I notice there are members named: mule head,mule packer, mule skinner, mule train, and 32 other varieties of "mule".
(I counted) I venture a guess that is on a par, or greater than the number with some form of S&W in their handle. (Did not count)

I also know there is at least one college with the men's team the Mules, and the female team, the Jennies. In Missouri I think, which of course is the state where everybody is supposedly, as stubborn as,....that's right...a mule.

Just those facts right there, already have me "well entertained", before I even get to my question.
I know some of these mule people make an occupation, or perhaps a hobby with actual four legged mules.

"Mulepacker" for instances, (one of em) is an outfitter and guide in Utah,or perhaps Idaho, I believe.

The famous, or infamous, General Crook rode a mule as his choice, after a horse stumbled on a trail and dislodged him. Mules have the reputation of being as sure footed as mountain goats.
"Forty acres and a mule" is steeped in history, and will bear no discussion here.

There is also a part in the great "Lonesome Dove" book, not T V show, about some malfeasance with a mule. I don't recall exactly what it was, but if I did, I know it can not be discussed
here.

All the farms where I was brought up valued few things as highly as a good mule.

What I want to know is, while mules come in two main coat colors, reddish sorrel and black with tan nose area, are mules identified as a specific breed like horses ? Such as, Quarter horse, Arabian, Paints, Mustangs and so forth ?

As Gus said, (L D again) about his "do not rent pigs" sign, "a man that likes to rent pigs won't be stopped".
Same thing applies to a man who wants to find out about mules !

I hope to get SOME straight answers here........Yeah, right !

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wanna do right-- not right now

Festus Haggen rode a mule on Gunsmoke. I'm sure mules have many wonderful attributes, but I always wondered if the mule could keep up with fleet horses when part of a posse chasing fleeing felons (which was frequently necessary in Dodge, apparently! ) You'd think this was mighty important, with Festus being a Deputy US Marshall and all.

Inquiring minds want to know!

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You're shy a few manners.

A mule is a cross between a donkey and a horse, color and size depends on the horse, if I remember correctly mules can not breed, so I'm not sure if they are their own breed.. It's something man made.....All depends on what kind of horse they use

Mules gave us the covered bridge...that is a fact. A mule will not put his foot where he doesn't know it's safe. That is why it is safe to ride mules at night. That is also, in part, why the government back in the days of mounted cavalry used mules to transport provisions.
A mule wont cross a bridge over water because he doesn't think it is safe. He see's the water below and don't like it. The answer to this dilemma was to make all the bridges look like a barn and prevent the mules from seeing over the side.
Moving provisions at night was generally the way to do it in most indian country. They would use a "bell mare" which was nothing but a horse that had no load, was usually white or light gray and she would lead the mules along the trail. A bell was placed on her neck for the mules to hear and her lighter color was easier for the mules to see. Because she carried no burden she was able to keep the mules moving along pretty quick.
In the west before railroads went every where mule trains were a very lucrative form of government "contracting" back then.
It is said that mules cannot breed and this is true, but about one in every hundred years or so a jenny becomes pregnant. Usually the foal is born but it almost always dies before maturity. I think the last one was born a few years back somewhere in the middle east.

Well this prompts a couple of questions.
First-how do the donkey and horse "do it"? is it artificially done or does the donkey find a stump?
Do the mules come out male and female-with the appropriate parts?
When was this first thought up??

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Forum consigliere

They do it the same way we do it

I was going to say something, but I think I will just sit back and keep my mouth shut.

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Don

FWIW, my Grand Dad had a "white" mule. He won the mule race one year at the county fair. He pulled farm implements right alongside Grand Dad's horses (wagon, mower, rake). Yeah, I'm "OLD", but Grand Dad was one of the last farmers in NE MO to give up farming with horses.

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gone

With a candlelight dinner and movie first?

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Diddums

I always thought mules lived a long time. I think the gubberment must have owned a bunch. When I was a child my daddy & his brothers would be sitting around & someone would walk by & one of the brothers would say --IS HE STILL RIDDIN THAT GUBBERMENT MULE? My neighbor has some white ones with big ears.

