Nilla loves to have her ears scratched. She’s unfortunately very skittish about anyone reaching for her left ear (I think someone may have “eared” her in the past), but once you get scratching, she loves it. The other evening I was brushing the sweat around her ears and thought, I wonder if she’d like to have her ears brushed.
The answer was yes, very much yes.
Make sure your sound is on for this one. You can hear the brush scratching away.
Last night, my husband came to the barn with me and I got him to video me scratching Nilla’s ears. She’s like a freaking cat, she basically collapses into it.
Ear Scratches for the Nilla Mule on Vimeo.
You don’t need sound for that one, but if you were listening, my husband was talking about the lip twitches that Nilla does while having her ears scratched:
Nilla Mule Lip Twitch on Vimeo.
The rest of our horses would prefer that we never touch their ears let alone enjoy having them scratched. Does anyone else’s horse have a weird thing they like that most horses don’t?
Bar men likes having her ears rubbed. Irish likes his forehead- he will fall asleep with his head on my chest.
My arab also likes having his ears scratched. 🙂
All of ours love having their ears scratched too! But Nilla's ears take the cake… 🙂
I knew a mule who enjoyed having his ears scratched- it was so cute! Nilla is super adorable.
I've seen a lot of pictures of mules getting their ears scratched like this. It seems they like it more than horses.
Interesting. I've never had a horse that even wanted their ears touched, let alone scratched.
aw for Irish.
That seems weird to me. I've never had a horse who liked ear scratching.
Val very much likes the inside of his scratched, but a little less loudly.
Nilla is adorable 😀
Ha! So cute. Bacon would kill me if I tried to do that. Her weird thing is trying to clim into the wheelbarrow. And her and Lucy poop in their water troughs.
I need to get a mule at some point so I can play with it's horse-rabbit ears. <3
All of my horses hate having their ears touched. The water pooping is a pita.
Thanks. She certainly thinks so.
maybe just get a mini donkey
Does she twitch her eyes when you brush in her ears? My donkey does, when I put a brush deep down into her ear and massage it back and forth, her eyes twitch to the rhythm. And the lip twitches too. I'm not allowed to touch the outside of her ears, but the inside is her favorite thing (that and butt scratches). Once I was sitting down with my muck rake thingy and she came up and put it in her ear and massaged herself. It was totally black with ear crud after. Ew.
She twitches her lip. Nilla won't go anywhere near a pitchfork. She must have been beaten in the past as she flees and hides in the back of her paddock when he stall is being cleaned.
Oooh what a happy mule she is! My two sometimes like eat scratches, but they're pretty picky about when. Away from home both are more affectionate overall; I think it's due to being away from their herd and associating me as that herd. Happier to let me groom them when they can't mutually groom with their mates.