4 legged mules

[Arkansashunter96]

When training a mule to hog hunt from how do you go about getting them used to dogs and hogs. And possibly working them up to having a dog in the saddle

[The Old Man]

I have started a few Mules and Horses that were goosy about dogs and if they were bad enough to be dangerous for the dogs "might kick one" I'd hobble all 4 feet with the horse or mule standing in an open area, not tied up, and thoroughly with plastic feed sacks, buckets, tires, barrels and anything else desensitize them, if they dodge and fall get them up and do it some more until they will not move or dodge. Next I have an old semi tire and rim that I'd hook to the saddle horn and ride them down the gravel road pulling it, it is noisy and scary looking, if they want to run let them, you can probably ride farther than they can run, when they get tired and want to stop running make them go some more. Then continue pulling it at a walk if you are pulling it on the right be sure and turn them to the left so the rope gets against their thigh and or hip and do the same from the left, make them face the tire and walk up to it until they are no longer afraid of it. The first hunt or two don't take them fresh, do a really good job of having the edge off them and maybe have given them a refresher course of desensitizing. Most do not require that and you can just pay attention to their behavior and keep them from responding severely to the dogs running up to them and it is just OJT. Have only a very few times allowed a dog to ride with me and then only if it was hurt too bad to travel or keep up on its own, then I have tied my mule real short and laid the dog beside the mule with a leaswh on them and pull them up in my lap and lean up and untie the mule, or if someone was with me have them hand me the dog. An animal I am hunting on there is always a halter under the bridle with a long lead rope attached.
Hog wise I've never had bad trouble riding to a bay, some horses and mules you will have to spat and spank up to the bay a time or two but not too western. If I'd ever have had one that was real scared of hogs I would have penned them close to some hogs or put some hogs in the trailer and left the horse or mule trapped right next to them a day or two. The first time or two I lead dogs on a mule I do not tie them to the mule and have them on a long enough rope they won't get kicked and you have to pay attention to not let them run under your mule or get the leash under their tail just like if you had a cow roped, pulling tires logs brushy limbs and that sort of thing usually takes any potential problem out of being able to lead your dogs. I have came out of the woods leading dogs on both sides of them mule and dragging 2 hogs with no problem. I can also make my dogs stay with me and follow if need be.
Curious as to why you would want a dog to ride with you?? If all that rigamarow don't work get you another one and run that bad one through the loose horse sale.

[The Old Man]

If you have any specific questions or don't quite understand feel free to ask. It doesn't take much to be able to hunt off one, the last mule I started here had to be snared out of a pasture to be caught when I got her and then a couple of weeks later on her 5th saddling I rode her hunting, jumped fences and led dogs. recently my brother-in-law started riding a green mule that was scared of dogs and he is not much on training, he wanted to ride my old mule that he has ridden a lot and I told him if I keep letting him ride Ol'Cotton he'd never get his green mule solid haha. So four of us elected to make a 30 mile ride with him on the green mule and on the trip I had him rope and drag limbs, logs, an empty lick feed tub and a piece of an old broken bumper, since that day she hasn't been bothered by dogs or found any thing to booger at in the woods.
It really helps to have a Cowboy background but isn't absolutely necessary if you stay hooked.

[The Old Man]

I'll tell you a funny tale about this sort of thing, a long time ago there was a young man that started hunting with me and he bought him a broke mule that rode pretty good and we started jumping him, they have to jump to hunt off them here. He got to jumping good and we were hog hunting real regular, well when we'd catch a good hog I'd rig them up and drag them to a road somewhere so we could go back and get them, and one night Travis said I want to drag a hog on OL'Little Man of course I said okay. Well we were hunting below Eufaula dam on the river and got a good red and black spotted boar bayed in a weed patch off the bank from some farm ground, I got the dogs and I rigged the hog to drag and gave Travis the rope and told him to let me get back up the bank out of the weeds and then he could bring the hog up he says okay, I go the 40 yds back out to the farm ground and holler at him to come on and I took off riding, then I heard a commotion and looked back here came Travis Little Man and the hog as fast as he could run, he was running straight towards me and I was telling him to not run over us or wrap us up he said he was trying, about that time a limb on a big tree in the fencerow knocked his corded light off his head and it was flopping around, right about then he let go of his dally and the hog was safe haha, Little Man and Travis went another 150 or so yds and he got him stopped and came back he says I'm not gonna be able to drag that hog, give me the dogs, I told him there was no way I'd let him lead my dogs on that runaway S.OB. haha. I hooked on to the hog, kept the dogs and we went on to the truck. I told him the next time he came over to come a little early and we'd fix his mule so he could drag a hog he says okay. In a few days here he came and he saddled his mule I tried to hand him the rope hooked to that old semi tire "I had a bowline tied in the end so I could drop it on the horn and ride two handed " and he said no way was he gonna drag that on his mule hahaha I told him to get off I'd ride him and sure enough when that tire moved and rattled Little Man ran off with me, down the road we went, now this tire when turned with the proper side down would fill up with gravel and get heavy pretty quick, with in 300 yds little man was wanting to stop so I spanked his butt and had him go some more until he was blowing and dripping I rode him up to it and over it a time or to and got off and turned it over and we could pull the tire at a walk on a loose rein from then on Little Man was glad to drag a hog hahaha. It took just 30 minutes to fix Ol'Little Man.

