superior mule

now we know a mule is a cross between a donkey and a mare. but what if we would like to create a mule superior to all other mules? this is a thread about the search to make the best mule possible.

dam:
western horses, although selected for strength, gait or speed, lack the toughness, physical soundness and longetivity some other horse breeds possess.
these other horse breeds, i would refer to them as primitive breeds, are not s big as their western counterparts they stand 11-14 hh, are strong for their size, can survive weather extremes and live and work on poor forage. they also show remarkable endurance when working and are long lived. such horse breeds are found all over the world, mostly in inhospitable regions. they include japanese traditional breeds of horses, bosnian mountain horse, criollo horse, konik horse, mongolian horse, horse of native americans, icelandic horse, fjord horse, and so on…

konik horse

bosnian mountain horse

argentine criollo horse. they are TOUGH! here is the link:http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?t=1216

these horse breeds were shaped by envirement in which they lived, which was always inhospitable, extremely cold and hot depending on season, with poor pastures, and often mountanous or rocky. a portion of a year was what i would call a testing season, when because of the weather conditions and lack of food only the toughest survived.

dad:
in producing a mule a good sire is equally as important as a good mare. but i think the special sire i’ll explain down is the key which gives this mule the cutting edge. this sire can either be used on horses such as above or on any other mare.

the donkey is tougher, hardier and sounder than most horses. but a common donkey has also softened up and large breeds mostly used to produce mules were never as tough as the small donkeys, but that’s another story.

how to get a best possible sire?
let me tap on some ancient information about breeding mules. roman scholar columella says that a riding mule superior to the normal riding mule is produced when a mare is crossed to an onager stallion. such mules tend to have superior endurance and hard hooves, but are nervous and difficult to control.

an onager, or wild ass, is a member of the donkey family who lives in arid deserts.

Among the world of equids, the Onager is one of the bigger breeds in Asia. Onagers (Equus Onager) is the fastest, and they are known to be capable of speeds reaching 70km per hour. They could usually be found on semi-desert areas where it is hot (day), cool (nighttime) and only some occurrences of rain.

[IMG]http://www.geocities.com/jelbaum/pics/Animals/Onager1.JPG[/IMG]

also, from wikipedia:

Onagers are a little larger than donkeys at about 290 kg and 2.1 metres (head-body length), and are a little more horse-like. They are short-legged compared to horses, and their coloring varies depending on the season. They are generally reddish-brown in color during the summer, becoming yellowish-brown in the winter months. They have a black stripe bordered in white that extends down the middle of the back. They are notoriously untameable.

in order to avoid such unwanted traits collumella says that the sire for very best breed of mule is produced when a jenny is mated to an onager stallion. than the onager-donkey hybrid is mated to a mare. this produces a tough, spirited mule with stone hard hooves whose endurance is superior to all other mules. another advantage of these mules would be double hybrid vigour. their sire is also a product of crossing of two breeds of donkeys, one of them wild.