mules,horses which is better

I was just talking with my father about this very subject this morning. He was encouraging me to get some mules because he was saying in rough terrain they are better and can pull more per pound than horses.

I personally don’t have any experience regarding mules so I probably will add a couple just to see.

Stick with the horses.
An ant can pull more than a horse pound for pound also but I won’t be hitching any ants soon. Practically speaking, really good mules are hard to find, and expensive. Horses are plentiful, cheap, and can be retrained when necesary.

It really depends on what they are needed for and what positives and negatives you choose. We use Belgian draft mules to log here in Missouri, as they work quite well on the rugged hillsides, having excellent balance and slope savvy. They handle the extremes of the climate very well, thrive on basic grass hay, and we have had absolutely no hoof problems, even with rocky terrain. As far as muscle goes, Sam & Sadie, which weigh 1800 lbs each, can hold their own with most draft horses. They are very smart and at times stubborn (a self preservation trait), but they learn things well and bond quite closely, like horses.

From my own experiences working with 1800 lb mules I have learned that no human can out stubborn a mule, at least on mule terms. When one of ours gets a little stubborn, which is very rare and for only brief moments as they are seasoned well broke mules, it is always for a reason, something has them scared for which standing their ground seems to them the safe answer. A sour, unbroken mule is a different story. Persevering patience coupled with a steady hand and calming voice seems to work the best. A sage muleskinner on the Rural Heritage Forum gave some excellent wisdom that helped me immensely. When confronted with something that stops a mule (and a horse for that matter I am sure) there are three ways to face it. One can use fear & force to make the mule submit, which makes the animal work from fear of its master, which diminishes its capabilities and can eventually backfire. One can turn around and leave, reinforcing the fear for whatever it was that caused it. Or one can calmly talk and work the animal through it, so it gains confidence in its driver’s capabilities. This last one has worked great for me and as I have learned this method, so our mules work much better and rarely, if ever, balk at anything. I have found though that when the mules signal with their ears and eyes that something is up, it pays to figure out what it is, if possible. I remember one time where I was making exercise rounds in our training paddock with our John Deere wagon and every time we came to a certain point the outside mule would suddenly shoot forward and push to the inside. This happened about five times in a row. From first glance I couldn’t see anything in particular that was causing her to jump, but when I stopped and examined the area more closely I discovered a slender stick about 3 feet long that was shaped like a snake that was pointing towards the mules right next to where they had to pass. I tossed it aside and that immediately ended the problem.

Carl, I do believe you are absolutely right on this. Here in Costa Rica we have a lot of horses that aren’t purebred or anything. You watch them develop and decide their worth.

I am sure some horses for example are better than others for certain tasks, but in reality, most horses will do very well as long as they are trained for the task.

It is interesting to me how many fables about horses that there are that are put to rest when you live in a society that relies on them for transportation. When horses are not pets but work hard, they can be very smart animals – and you can have a bomb go off next to them and they don’t even flinch.

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This will probably be my one and only venture ever, posting wise, into the MULE forum … as I have absolutely zero experience with mules. I take that back, as a kid a friend of mine had a miniature mule that worked quite well in harness … until my friend soured him by asking him to do things that he could not do. I drove the little guy a couple of times early on and was really impressed with him. Beyond that nada.

However, bivol makes several good points and one of them is the historical use of mules. Mules were THE draft animal of choice in the rural South from post Civil War until after the turn of the century, with horses making a late charge before being phased out by tractors. At that, most of the horses used for farming were light horses or light horses crossed on the drafters. Primarily though what they used was the so called “cotton mule”. These were probably about 700 to 800 pounds on average. The reasons that mules were so popular are numerous; they were considered more durable, they lived and worked under conditions that were difficult for horses to endure. They were thought to manage the heat much better than horses, but whether this was actually ever proven I can’t say. They were cheaper to buy and they were cheaper to feed; important considerations in a poor, agrarian society. They could work at a steady pace for hours on end, just right for cultivating the vast acreages of cotton then planted across the region. They also had smaller hooves and were thought to be more careful in where they placed their hooves, which was a big issue with cotton as the cotton plant will not stand a bunch of abuse.

In the last 20 or 25 years this light mule has made a big comeback in the parts of the South, Texas particularly. I think they are probably breeding them at about 950 pound or so now and are used under saddle more so than under harness. Some people are driving them as well; however it is usually in the show ring. Our county fair parade was a week ago yesterday and there were about 5 wagons in the parade, which is down from what it normally is. Regardless, I thought it was amusing that every wagon in the parade was pulled by a team of mules. One team was a pair of mini’s, three were the size we normally see around here & one team was a really nice draft type team, probably Belgian cross. What I didn’t find so amusing is that every team save the draft team had collars that were at least three or four sizes too big. Even more troubling was the team that were being driven in plow harness; LOOK MA’ … NO BRAKES! Scary.