It always amazes me the things I learn reading this Forum! I always thought covered bridges were invented for those who wanted to do some Hanky Panky someplace other than home....like teenagers. Dang, what do I know.......

Yea but Zonkies (Zonkey) are cooler!

Missionary?

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Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired

Some do it behind mini blinds and street light. She looks like a zebra.

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Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired

But no one's username is RUTH, and I want to know why?

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

Maybe I can get my one sister to join,though I'm pretty sure she hates guns

In 1970 I had a summer job working for the NPS in Yosemite. We worked one month out of a spike camp that required a 25 mile ride. I got to ride a retired Army mule named Bells. I thought this was quite appropriate since I had just gotten out of the Army myself. Also I was stationed at Fort Riley in 1968 and they still had some Army Mules there at that time.

Why don't we just skip the movie and blow out the candle's.

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Don

Quit horsin' around, now

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“Look life in its iron face”

On Gunsmoke it was never about how fast you could catch the bad guy, it was about never quitting. Mathew and Festus just kept on a going, never giving up. They WOULD get their man.

Pete

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Don't tread on me

The most beautiful mules I've ever seen were "mammoth" versions, the product of a jack and a Belgian mare. Stood well over seventeen hands and were buckskin colored. Stunning animals, but then I love mules.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Neighbor has a couple of mules in with her sheep. The coyotes don't bother the lambs or the sheep cause they're afraid of those old mules. Guess them mules don't like them coyotes much and will kick the **** out of them if they get in to close. I know when I go over to feed her stock when she is in need of help, I keep a close eye on those two...they get excited and run around kicking their hind legs, and I don't want to catch one of those hooves by accident.

Pete

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Don't tread on me

Sounds like they may end up with mules with wool

Anyone remember "Death Valley Days" hosted by the Old Ranger and sponsored by 20 Mule Team Borax?

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You're shy a few manners.

"Well you did order the lobster."

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Diddums

There were a couple of posts above I dared not like because--im waiting to see if the Admin are going to come down hard on you like being kicked by a Mule--which ive seen happen to a deserving old lad--about fourty years ago. Said old lad--did something they were not supposed to while trying to load said Mule in a horse trailer--and said Mule--used both hind legs same time--kicked him hard in the chest.

Said person was out cold and someone else had to finish loading said Mule. You wanna know who said mule leading person was? yep--you guessed it--eight year old me. Mule never gave me any probems and I was the only one he would not buck off--when riding--or bite for that matter. The KOed guy--had large hoof-looking bruises on his chest for a couple of months.

Dang, I sure miss going to Shepards Stables.

When I was a kid, I had a model of that.

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Don

From '75 to'79, I lived in NC. A friend's dad had heavily wooded land and sold firewood as a means of extra income. We were often commandeered to help him. He had a pair of "snake" mules named "pork" and "beans."

We would fell the trees, clear the branches and use the mules to snake the logs to a clearing to be cut and loaded on a truck.

That old man loved those mules and often joked that they did more to earn their keep than his kids did.

PS my wife's name is Ruth and I can see some similarities.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

And here I thought Mulepacker just made sure they were ready for shipment......

As far as that 20 mule team goes, how on earth did they get them all started at the same time and headed the same direction? Seems like the drover had his work cut out for him.....

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Even older, even crankier....

The first time Trigger got likkered up and saw a fetching young donkey.

I want to know how they both get into the back seat of a car.
If i remember correctly Ronald Reagan was the host for a while on the Death Vallie T.V. series

They used the back of Nellie Bell.

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Quando omni flunkus moritati.

20mule team was 18 mules and 2 horses. Don't know why I know that

Stump broke.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

So how do they decided who ties who up?

One thing you'll never see is a wire cut mule.. Horses will get in fights across a fence and try to strike each other and get hung up in the wire.

Mules is too smart for things like that. A mule won't go where he thinks its dangerous. You trust that mule and he'll get you home.
He may not take you where you want to go, but he'll get you home.

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Eccentric old coot

As Pete99004 pointed out mules and donkeys don't like coyotes.

