Equestrian Network Magazine

Hinnies, Jennys, Mollies, and Jackasses:
The Amazing Mule

by M. Y. Mim

Start with a donkey. In Mexico and certain parts of the United States, you'll call it a burro.

The donkey or burro is a cousin to the horse, a close relative in the genus Equus, but not the same subspecies. The donkey's closer relative is the ass. Technically, both the ass and the donkey/burro belong to the subgenus Equus asinus, along with the onager, and the horse fits into the same genus, Equus, but the subgenus Equus.

It tends to be confusing from the get-go.

The Donkey. This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. This picture of a Donkey was taken at Disney's Animal Kingdom by Raul654 on January 16, 2005.Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License."

In case of doubt, you can always tell a donkey from a mule by the fact that a donkey has a tail in essence like a lion or a cow (long tail with a tassel) and the mule has a tail like a horse (short tailbone with long hair).

If your donkey is a male, he's a jackass. If she's a female donkey, she's a jennet or jenny ass or sometimes just a jenny.

Your horse can be any breed. When a jackass mates with a mare, the result is a Mule,

Mule courtesy

This is the preferred mating as the larger mare has an easier time giving birth to a Mule than the smaller female donkey (jenny) does.

But let's say you have a lovely stallion and an outstanding jenny. This crossbreeding also produces a Mule, known as
a Hinny.

The proper term for the male mule is Horse Mule. Informally, many people refer to a male

Mule as a John Mule. If the male Mule is the result of the preferred crossbreeding (mare to jackass), the John Mule may also be known as a Mule Stallion.

The proper term for the female Mule is exactly that: female Mule, with the frequently used informal term Molly Mule or a Molly.

Remember the Hinny? The male Hinny goes by the term Horse Mule or Horse Hinny, while the female is a Mare Mule or Mare Hinny. Reputedly, the rarer Hinnies often appear to be more horse-like than the Mule, but more often than not, it's impossible to tell them apart. Hinnies may tend to be slightly smaller, simply because of the fact that most donkeys are smaller than horses.

Actually, Hinnies and Mules are classified and shown together both as Mules. When male and females are under the age of three, they're simply Mule colts and Mule fillies.

All mules, whether "proper" Mules or Hinnies, are sterile, with the very rare exception. So rare, in fact, that the chances of a fertile Mule are only about one in one million. Crossbreeding a Mule to a Mule results in... nothing. Remember, Mules are sterile.

The first greeting a Mule gives the world combines the grunting end of a donkey's bray and the whinny of the horse, a sort of Whinee-aw ah aw.

And that's just the beginning of the charming features of the
mighty Mule.

Mules at Grand Canyon

Mule enthusiasts - and they are legion - insist that the Mule combines the best traits of both of its parents. From the horse, the Mule inherits vigor, strength and courage. The donkey parentage passes on sobriety, patience, endurance, and sure-footedness.

Mules can do anything horses can do - better, or so say Mule aficionados. You'll find Mules participating in exactly the same sports as horses: under saddle; in harness; distance and endurance riding; dressage; cutting and roping and other rodeo activities.

Because Mules possess more stamina and can carry more weight than a horse of equal size, the Mule often wins in competition with the horse. One area where the Mule clearly outshines the horse is high-jumping.

And Mules even excel at a particular sport all their own called the "Coon Hunter's Jump." The term stems from a raccoon hunter moving a string of Mules through the woods. Wooden or stone fences could be taken down, while wire ones could not. The hunter flags the wire fence with his coat or a blanket, and jumps his string of pack mules over one by one. In the showring, mules jump a single rail standard to increasing heights. The last clean jump is the winner. Mules only 50 inches tall at the withers have been known to clear jumps of up to 72 inches. These jumps are not from a galloping approach, but from a standing start inside a marked area, truly a remarkable feat.

Mules are generally less tolerant towards dogs than horses, and are capable of defending their rider against, even killing, a mountain lion. They are also capable of striking out with any of their hooves in
any direction.

