Leadership lessons from Ginger the Mule

When I’m not facilitating labor relations training classes for MARC, I’m retired with my wife, Sue, in rural Kansas on our 86-acre ranch with her three horses, my mule, our dog and our cat.

We are avid trail riders, camping in our state parks and riding the parks’ equestrian trails – me on my wonderful sorrel mule, Ginger.  She and I have traversed a little over 130 miles together on the trails so far this year. 

I’ve owned and ridden mules for almost 20 years now.  I find them lovable, personable, sure-footed partners.  They are my therapy, as well as my recreation.  I consider Ginger my friend.  I love her. 

But living safely and in harmony with mules (or horses, in Sue’s case) absolutely requires that you be the mule’s leader.  And now and then I reflect on how much I have learned about leadership from my mule, Ginger – and mules Jack and Guss before her. 

Equine herds have a hierarchy of leadership from the top “alpha” to the bottom animal in the pecking order.  Equines evolved that way so there is order within a herd, providing harmonious relationships, clear expectations and safety. 

Successful mule ownership requires that you – the human owner – become the mule’s leader within the herd structure.  Although I bought Ginger and I own Ginger, I am not her leader unless she decides that I am.

If she decides that I am her leader, she will gladly follow my commands and go where I point her.  If she instead becomes the alpha and leader, I am at great risk.  She will intimidate me, test me, do what she wants to do, and will have no respect for me or my safety.  People who don’t understand mules and horses will write this off to, “Oh, she’s just a mean, no-good, so and so,” when often it is the equine owner’s fault for failing to become a knowledgeable leader. 

Unlike corporate life, equine herd life is a true meritocracy where leadership is earned – not conferred by titles in organizational charts.  In the equine world, failures in human leadership have dire, predictable, bad consequences. 

In my 30 years of corporate life, I had many titles:  supervisor, lead negotiator, manager, director, executive director and senior director.  We typically call those “leadership positions.”  We derive power and control, to a certain extent, simply from these formal structures and the policies and practices supporting them.

But do those titles really make us “leaders?”  Of course not.  Because leaders must have followers – and following is voluntary.  You may provide enough effort to stay employed if you don’t respect your nominal supervisor.  You will run through brick walls to exceed expectations for a respected and beloved leader. 

Think of what corporate life would be like if, instead of conferred titles and power, the leaders are selected by true meritocracy and as the result of principle-centered behaviors.   

Here are some principles I must follow to be Ginger’s leader, along with some consequences of failure to live by those principles. 

To lead Ginger, I must:

1)    Be kind.  Mules are social animals with feelings and a need for attachment.  They respond to kind, caring treatment.  They respond to a soothing, calm voice and calm behaviors.  Loud or angry voices and threatening or excited behaviors signal potential danger to the mule, from which the mule must escape by “fight, flight or freeze.”

2)    Have empathy.  I must understand herd behavior – place myself in Ginger’s horseshoes – and act in ways that are consistent with the evolved herd mentality.  I must know equine body language, verbal cues, and other herd characteristics.  My actions must be consistent with equine culture. 

3)    Set clear expectations.  I must clearly demonstrate expectations through training with appropriate cues and direction.  Ginger must know she is expected to eat from her food bucket only; she is expected to refrain from eating on the trail; she must adjust her pace to match my verbal commands; she must back up when I lean back and engage her bit; and on and on.  For these expectations to be met, I must…

4)    Have reasonable expectations.  I can’t expect Ginger to walk calmly at my shoulder and at my pace unless I’ve put in the work with her to teach her what to do.  I must give her my time, my presence.  Too many equine owners become frustrated when their equines “act up,” yet had too little instruction and repetition to understand and ingrain expectations. 