Florida is filled with coyotes and they are found even in urban sprawl like TampaBay, mangy, nasty and hungry. I have driven a few blocks from my house, with hundreds of thousands of people nearby in an urban area, and seen coyotes along side the road.

They will eat your little puppy, your small to medium dog and any cats they can find.

Generally afraid of humans, but that seems to be changing.

Now, back to mules (actually donkeys). Donkeys will kick a coyote to death, they are fast and they simply hate them. A number of folks with larger property buy one of the small, miniature ones (about the size of a big dog) and keep them on their property, inside their various types of fences.

We considered one for our house, but weren't sure it would distinguish between a coyote and our little Lhasa who would, no doubt, try to chase and pester the mule.

Near the Club where I shoot trap is a ranch where they raise the little donkeys, probably have about 30. Cute little things, but, my dog is just too playful to take a chance.

Bob

Bridges were covered to keep them from rotting. Larry

There was a story awhile back about a mule that took on a mountain lion.Click the link for photos.
http://youtu.be/RLqI2bjzCME

This thread reminds me of one of my dad's favorite oldies...

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Been up since before breakfast

Nah, not one leg over the steering wheel and the other one out the window!!!!

My stepdad once thought it would be a good idea to give a "haircut" (trim the tail) to a mule he bought earlier in the day.

Came back in the house ten minutes later with a gash in his shin almost to the bone. Took months to heal.

The mule kept it's hair as it pleased after that.

I loved that mule from that day forward.

I was in the market for some thoroughly rotten manure to spice up the sandy loam I had in the backyard. A friend of mine told me about a guy he knew that had just torn down an old shed on his property and said the ground was solid packed manure, guaranteed to have no seeds. Told me where to go and said "Just look for the mules."
Wellsir I found the place and this guy had him some mules, you might say he was a muleyteer or whatever you call them fellers. He had mules of every shape and size, color and disposition. Had mules you could work sun-up to sun-down, mules you could ride fancy and mules you could just keep in the yard to look pretty. He had a couple of wildassed donkeys that he used for breeding the high strung type and regular run a the mill donkeys for work animals. He said the reason most Mules is recognized as black is because of Morgan horse blood, makes a good solid work animal with a good disposition. This feller was trying to get someone with a racing filly to loan out so he could make him a "go real fast" mule. He had dreams of starting a mule race out at Playfair a local racetrack. I was looking at the difference in size between that wildassed little donkey and say a good sized American Saddler or Morgan and asked him how he could make that "work", he said he used something like a loading chute. He said "These donkeys is wild son, I got to keep them away from each other or they will kill each other. You back that old mare up to that loading chute and just get yourself outa the way, he knows what to do." I suppose they could use artificial semenation but that ain't no fun to watch.
By the way that manure was the best, so rotten it smelled just like dirt...nary a pasture weed ever came up.

Couple of thoughts from Louis L'Amour. In one of the Sackett books, Em Talon, who was a Cinch Mountain Sackett afore she married Talon, rode a mule. Said he was a Jack afore he was cut. I was unaware that gelding a donkey turned him into a mule. I believe Mr. L'Amour was incorrect in that instance.

Someone, up the thread, questioned whether a mule could keep up with a fast horse. In 'Lando, Orlando Sackett had a racing mule. He had this mare who was the granddaughter of some famous racehorse, and she was in heat, so he put her in the pasture with a jack, one night, for a few hours, and then got her back and went on down the road. Made quite a bit of money racing that mule, as I recall the story. So I guess the answer would be, "It depends on how fast the mule's parents were".

There's a pretty decent PAW story, online, called This is Me, Surviving. There a feller in there with a pair of mules, and the girl comments on how large they are. He says that the jennys that were their mothers were big to begin with, and their sire was a draft horse. Made sense to me that if you breed a big horse to a big donkey you're gonna get big mules.

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I always take precautions

Kinky! I like that.

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Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired

Probably starts as a pain in the *****..........

Hmmm, maybe I should change my name to "Mule Headed".

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Okay...here we go.

