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I guess I have been around both types. I have found that horses seem to get a lot pushier if you hand feed them vs mules,but I bet mules can also.
I'm down to just a few mules now, both have been hand fed. One is about 30, the other 11-12.Neither are pushy or bites.It sure helps up in the hills as sometimes I just get off and need to do something.I can call or whistle and they are right there.Really helps in the dark.

I have found that I can do a lot with treats in thier early life and can then fix the problem if one exist afterwards.

The only real problem I can remember is a mule that got hooked on Beechnut chew.He would sneak up and pull the bag out of your back pocket and run off with it.He would eat bag and all before you caught him.He'd sure rip your pocket off if he could not get it out.He never bothered about anything else though.

The neighbor had jenny donkey that he kept in his orchard down outside of Albuquerque to keep the kids out. She would sure sneak up on you and bite hard.She didn't want any treats, she was just mean.I also had a big percheron mare that bit me on the shoulder so hard she picked me up.We had rented her and the old sheep farmer owner was there. I couldn't do anything. On the way up the mountain, I had to tighten the cincha and she turned around and bit me on the teat.Then I could do something and I smacked her across the head with a 3" limb.She jumped around and fell off the trail but that old gal never offerd to bite me again.

This following photo is a herd of about 20-30 head that a young fellow ran on a 10,000+ acre BLM pasture up in NW CO. They would come around if they saw us and I was more than bit nervous riding across the big open when they barreled down on me. Good thing they never did anything but mill around and neither did my two mules.I found out later that the fellow would bring treats up once a week or so to call them in so he could check on them. They kept hanging around camp and the red roan mare on the left looking at the cameras kept wanting to run off my mules.

I think with some horses,you can get away with hand feeding.Probably the majority not, without doing some reinforcing of what is acceptable.It probably has a lot more to do with all the other things that one does that has big affect on them to getting spoiled. My molly wants scratched about the ears every time I go into the corral,but she knows she has to wait unitil I ask her over before she gets it.There is no pushing.

Riding through a herd of strange horses can be an experience. Carrying a bullwhip and riding a horse that is broke to it will let you move a lot of critters out of your way.

My geldings are very polite and civil when taking carrots from the hand. Their disposition in general is polite and civil towards humans,not so much to each other. The mare won't touch any thing from the hand except hay.

i can't think of any good reason to teach a horse or mule to bite at your hand much less your ass unless you're going to give it to someone you don't like.
if you feel a need to give them carrots, oats or whatever they will find it just as easy in their feeder or a bucket and they'll know you gave it to them. that's strictly a human thing. you never see horses taking treats to each other. in the language they speak it's not done.

Dropping the carrot or apple slice in the bucket is the proper way,and feeding by hand is a bad habit of mine. I don't make a habit out of feeding that stuff. only when it sits in the frige too long.

I am guilty of feeding the occasional treats - I give a call when doing it. It has served me well when they have escaped from their confines.

I use a bucket of grain, the mare don't know what carrots are and won't try one.

I need to feed bran and/or psylliam (sp) daily due to the soil here. I usually mix in carrot peels, potato peels, apple peels or cores, whatever there is that day. Pretty much any part of fruit or veggie that isn't going to make my table i run past them. watermelon rhine is their absolute favorite.

I have an old mule,some where around 30.He's done everything.A few times I loaned him out to some hunter with a young kid in tow that needed to a pack an elk or deer out. All I tell them is to bring a bag of cookies and he will follow them anywhere. I have never had any problems with those instructions. Whe the kid gets back to camp,he usually had big grin on his face for sure.

His two annoying habits are that he will come around you and slip his head under your arm and stand there,or if loose around camp,he will come and stick his head in the tent.

If we are out hunting for day and we stop for lunch, he hangs around me to get his share of the peanut butter crackers. After he gets his package, he goes off and grazes.

As I have mentioned before on this forum,I usually have a box of donuts or jelly donuts that before we leave to go hunting,I go down to the corral and me and the two mules share them.

I think all this is dependant on the particular animal.I have had a few mules with the same disposition, I had them 25 yrs or so. A couple are buried on my place. If they are taught to repect the humans space,you generally won't have a problem.30 years + ago,I had a little 1/4 horse cross that was the same way.He's buried here too.

When I am with other hunters,they are running around chasing mules and horses to catch them. Mine are standing there waiting to go.Or if they are high lined at night, come the time to get tied, they usually mosey over to the high line and stand where they know they belong to get fed.

This may be all wrong on the equine training aspect, but it works or me. I don't know about horses in that repect as there hasn't been one on the place for about 12 years. Mules like to be partners in the deal whereas horses don't seeem to need that. That is not to say that I have not had mules where thier best job would have been inspecting the inside of a dog food can.One truism I have found is that each animal is different than all the others.

My geldings don't come to expect treats, If I show up with some then they get them. Actually, the ungrateful devils are in for some apples. Have some laying in the fridge for over a month so they can feast on those.

I try not to feed a horse out of my hand after they're yearlings and I've never owned a horse that cared for apples, carrots, or sugar cubes.

How about beer?

or bisquits?

Beer and biscuits? For your horses? And I thought my social life was weak.

There use to be an old mule down at Turkey Creek Ranch on Ft Carson,CO.I think it was the last remaining mule the army had,but not sure.It could take ab ig dixi cup of beer, one of those 16+ounces and grip it with it's lip, turn it up and swill down the entire contensts of beer with hardly spilling a drop.

Fattist thing you ever saw and it would hound anyone that had any type of cup in thier hand. Pretty obnoxious old guy.

Fattist thing you ever saw and it would hound anyone that had any type of cup in thier hand. Pretty obnoxious old guy.


SS - Oh, you're talking about the mule! I thought you'd added a new signature line!

At least the horse I was talking about drank Miller Lite.

I guess that did sound a lot like me.

Vince

We went to look at a house recently, there were a couple of horses there and I called out to them. the mare trotted up to the gate and when I went to scratch her she turned and bit at my hand, she got a solid punch to the shoulder that turned her away. The owners said she only does it when you haven't got a treat for her and I told them they had made her into a spoiled and potentially dangerous animal.

We had a horse when I was a kid that would steal bottles of beer, Dad found that out after a day of fencing when he put a full bottle down so he could go for a leak. We got blamed for taking his beer.
Later dads mate put his bottle down and dad caught the horse picking the bottle up in his lips, tossing his head up and down till he'd drunk it all then he shook his head and sent the bottle sailing into the bushes.




I can't actually remember dad apologizing for blaming us, might have to hit him up about that.