Mules and Hinnies are equine hybrids; the offspring from two different domesticated breeds: horses and donkeys. (Scroll down to bottom of article to learn about ‘Terminology’).
Aficionados of mules claim that they are more patient, sure-footed, and long-lived than horses, and are considered less obstinate and more trainable than donkeys. Mules are much more common than the rare hinny hybrid. Although it’s often thought that all these hybrids are sterile, female mules have produced offspring with stallions and jacks, although it’s rather rare.
The size of a mule depends upon the size of its dam. Mules can be lightweight, medium weight, or even, when produced from heavy draught mares, of heavy weight. Hinnies are more limited in size due to their donkey dam, as donkey breeds are generally small. Except for the Mammoth donkey, but it is an endangered breed and breeders are more likely to spend valuable breeding time producing fertile purebred offspring than breeding a Mammoth jenny with a stallion to produce an infertile hinny.
My future dream farm companion!
All domestic equines ~ horses, ponies, donkeys, and their hybrid offspring ~ hold a very special place in my heart. When I was 5 years old my family gave me my first pony. He was a small Welsh gelding that I named Pepper because his coat was speckled like pepper. Later I was lucky enough to receive a larger Welsh pony when I was 9 years old and I named her Silver because, yes, her coat was a grey dapple (I’ve never been that creative with naming my beloved animals, and admit to once having a budgie named… um… ‘Budgie’).
In my late teens I rescued a 7-year-old Standardbred gelding from the racetrack because his racing passion had dwindled. His future involved an imminent trip in a truck to a certain doom. So I bought him. They only charged what they would have gotten from the meat-truck: $750 even though only three years earlier he’d been worth $70,000! I worked with him everyday to help him adjust to having someone on his back. Three years later, I found him a wonderful home with a young rider whose family had the room and means to care for him for the rest of his life.
While I have not yet had the pleasure of knowing a mule or a donkey, I had a friend in elementary school who absolutely adored her mule-mare that she raised from a foal. I enjoyed many tales about the intelligence and personality my school friend found in her beloved equine companion.
Two of Melody’s ‘boys’ playing with a ball.
Copyright ~ The Donkey Whisperer Farm
If I didn’t live so far away, I would enjoy booking a time to tour her farm and visit with my blogging friend Melody at The Donkey Whisperer Farm Blog. Click link to visit her blog filled with strength, spirit, and a tremendous love of her equine friends. She adores horses and mules as well as her beloved donkeys. Check out her huge blogroll for many equine-related sites to visit! I especially enjoyed this informative post about feed: Hay, Hay, Hay. I also recommend a visit to her comprehensive website at the Donkey Whisperer Farm: “A Natural, Spiritual, and Holistic Approach to Equine Training”.
Once I have my ‘dream acreage’ there will not only be horses, but ponies, donkeys and mules as well. And a Hinny if we can be so lucky! Okay at least one horse and one mule companion, as a minimum. That’s my dream anyways!
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Some Terminology and Distinctions
Dam ~ female parent
Sire ~ male parent
Foal ~ young equine
Weanling ~ a foal about 6 months, weaned (and often separated) from its dam
Yearling ~ a young equine in its second spring, about one year of age
Pony ~ small breeds of horse, maximum 14HH at the withers (56 inches)
HH ~ Hands-High, ‘hands’ coming from when the height of a horse was measured with the width of a man’s hand, stacked, with hands being an average of 4 inches wide. One ‘Hand’ equals 4 inches.
Withers ~ highest part of an equine’s back, at the base of the neck above the shoulders.
Mare ~ a female horse or pony
Stallion ~ a male horse or pony
Gelding ~ a gelded male horse, pony, donkey or mule
Jenny or Jennet ~ a female donkey
Jack ~ a male donkey
Mule ~ hybrid offspring of a mare and a jack
Hinny ~ hybrid offspring of a jenny and a stallion
Molly or Molly-mule ~ common names for a female mule
John-mule ~ common name for a male mule
Note: There are even more variations and cross-overs in terminology than covered here. For example, one variation is in Ireland: a hinny is called a jennet (sounds like jinnet). And another variation is that male mules are sometimes called jacks. But at least this is a starting point if any reader is a budding equine enthusiast and wants to learn some of the lingo!
Thank you for the fun and informative post, my friend! So I should treat it as a compliment when someone calls me an old mule or says I’m as stubborn as a mule!
That’s good to know!
Russ
Thanks for your funny comment my friend.
Cheers!
Wow thank you for this post and the outstanding write up of our blog at the Donkey Whisperer Farm. Thank you for adding all the links to help people keep their equine healthy. You are going to make an outstanding human partner for your equine one day, never give up!
Thank you Melody! I am delighted that you liked this post. Your support means so much, and I am happy to celebrate all that you and yours do to help equines. Yes, someday my dream will come true. Thank you so much for this wonderful comment!
Very great post! Your pics are great! You made the info fun to read and helpful to many, I’m sure. And yes, Melody, much like you, is indeed very inspiring! I am so glad to see young hard-working women contributing to the knowledge and preservation of old-time wisdoms. Bravo girls!
Thank you Cissy-blue! I am honored by your kind words. Your comment is tremedously appreciated. Hugs, Gina
Thank you for educating others about mules and hinnies. I would like to point out a couple of things – regarding size of mules, mules have “hybrid vigor” which means that they can be bigger than both of their parents. The American Mammoth Jackstock breed of donkey is not “endangered”, they are listed by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy as “threatened” and there are approximately 2,500-3,000 of these animals in the world, which does not mean that the breed is not in trouble, it is, and many donkeys advertised as “Mammoths” are not. There are a couple of reasons that one does not see many hinnies. First, when breeding inter-species, you have a better chance of getting a baby if the mother has the higher number of chromosomes (horse 64, donkey 62). Secondly, since you are breeding inter-species, most animals need to be taught to breed outside their own kind. In order to make a “mare jack” (a male donkey that would breed horse mares), the Moors used to take a baby horse colt, kill it and skin it. They would then take the skin and put it on a jack colt and put that colt on the horse mare so that the jack grew up thinking that he was a horse. Fortunately, we do not have to be that brutal anymore. Now breeders take their weanling jacks and put them with a sweet, older, experienced mare so that she is his first love interest. Breeders then have the jack only breed mares for a few years before letting him breed jennets. Many breeders have a strict “mare jack” and “jennet jack”, but there are jacks who will breed both. I hope that this helped clear up some confusion! Deb and the longears, Lake Nowhere Mule and Donkey Farm
Hi Deb, thanks for all this fascinating information. As an owner and breeder at Lake Nowhere Mule and Donkey Farm, your experience has mine lapped several times. I trust you understand my love of mules was my motivation for sharing, even though I am not an expert – merely an aficionado! This truly is a wealth of information added, and I thank you whole-heartedly!
Cheers from one equine-lover to another.
Gina