[Arkansashunter96]

Thanks man i really appreciate it. Where are you located? I’m learning from the YouTube, and I don’t really know anyone close that has had any mules. And I got this little cd I think would be nice to have up there haha she just stays fat. She’s my favorite cd because she’s small and eases into the bay. but between the screaming before letting her go and just being fat I ain’t used her so much. Clay Newcomb has some good videos. Yeah that’s about how I thought about it on the hog deal I reckon that’d be the easy part. I think I got one found by a cat named max bishop seems pretty reputable. Me and him talked about one within my price range that he raised and has had a lot of hand work done with him and socializing l believe just hasn’t had a saddle laid on him but has been rode bareback kind of a mule that’s been by the house that almost everything in the world has happened to like people drinking and wanting to mess with him and looked very friendly and positive in the videos like he was happy to be in your pocket.

[HIGHWATER KENNELS]

I'll tell you a funny tale about this sort of thing, a long time ago there was a young man that started hunting with me and he bought him a broke mule that rode pretty good and we started jumping him, they have to jump to hunt off them here. He got to jumping good and we were hog hunting real regular, well when we'd catch a good hog I'd rig them up and drag them to a road somewhere so we could go back and get them, and one night Travis said I want to drag a hog on OL'Little Man of course I said okay. Well we were hunting below Eufaula dam on the river and got a good red and black spotted boar bayed in a weed patch off the bank from some farm ground, I got the dogs and I rigged the hog to drag and gave Travis the rope and told him to let me get back up the bank out of the weeds and then he could bring the hog up he says okay, I go the 40 yds back out to the farm ground and holler at him to come on and I took off riding, then I heard a commotion and looked back here came Travis Little Man and the hog as fast as he could run, he was running straight towards me and I was telling him to not run over us or wrap us up he said he was trying, about that time a limb on a big tree in the fencerow knocked his corded light off his head and it was flopping around, right about then he let go of his dally and the hog was safe haha, Little Man and Travis went another 150 or so yds and he got him stopped and came back he says I'm not gonna be able to drag that hog, give me the dogs, I told him there was no way I'd let him lead my dogs on that runaway S.OB. haha. I hooked on to the hog, kept the dogs and we went on to the truck. I told him the next time he came over to come a little early and we'd fix his mule so he could drag a hog he says okay. In a few days here he came and he saddled his mule I tried to hand him the rope hooked to that old semi tire "I had a bowline tied in the end so I could drop it on the horn and ride two handed " and he said no way was he gonna drag that on his mule hahaha I told him to get off I'd ride him and sure enough when that tire moved and rattled Little Man ran off with me, down the road we went, now this tire when turned with the proper side down would fill up with gravel and get heavy pretty quick, with in 300 yds little man was wanting to stop so I spanked his butt and had him go some more until he was blowing and dripping I rode him up to it and over it a time or to and got off and turned it over and we could pull the tire at a walk on a loose rein from then on Little Man was glad to drag a hog hahaha. It took just 30 minutes to fix Ol'Little Man.

Well they say you can learn something new everyday and This sure was new to me.. LOL...  I appreciate the knowledge man ,, even though we dont ride anything without a motor on it,,  I sure can tell my son how it was done by yall back in the day.. 

[The Old Man]

Not to be rude or sound cranky but to be totally honest catchdogs for mounted hunting need to be able to follow you all day many miles and still have plenty of gas to catch a hog, it is hard enough to ride through those bad thickets without having to lead or carry a dog, my catchdogs follow me whether riding or on foot and stay with me while open trailing dogs are running then I go through a routine that I get off my mule catch my dog and lead him at least a few steps then send him. That routine helps him understand he can't go until that process is completed or he will get struck by lightning haha, they very soon learn the difference in trailing dogs and bayed dogs, when the dogs bay my dog really perks up but is not allowed to bark whine or scream and I may have to call his name a time or two on the way to the bay so he don't slip off, more so when just starting them. The beginning of their training was on a rope and teach them that come here is not optional. For me what a catchdog doesn't do is as or more important than what he does do.     Fat comes from the feed can and lack of exercise.
I live in East Central Oklahoma near Muskogee. Clay Newcomb is a fine fellow but didn't know squat about breaking a mule and it took him forever and two days to begin riding that spotted mule, granted though he did get it done and she seems to have made a good hunting mule, there is more than one way to do things.