First off, as was previously mentioned, a mule is a hybrid cross from a male donkey (jackass) and a female horse (mare). That's the only way you get a mule. A gelded jackass (donkey) is not a mule. A mule is generally sterile, but they say that one in a million can be fertile. Still, even if they're sterile, you still have to geld a male mule when they're young or they'll act like a stallion.

A male mule is called a "John mule." A female mule is called a "Molly mule." A male donkey is called a "Jack," as in jackass. A female donkey is referred to as a "Jennet," (pronounced "Jenny") as in jenny ***.

There are different breeds of donkey (Equus Africanus Asinus) just like there are different breeds of horses. There's the Catalonian, the Poitou, the Andalusian, ad infinitum. There's also an actual breed called the American Mammoth Jack. These donkeys aren't you're typical "burro" type donkey. Nope. These guys are big. Some of them are the size of a horse, or even bigger. (See picture below.)

You breed them to a Belgian, Clydesdale, Percheron, or other type of draft horse, you're going to get a big work-type mule. You cross one of these jacks with a Quarter Horse, Thoroughbred, or other type mare, you're going to get more of a riding-type of animal.

Now, what if you happen to cross a female donkey (jennet) with a male horse (stallion)? You get a hybrid cross referred to as a "hinny." Why don't we see more hinnies? Couple of reasons. First off, while a mule has the conformation of the jackass and the disposition of the horse, a hinny has the conformation of a horse and the disposition of the jackass. A hinny can be pretty obstinate and doesn't work as well as a mule.

Pound for pound, a mule can work harder and pack more than a horse. They live longer, too. While a horse starts going downhill when it's around 20 years old, a mule is still going strong in its thirties.

As Iggy pointed out, a mule is smarter than a horse. A lot smarter. As Iggy said, if a horse gets caught in barbed wire, it will thrash and thrash until it cuts itself to ribbons. With a mule, once they find out that it hurts, they'll stand there for hours and hours until you come and get them.

They're more comfortable to ride than a horse. Like one old packer told me many, many years ago, "Son, going to a mule after riding a hoss is like going to a Cadillac after riding in a Jeep!"

You can't treat a mule like a horse either. That's where people get into trouble. They're a completely different animal. You can force a horse to do something, but you can't force a mule. They have to think it's their idea.

I know, I know...this is probably a heckuva lot more information than you wanted to hear, but one more thing in closing.

A mule has a memory that rivals that of an elephant. For example, if you load a horse in a trailer, and you happen to have a wreck with that trailer, the horse will always remember the trailer.

The mule will remember who put him in!

A Mammoth Jack


Horse with three mules in tow.


Horse with small mule in tow.


Cookie, a good riding mule.

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Pack light and cinch tight.

Most mules come from breeding a male donkey to a female horse, but you can breed a male horse to a female donkey and get a cross breed called a hinny.

Mules are the more common of the two because that pairing more frequently produces offspring.

Males are completely sterile because donkeys and horses have different numbers of chromosomes. Females have normal reproductive cycles and can be impregnated by either a horse or a donkey, but it doesn't happen often.

I grew up in Missouri, the mule capital of the country - maybe the world - and yes, the phrase "stubborn as a Missouri mule" fits me and most members of my family to a T...

Looks like Mule Packer beat me to the punch while I was typing - but he had a lot more detailed info.

And DANG! Is that picture of a Mammoth Jack for real? That almost looks photoshopped...

Thank God "Mule Packer" finally got here. I wasn't about to learn a thing about mules from most of the rest of you "jackaces".

In fact, I might go so far as to say most of ya'll didn't know "jack-****" about MULES !

Your knowledge in "other" matters however, leaves me at times, astounded; and wondering, just what form of "sheltered up-bringing" I had compared to some of you.

Aside from the animals; the other "mules" are the kind underground miners use to haul out ore, electric powered or maybe propane. Then there are the "border crossing" mules, laden with the illegal "feel goods".

Pablo Picasso, yeah... that one; who I know nothing about artistically, had some strong thoughts about mules, according to a book on his life.

And finally, when you spend all of one of your free Saturdays hauling
your better half's flea market treasures into the house, I advise you not
to make the mistake of saying: "That's it ! I ain't gonna MULE no more of your junk today"

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wanna do right-- not right now