Train mules and hinnies calmly, patiently, and with a great deal of understanding. They will remember any negative experiences. Novice equine owners should not train mules or hinnies. Animals that have had painful or frightening training experiences will be difficult to handle in the future. Mules and hinnies are remarkable animals. In the right home, they can make great companions for other equines, and wonderful pets.
However, if they are unhandled or not correctly trained, mules and hinnies have the potential to be dangerous. Mules and Hinnies. Key facts about mules and hinnies Mule: The result of a donkey stallion mating with a female horse.
Health: Hardy and tough. They often have good immune systems. Behaviour: Intelligent and sensitive. They can have unpredictable reactions. Vocalisation: A mixture of a donkey's 'bray' and a horse's 'whinny'. Young: A 'colt' male or 'filly' female. A hinny. A mule.
What is 'hybrid vigour'? Physically, mules and hinnies are powerful with good endurance. How do I care for my mule or hinny? You should: feed slightly less food than for a horse of similar size, although feeding requirements depend on the individual animal feed your mule or hinny in the same way as a donkey. Most of their diet should consist of straw and limited hay or grazing.
Do not feed grain or cereal-based feeds allow as much time out in the paddock as possible, bearing in mind weight management and laminitis risk.
Mules and hinnies stabled for long periods do not settle well make sure fences are high and secure to prevent escape. They can jump fences from a standstill provide a companion. The hinny, or hinney, is also called a mule. However, the hinny is the hybrid cross between a male horse stallion , and a female donkey jenny, or jennet.
The hinny is different from a mule in very subtle ways. For instance, the hinny is a somewhat slower and more meticulous mover than the mule. He inherits his way of going from the jennet as does the mule, which tends to be a little faster, more energetic and more agile—like the mare.
The hinny, because of his meticulous way of going, is actually better in very steep, rocky terrain and, especially, in loose rock, and will not tire as quickly as a mule.
Gaited hinnies are preferable in this kind of terrain where there is little opportunity to gallop because they have a smooth, more ground-covering gait. On both hinnies and mules, the hooves should be trimmed more upright and the heels should be left longer than the hooves of the horse. The hinny will also eat a variety of different kinds of shrubs and bushes to sustain himself, where a mule will be more selective, again because of the influence of the female parent.
This makes the hinny more desirable to those people living in remote mountain areas with little vegetation. Both the mule and the hinny have more endurance by far than the horse, and are more resistant to parasites and disease, require less feed for good health, have tougher hooves than the horse, and have an incredible sense of self preservation that keeps them safe, which is often mistaken for stubbornness.
The horse has a flight reflex when startled and the donkey has a freeze reflex; mules and hinnies can exhibit both the freeze and flight reflexes, depending on their own unique personalities and the situation at hand. When breeding for mules, since the jacks are generally smaller and of slighter build than a horse, mule foals are generally smaller than horse foals and the mare has very little problem foaling.
When breeding for hinnies, one needs to be cautious, as the jennets are smaller and of a slighter build than mares. A large stallion could produce a foal that would be too large and difficult for the jennet to easily foal. Matching the size of the parents is much more important with hinnies.
It is more difficult for a jennet to settle after being bred to a stallion than it is for a mare to settle after being bred by a jack, so breeding for hinnies can take significantly longer. Adult hinny, photo courtesy Criadero Villa Luz. A hinny resembles a horse more than it does an ass. It looks more like a horse with long ears and looks very much like a mule.
The hinny has been used as a saddle animal from antiquity and is more difficult to produce than the mule, because the jennet does not conceive well with the stallion. Although hybrids are typically sterile, two documented cases of fertility do exist.
She was bred a second time to a jack and produced the jule, or donkule Kate. She was bred to a jack twice and foaled first with Blue Moon, and then with White Lightning. More numerous cases have emerged with the new technology and better national and international communication.
Today, donkeys and mules are registered with several different registries, the largest being the American Donkey and Mule Society. Is training a mule different from training a horse? Sometimes, horse training techniques will work on mules and donkeys that are of a certain mellow personality type, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
Most mules require a kind, polite, sensible, logical and sequential way of training with consideration, consistency and respect for the animal. They are far too intelligent to simply be forced or coerced into behaving. Training Longears is easy if you just slow down, take your time and break things down into logical, sequential and doable steps that address not only what you want to do, but how to build and condition his body properly so he can do what you want more easily through the training process.
Longears comply when it feels good and is safe to do so. If you are thorough in the early stages of training and take your time, the later stages of training will go much faster. There is a lot we can learn about ourselves and the way we communicate with others through interaction with animals in general and with equines in particular. For instance, their uses in therapeutic riding programs for the disabled generate amazing results and enhance the lives of people who might otherwise give up on life.
There are measured physical improvements that take place as well as mental and emotional changes. This is why they are also helpful in teaching young people how to interact in a positive and engaging way in their families and communities. The therapeutic riding program, Hearts and Horses that I strongly support here in Colorado has expanded their program for the disabled to also include at-risk kids, the autistic, wounded warriors and kids in general through an equine summer camp.
Mules and donkeys are able to carry more weight proportionately than can a horse of the same size. Where side walkers are needed in the case of larger people during therapy, smaller mules and donkeys are a better choice than a taller horse that would put the rider in a position that is harder to reach by the side walkers. Horses and other equines particularly mules and donkeys that are used in these types of programs truly give people a full and rewarding life. Exposure to equines inspires people about life and exotic hybrids bred from mules and donkeys command even more attention to these types of animals and the lifestyle they represent.
Photo courtesy The Donkey Sanctuary. When it comes to physical traits, donkeys are almost always easily identified thanks to their long ears — they almost look like the rabbit version of an equine.
Because a mule is part horse, though, they can have ears that cover any amount of length. It is not only the ears that can differ, though: donkeys backs are rather wide and flat.
Unlike horses, they do not have a bump at their withers above the shoulder. Since they are more compact, too, they naturally have smaller hooves. Their tails are more like that of a cow: an extended tail bone covered in short hair. Mules, on the other hand, can be physically similar to both a donkey and a horse and there is no one set physical descriptor that all mules will meet. As such, they are not always as easy to identify, as they may very closely resemble on or the other — or look a perfect hybrid of the two.
In general, they tend to inherit from the donkey side of the family when it comes to a flatter spine and longer ears. The most common characteristics of their horse mothers that they take on include being larger in size than a donkey and possessing a more delicate, less hearty bone structure.
Further, mules have demonstrated having superior vision to both donkeys and horses and an ability to differentiate their environment much better. This may contribute to them being among the most sure-footed of equines, too. This gene split makes the well-suited to both hardy, transport work like donkeys as well as the same riding disciplines of horses.
There is also the age-old question of one being better than the other. That is fully subjective and depends on what qualities you are looking for or what work you need done. If you are looking to breed, then the answer obviously lies with the donkey. If you are looking to ride, then a mule would be your best bet. When it comes to use as a pack animal, it is again split: the donkey has the greatest endurance but the mule, thanks to its larger size, is able to carry more weight.
Aside from their physical differences, donkey and mules differ in their personalities as well. Donkeys have a reputation that precedes them when it comes to being stubborn. Mules lean a bit more on their horse genes and can be easier to train, making them more ideal for riding activities and shows.
Mules can be aggressive, though, without the proper training and depending on the temperaments of their donkey and horse parents.
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