[cajunl]

Like the old man said.....with a collar you can teach a bulldog to stay by you pretty easy. Just a little time.

Had a friend, She just had a bad wreck on a horse. A young cur dog pup tried to jump up in the saddle with her. Horse didnt like that and cost her a couple broke ribs and dislocated shoulder.

[The Old Man]

I had a saddle built for me this year, first saddle I have bought in about 45 years, we have ridden trophy saddles from the team roping days for years and years, would keep the ones we liked and sell the others but I have broken the tree or jerked the horn loose in several of them catching and loading big stock in the pasture so decided to have me a saddle built that is almost indestructible due to the material the tree is made from and the unconventional rigging in the tree. here is a picture of it on my mule while I was putting the britching on it and figuring out how topad it on the mule.

                                       MULE WITH BRAND NEW OUT IN THE BUSHES NOT AN IN THE ARENA COMPETITION SADDLE

                                        

                                        

The crew after the 30 mile ride at a walk took 6 hrs, it was done for the benefit of the green mule of my brother in law Adam, she is the little red dun mule on the left of the picture next to her is a fellow that just wanted to ride with us Stacy Potts, next to him is a fellow that I hunt with some Tanner McElhaney, and then on the far right is yours truly.

                                        

[The Old Man]

 I rig a mule a little different than most people, I don't use a breast collar, don't need one in steep places or dragging hogs due to a mules conformation it will not slide back much if your saddle is snug, don't ride a back cinch either since I am not roping stock and having to stop them on my mule, both "can" cause an issue when jumping fences, my britching is adjusted different than most folks mine is higher and not parallel to the ground this allows a freer hind leg motion and the but strap is flat against the mule. I do not use billets on the off side girth rigging or for the back cinch but take the back latigos through the girth dee and snug it up that helps keep the girth from getting in behind the leg of the mule and rubbing.

[Arkansashunter96]

See guys whatd I tell y’all haha. I don’t got a lick of horse sense. I had seen it done a time or two before and just thought it’s be handy. Yeah she got fat and sassy on the automatic feeder she’s got put back on a chain last week. What is the purpose of a back cinch

[The Old Man]

A back cinch is to hold the back of your saddle down.

[t-dog]

Just curious old man, but what kind of tree did you use and what did you do extra to it?


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[Arkansashunter96]

Are miles really that imperticular on the saddle you use? Also should I cut the squares out of my pad for the mules back?

[The Old Man]

I ordered the tree, they are made in Colorado and are a high density urethane, carbon fiber, fiberglass and a little bit of steel. The front rigging is a continuous  piece of cable that comes out of the bars at the swells after coming through the swells and goes back in the bars and through the cantle therefore is wrapped all the way around the saddle. there is a lock collar on the coated cable that is moveable so you can adjust the front rigging from a full double all the way to a centerfire. I had a piece of latigo leather cut one inch wider in the center than the nylon latigos and tapered down to latigo length  and folded in half with a notch in it that sits on the lock collar to keep the latigo in position, the latigo laces through this piece of leather.  The back rigging, I had them make the leather that attaches to the back Dees go all the way across the back of the bars behind the cantle. It is a Wade type tree but this material is poured and is all one piece even has the ground seat already in it which adds to the strength of the tree and saves time and money in the build. It also holds nails and screws better than wood trees and the screw holes are always reuseable if you had to take it apart. You could actually put a front girth and stirrups on it and ride it without ever seeing a saddle maker. They are guaranteed for life, one fellow made beer money at the bar betting he could drive his pickup over his saddle without breaking the tree. They have the same flexibility as a good rawhide covered wood tree.
 I chose to try the cable rigging but you can have a conventional rigging of any style put on them instead. I figured if I didn't get along with the cable rigging I'd simply cut it off and have a drop plate rigging installed and still could. You can order them with or without the cabler rigging. It is a close contact saddle with quite free leg swing.

[The Old Man]

I'm not sure what the miles being imperticular means or what you mean by cutting the squares out of the pad, help me out and I'll try to answer.

[The Old Man]

Were you maybe talking about the saddle having round skirts? If so that doesn't really matter round or square either one if they aren't too long for your critter.

[Arkansashunter96]

Some of the videos I’ve seen they have a rectangle cutout in the middle of the pad in the front and a tad bigger one in the center toward the back

[Arkansashunter96]

Oh I meant mules are they really that picky on saddles?

[Arkansashunter96]

Does anyone have any experience from tough 1 saddles