5)    Be consistent.  Equines find their comfort and safety in an environment where their leader has the same behaviors, uses the same cues, and provides the same reinforcements and corrections -- every minute of every day, without exception. If you want your mule to walk calmly at your shoulder when being led by halter, you must require that she do so every single time she is led by you.  To get Ginger to lead that way, I must provide positive reinforcement when she walks the right way; as well as clear and consistent feedback and correction when she tries to move in front of me or loses focus and wanders off.

6)    Be patient. When training her, I must let her try and fail until, through repetition and reward, she meets my expectations.  I cannot lose my temper or composure. I must consistently and immediately reward even the slightest effort to meet my expectations, as well as correct the slightest movement that I find improper. 

7)    Be firm.  I must never be mean, loud or abusive.  Mules shut down when treated in that manner (horses, often, do not).  But I cannot let Ginger get away with behavior that doesn’t meet my consistent and communicated standards.  Ginger wants to please me, so usually a quick and clear expression of displeasure is all I need to do.  But if I must do more, pressure is applied.  Mules and horses hate pressure – they will find a behavior that results in a release of the pressure. 

8)    Provide safety.  For a mule to do its job, it must feel safe – physically and psychologically – and have its basic life needs satisfied.  For example, clean water and good quality food must be available for the mule to be in good condition.  Habitable, clean, comfortable and safe pens and enclosures with adequate weather protection are a must.  You must not require tasks that are overly dangerous (although a mule can handle about any terrain). 

9)    Have corrective consequences.  Ginger must know that her failure to perform a task has consequences.  For example, when she doesn’t back up on command she’s going to get a healthy dose of backing commands until she consistently does it right.  (Mules do not generally like to back up.)

10) Stand my ground.  Mule and horse ownership takes courage, and frankly this has been difficult for me at times and has derailed some of my efforts to be the leader.  Ginger weighs over 1,000 pounds more than me.  She can sometimes try to be a bully – for example, when she’d rather eat grass than be led around by me.  I must stand up to her, using the principles I’ve listed here and more, accepting nothing less than the reasonable behavior I communicate to her.  There are no exceptions.  If I “give in,” then she is the leader and she knows it.  She then loses all respect for me, and expects to boss me around.  There are no exceptions to this in the equine world. It takes a lot of consistent effort to be your mule’s leader.  But it doesn’t take many times of “giving in,” or taking the path of least resistance to lose the mule’s respect and lose your leadership.  Truly, no good deed goes unpunished.

11) Be humble.  Your mule or horse will humble you time and time again.  Just when I thought my Ginger was my best friend, she decided to go into a bucking fit when my friend rode up on a big Palomino horse and it frightened her.  There is always more work to do.  I am not a professional trainer and I often fail as Ginger’s leader, setting us both back in our progress.  Mule ownership requires the discipline and effort of continuous learning.  Sue is a better equine leader than I am, and it shows in her horse’s behavior.  I am striving to get better. 

12) Be trustworthy. Ginger must trust that I won’t let her get hurt.  She knows that I will challenge her – create “stretch goals” that make her learn new things without sending her into a panic.  For example, we train at an obstacle course that has a bridge that tips back and forth like a teeter totter.  Ginger was initially reluctant to cross this weird bridge.  But with patience and coaching, she crossed it.  She has crossed that bridge many times now – and it teaches her that I might ask her to do uncomfortable things, but that I won’t let her get hurt. 

In closing, I challenge anyone reading this blog to find even one of these mule leadership principles that does not also apply to human leadership.  Read and re-read some of these principles and envision how they apply to our lives as people leaders. 

I think of how much better I might have led my org-chart subordinates in my career by being better at every single one of these principles.  I wonder how many people in my organization gave “lip service” to my leadership status, yet didn’t fully see me as their leader because I didn’t always “walk the talk?” 

There isn’t one leadership principle included in this blog that isn’t embedded in MARC’s great supervisor labor and employee relations training course.  Reach out to Gary Kleckner 216-973-7323 so he can tell you what MARC can provide for you.

And happy trails to all of you fellow equine enthusiasts.