Video: Hill mules and the British Army bit

Jeremy Hulme, SPANA's Chief Executive, writes from Morocco.

Freezing and snow-covered  in winter, baking hot in summer, the local Berber peoples and their animals have got to be tough.

There are also no roads, so for the hill villages, and any climber or tourist, the only form of transport is mule.

That’s of course where SPANA comes in. But it hasn’t always been easy.

Now, mules you might already have gathered, have a certain reputation. “Ornery” they used to call them in the cowboy films. (Actually, like with most animals, it depends how you treat them – they can be sweet and gentle, and I‘m their biggest champion). So the owners used to refuse to accept the SPANA humane bits on the grounds that “they’re just not brutal enough to control a bolshie mule”. Well, rubbish, but what can you say. And we were nervous that if we forced one of our bits on them, and there was an accident with a tourist, we would get the blame.

Then someone remembered that the British Army used to be big on mules, and of course had a bit specially for them. So we made some copies, and because they look fierce, the muleteers loved them – but in fact, the piece actually inside the mule’s mouth is as gentle as anything.

In the film you can see SPANA changing a traditional horror bit for one of ours – the youngster has to go and get permission from his dad, then we actually fit the bit onto the bridle for him.  Nice outcome for the mule, and his handler.