Operators of working animals generally find Mules preferable to horses: Mules show less impatience under the pressure of heavy weights, while their skin, harder and less sensitive than that of horses, renders them more capable of resisting sun and rain. Their hooves are harder than horses, and they show a natural resistance to disease and insects. Many North American farmers with clay soil found mules superior as plow animals, especially in the U.S. state of Missouri, hence the expression "stubborn as a Missouri mule".

No discussion of the Mule is complete without dispelling the pernicious canard that " Mules are stubborn." "Not at all!" say the Mule fans. The common phrase goes: "You can tell a horse what to do, ask a donkey, and negotiate with a Mule." A horse can be worked until it drops, but not so with a mule. The "stubborn" streak is just the mule's way of telling humans that things are not right. Mules are very intelligent, much more so than horses, maintain the Mule owners, and rather than stubborn, they must be persuaded to see logic.

For Mule enthusiasts, owning a Mule is far more logical than owning
a horse.

Scientific classification:
ORDER: PERISSODACTYLA
Family Equidae
Genus: Equus
Subgenus: Equus includes:
Wild Horse, Equus ferus
Tarpan or Eurasian Wild Horse, Equus ferus ferus (extinct)
Przewalski's Horse or Mongolian Wild Horse, Equus ferus przewalskii
Domestic Horse, Equus caballus
Equus scotti (Prehistoric)
Subgenus Asinus includes
Donkey, Equus asinus
African Wild Ass, Equus africanus
Nubian Wild Ass, Equus africanus
Somali Wild Ass, Equus africanus somalicus
Onager or Asiatic Ass, Equus hemionus
Mongolian Wild Ass, Equus hemionus hemionus
Syrian Wild Ass, Equus hemionus hemippus (extinct)
Gobi Kulan or Dziggetai , Equus hemionus luteus
Turkmenian Kulan, Equus hemionus kulan
Persian Onager, Equus hemionus onager
Indian Wild Ass or Khur, Equus hemionus khur
Kiang, Equus kiang
Western Kiang, Equus kiang kiang
Eastern Kiang, Equus kiang holdereri
Southern Kiang, Equus kiang polyodon
Subgenus Dolichohippus
Grevy's Zebra, Equus grevyi
Subgenus Hippotigris
Plains Zebra, Equus quagga
Quagga, Equus quagga quagga (extinct)
Burchell's Zebra, Equus quagga burchellii
Grant's Zebra, Equus quagga boehmi
Selous' zebra, Equus quagga borensis
Chapman's Zebra, Equus quagga chapmani
Crawshay's Zebra, Equus quagga crawshayi
Cape Mountain Zebra, Equus zebra
Hartmann's Mountain Zebra, Equus hartmannae
Family Tapiridae: tapirs, 4 species in one genus
Family Rhinocerotidae: rhinoceroses, 5 species in 4 genera

Sources: The American Donkey and Mule Society, P. O. Box 1210, Lewisville, Texas 75067, http://www.imh.org/imh /bw/mule.html; The Christian Science Monitor; Web Site: www.donkeys.com Information supplied by The American Donkey and Mule Society and excerpts from Horses Through Time, edited by Sandra Olsen © Copyright International Museum of the Horse, 1998; Love Long Ears http://www.lovelongears.com/about_mules.html; http://www.mules.org/; Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006.

For more information, also see:
North American Saddle Mule Association - Devoted to the promotion and development of the Saddle Mule used under saddle in English and Western disciplines and light harness. www.nasma.net
*Oklahoma Draft Horse and Mule Association - Dedicated to furthering the knowledge and history of these great animals that are an integral part of Oklahoma and American history. www.odhma.org
British Mule Society - Aiming to preserve and improve the standard of mules. www.hamill.co.uk/british_mule_soc

About the Author: M. Y. Mim is a free-lance journalist based in Santa Barbara, Ca. She may be reached at mymim3@cox.net, or through her agent R. Almqvist, 805-705-5349.

The Author wishes to thank Mr. R. Almqvist for his invaluable assistance in making this article possible.