Mule or standard donkey

[cjc]

I am only sharing my story as a cautionary tale....we have a donkey, he's great. But I have heard from neighbours that some of them are down right asses, literally. Ours is 40 years old and he is a very sweet donkey. He is full size. He does bite our horse a lot haha, but it's a loving bite. They get along really well.

But I used to go to horse camp as a child and I have a serious fear of mules from their farm. Not once, not twice, but three times, one of the neighbours mules brutally attacked one of their horses. All 3 of the horses that were attacked by the mules died . I have no idea if this is a normal thing or if that neighbour just had a really bad bunch of mules but now I see them and run the other direction. I was recently in Mexico and there were some mules at a farm there and they seemed to be really sweet. People were riding them. But I have serious mule PTSD.

 

[NH homesteader]

My husband had a mule when he was a kid. It was nasty. And they were incredibly experienced horse farmers who took the time to try to work with it. Not sure of its history but yeah, they can be mean.

 

[Bunnylady]

My husband had a mule when he was a kid. It was nasty. And they were incredibly experienced horse farmers who took the time to try to work with it. Not sure of its history but yeah, they can be mean.

The bold letters may illustrate the problem right there - donkeys and mules are not just funny looking horses, their minds are very different, and if you try to treat a mule like a horse, it can come back to bite you in the butt - literally!

 

[NH homesteader]

They didn't treat it like a horse. They learned how to train a mule and how it is different than a horse. That's what I meant by they took time to work with it... And they aren't the break a horse til it submits type either. They are all about relationship with animals and respect for the animal. It came to them mean and it never changed.

 

[Kusanar]

I have a couple of horses that will chase dogs out of the field, including coyotes, don't know if they know that they're not dogs or not... that's one reason I don't worry about my mini with the coyotes, the big horses enjoy chasing and stomping dogs and they like the little guy and wouldn't let him be picked on.

 

[Bunnylady]

Betsy came to me not trusting. They can fight like tigers if they think that's what they need to do to defend themselves. It took a long time to get Betsy to lower her defenses, and even now, we sometimes accidentally hit a button and she reacts without thinking. Fortunately, she got more of the horse "flight" instead of the donkey "fight."

Believe it or not, there have been mules born in the wild - donkey jacks have taken over wild horse herds in areas where the ranges of the two overlap. When you think about the size difference between most horses and your average donkey, that's pretty impressive.

 

[cjc]

Funny thing about our donkey is he actually loves dogs haha. Coyotes have taken out lambs in broad daylight with him "standing guard". He makes an absolutely terrible livestock guardian!

Here is Jethro. Our neighbour rescued him from being glue about 35 years ago.

 

[TAH]

Funny thing about our donkey is he actually loves dogs haha. Coyotes have taken out lambs in broad daylight with him "standing guard". He makes an absolutely terrible livestock guardian!

Here is Jethro. Our neighbour rescued him from being glue about 35 years ago.

He is cute

 

[OneFineAcre]

 

[NH homesteader]

Now I want one.