USDF Convention and asked that mules be accepted into dressage schooling shows. We were met with resistance, but there were some who were empathetic to our plight and they agreed that we should be allowed to compete at the lower levels in order to test our skills and be part of the dressage community. We began lessons with local USDF instructor/trainer, Melinda Weatherford. Since neither Sunny nor I were previously schooled in dressage, it was a much harder road and Lindy had her work cut out for her teaching the two of us!

With acceptance by the USDF, I felt it was important that our World Mule Show in Bishop, California offer classes in dressage. There were now a few others who were starting their mules in dressage and would need a place to show their progress against their own kind.  The Bishop Mule Days Committee agreed and dressage became part of a truly world class mule show! With the addition of dressage, Bishop Mule Days became a 5-day show. Today, Bishop boasts a full week of over 180 different mule and donkey events.

In Sunny’s first Training Level test in 1988, he got frustrated and ran off with me! He scored 5’s and 6’s and the judge’s comment was “This could be a nice mover if you can get his brain—by teaching him shoulder-in and leg yielding…” Unfortunately, we were eliminated. In 1988, he made his second debut at Training Level at Bishop Mule Days where he had much improved to scores of 6’s and 7’s and the comments, “Very pleasing ride, lovely mule, need to work on halts.” The progress Sunny made in just a month was phenomenal!

He really enjoyed the predictable exercise routine and was soon much more relaxed and submissive, though we still had an occasional runaway during practice. It took me awhile to figure out just why Sunny was running off with me. During the reining training as a three year old, Sunny had been forced to continue to gallop after missing his lead changes. From that time on, he would take off every time he thought he made a mistake, even when I didn’t think he had!

I knew that it was important to make sure his foundation work was stable and consistent, so we spent a year and a half schooling at Training Level. I made sure that he was schooled only every other day, with a day of rest in between. This seemed to help him to relax and settle, but his rhythm and cadence were still irregular at times. Then I thought maybe riding to music might help both of us. So, I sat down in the evenings, watched his training videos and picked music that would fit his natural rhythm at all three gaits. This made a dramatic change in his attitude and suddenly we both experienced the harmony that we had heard about that could take place between rider and horse, or in our case, rider and mule!

We continued our weekly lessons with Lindy and progressed to First Level. We learned to sustain good balance, rhythm and cadence at all three working gaits and to lengthen those gaits with alacrity and grace. People at the farm where we took lessons began to stop and watch us in awe! They had never seen such a thing! In May of 1989, Sunny showed at Bishop Mule Days again with scores of 6 and 7 and the comments, “Nice moving mule. Good impulsion, but unsteady at times. Good overall.” There were 10 entries that year, and Sunny placed first! We were definitely making progress, and people were beginning to notice!

Later in the summer of 1989, Sunny and I began to work at Second Level and entered some local schooling shows against horses to measure our progress. He did well and was rapidly becoming the Dressage Spokesperson for mules! In 1990, he took first in the Second Level dressage Class and was honored by Bishop Mule Days when asked to do a special demonstration for their Sunday afternoon performance. Sunny wowed the crowd!

By May of 1991, Sunny was beginning to work at Third Level, however, Bishop had no Third Level class. So, they allowed him to compete at Second Level again that year against Dolly Barton, who was rapidly becoming a dressage champion herself, and four other mules. Dolly placed first and Sunny placed second. Again, he scored 6’s and 7’s and the comments read, “Very nice ride! Needs more bending through turns and circles and scores will be higher.” Since both mules would be moving up yet another level by the next year, I went back to the Bishop Mule Days Committee and requested a Third Level class for 1992. They were so impressed with Sunny and Dolly that they agreed.

At Bishop Mule Days 1992, Sunny competed in the Third level Dressage class with scores of 6’s and 7’s and placed first against Dolly Barton. I don’t think he liked being beat by a girl the year before! By 1993, Sunny was working at Fourth Level dressage and competed a second year at Bishop Mule Days at Third Level where he easily won as the only mule in the class. He had won respect from the horse community and had surpassed his peers! Quietly at home, with only a few onlookers, Sunny danced canter pirouettes, half pass, passage and piaffe with me to The Emperor’s Waltz by Strauss. Our dream together had come true!