Many people with small acreages are deciding the perfect animal for the homestead is a donkey or mule. They're smart, interesting, generally genial and healthy animals. Donkeys and mules are remarkably versatile and hardy: They work as farm and pack animals as well as saddle mounts, jumpers and draft animals. Highly intelligent - their fans would argue that they're smarter than horses - donkeys and mules are quick learners. Their legendary stubbornness is in fact a manifestation of their talent for self-preservation. They stop and think things through, then come to their own conclusions.
This talent for thinking things through can be a great advantage: If a mule or donkey takes care of itself, it also is taking care of its cargo, human or otherwise. For decades, mules have been taking tourists down the narrow, winding paths into the Grand Canyon - a feat that should tell us something about mules' surefootedness and intelligent caution.
Marvelous Mules
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey (jack or jackass) and a female horse. Heavy-headed and long-eared, a mule has a donkeylike tail and fine-boned legs with small hooves. Mules usually display true hybrid vigor. Pound for pound, they are stronger than horses, live longer and are able to continue working throughout more of their lives than horses, although they mature somewhat later.
Low-maintenance mules have long held a reputation in the United States as the agricultural and draft animal of choice. Among equestrians, the mule has become popular as a calm and steady replacement for the horse. Tim Roy of South Berwick, Maine, has been riding horses since his childhood days in Tennessee. After coming to Maine, he purchased a horse and continued riding. On overnight trail rides, Roy took note of the strength and stability of mules used by other riders.
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"As I aged," he says, "I decided I wanted something for trail riding that was more mentally stable than a horse." He saw the advantage of riding an animal without the flight instinct horses often exhibit in new, frightening situations. He bought 11-year-old Hector through a mule dealer in Massachusetts.
"Hector satisfies my need for a horse," he says, "and the added bonus is that he makes a watch animal for the goats."
Darling Donkeys
The donkey's long history as a beast of burden has given it an essential role in the economies of some of the world's poorest regions. More recently, however, the donkey has found its way into more affluent circles as an excellent family pet and a good-natured saddle mount. A new and promising use for the donkey's special temperament is as a therapeutic animal for people who are physically or mentally disabled. Many donkey owners who also own horses praise the donkey's intelligence and congeniality. People who would never consider training a horse by themselves have been comfortable and successful in training a donkey.
Jan Rowe of Albion, Maine, who has years of experience with donkeys and horses says training donkeys is very different from horses because of the donkey's placid nature and intelligence. Donkeys won't be intimidated into doing something.
"A donkey looks at a whip and asks, 'Are you kidding?'" she says.
Donkeys will become good friends, Rowe says. "They want to be with you. Once you get them to follow you around, you have it made."
Even though they're most frequently used in this country as pets, donkeys' ability as draft animals shouldn't be overlooked. Small as they are, donkeys can pull quite a load. Sally Boyd of Teel Cove Farm in Tenants Harbor, Maine, uses her two standard donkeys, Hershey and Babe, for wood- and hay-gathering as well as for plowing her gardens. She ordered special small-scale equipment from England so she could work her animals in the garden.
Sally notes that a donkey is stronger than a workhorse per pound of body weight and hers need nothing but hay to thrive. "They're very undemanding animals."
Excerpted from Mother Earth News magazine, the original guide to living wisely. Copyright 2005 by Ogden Publications, Inc.
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