Are Hinnies Worth The Hassle?

By: Greg Sefton

Is the saddle mule phenomenon that is sweeping the country merely a fad? That's how many "yet to be converts" see it. In many cases, people came to try mules because they were "different" or "quaint" and the "in thing" for trail rides. The criteria for "fad" status lies in whether those people eventually went on to something else or went back to what they had before. Most of the mule people I know were horse people at one time who tried mules and simply never went back. They were hooked. Mules are definitely not a fad. They are here to stay. Within the ranks of mule lovers, however, exists a desire for a different kind of mule to set themselves apart from the masses. Some folks do it with loud color, some with large sire, and a growing number think that owning a hinny is the path to individuality in muledom. As most of you know, a hinny is the offspring of a stallion and a jennet.

A few years ago, a friend and fellow mule rider told me she'd always wanted a hinny. When I inquired as to why, she said, "because they're different". She was, at that point, several years into her very frustrating and disappointing hinny breeding effort. The way had, thus far, been punctuated with fruitless breedings and miscarriages when the matings between her Peruvian Paso stallion and her mammoth jennets had resulted in pregnancy. I remember telling her I hoped it was worth all the grief and she said she'd let me know. Her program has finally produced two very different hinnies and we'll discuss them in a moment, but first let's look at the biological problems associated with hinny production.

The prevailing wisdom for many years was that conception was not a problem when breeding a stallion to jennet. Settling the jennet and having her carry the foal to term were thought, by most, including this writer, to be the main hurdle. Early embryonic death was thought to be the primary cause of loss of pregnancy in the first two weeks or so after conception.

We now know this is not the case. Studies were conducted at Cambridge University in England and Cornell University in this country over a seven year period. One hundred fifty -nine attempts at establishing a hinny pregnancy were made in fifty-one jennets of normal fertility using six different horse and pony stallions of proven fertility. The jennets were cycling normally and ovulating regularly. Both hand breeding and artificial insemination techniques were used in the effort.

This resulted in eighteen pregnancies or a rate of 14.4%. Compare this with the normal (initial) pregnancy rates of mule breeding which vary with different studies but generally average about 60% to 70%. To ascertain that these pregnancies were not simply those that survived after a normally high conception rate (as most of us previously thought) thirty-four of the jennets were flushed after seven to eight days in an attempt to recover embryos for transplant into surrogate mothers.

Only five embryos were recovered or about 14.7%. This indicates an actual conception rate (not allowing for lost embryos) that compares dismally to the 80% to 90% for normal horse or donkey or even jack to mare breeding. Conception, as I've termed it here, is the fertilization of the egg vs. pregnancy in which the viable conceptus has attached itself to the uterine wall (after about day 17).

You are probably thinking that it's an uphill battle to get a jennet settled by a stallion. You're right. This is especially true when you realize that the above attempts were made under ideal conditions by veterinarians in top universities. Field results by non professional people would probably yield even more disappointing results.

As you probably know, donkeys have 62 chromosomes (31 pairs) and horses have 64. The mule (and hinny) has 63 and is sterile. The well supported current theory for lack of fertility in hinny production is that the sire must have lower number of chromosomal pairs than the dam. Mules are known as interspecies hybrids. Many other hybrids have been attempted in equine involving various zebras and wild asses, including the Asian, African and a dozen other subspecies. All these have fewer chromosomes than the horse and, in nearly all successful matings, the female of the partnership was the horse.

When reverse crosses were attempted, conception failed to occur. More support for this theory occurs in the studies done on goat sheep and hare rabbit crosses. In the successful crosses, the male had the lower number of chromosomes. One exception seems to be Przewalski's horse crossed with domestic meres. This wild horse has 66 chromosomes (33 pairs). Since I doubt that many of you have one of these rare critters in the barn, we won't waste ink on the data here. No one seems to have the exact reasons behind the hinny infertility situation, but it was speculated in sources of my research that "gene imprinting@ may play a role. Realizing I was over my semi technical head at this point, I decided not to push that one with further research.

Are Hinnies Worth it?

In short, probably not. There is no evidence, either scientific or historical, to prove that they are superior in any way to a conventional mule. There have been, on the other hand, some criticisms of hinnies carried forward from the old days. I have heard old time mule men in Tennessee say their fathers (and grandfathers) had low opinions of hinnies. They used to hold that a hinny gotr the worst of both parents while the mule got the best. I believe most of the criticism was due to size and not to temperament or ability. Most hinnies tend to be smaller because the dam's conformation seems to influence size to some extent. I have noticed, in the fifty or so hinnies that I've seen, an inconsistency of conformation among them. In about twenty percent, the hinnies definitely seem more horse like. They had a softer mane, shorter ears and a slightly higher pitched bray than most mules. Their heads were also slightly shorter and a little more refined without the bony shelves above the eyes. Some of their feet even seemed a little larger and more rounded than a mule of the same size might have.

On the other hand, the vast majority of hinnies I've seen were totally indistinguishable from mules either in conformation or temperament. The prepotency of the stallion may have had some influence on the offspring. Prepotency is the tendency for a stallion to dominate the "gene pool" received by the foal. Those more horselike hinnies may be the product of highly prepotent stallions. Even in those in animals, the differences were subtle in conformation and virtually non existent in apparent ability or temperament.

I had one mule man tell me that he felt hinnies were superior performance prospects because they would "give you more of what they have." I haven't heard or read of any hinnies dominating the racing circuit or winning the mule marathon, but I have no way of proving or disproving the man's statement.

A TALE OF TWO HINNIES

My friend called one day and gave me the "wonderful news". Her white mammoth jennet had finally foaled. She was very excited and raved on about the marvelous temperament and willing nature of the now three week old hinny foal. "She loves people and fears nothing," my friend said. She went on, "She will walk right up to a chain saw A. When I asked her what she looked like, she paused, and said, "Well she looks just like a mule and I kind of hoped she'd look different." This hinny is an all white molly . She is strongly gaited and I had the opportunity to rider her at 3 years of age. She had a super disposition and smooth fast walk.

The following year, the same jennet had another hinny by the same Peruvian Paso stallion. This one was also a white molly and was handled from birth, just like the first. They noticed right away that this was a different hinny from the yearling who followed them everywhere by now. It rejected people almost as soon as it could run. It bit and kicked at every opportunity and was unmanageable. My friend and her husband are excellent trainers. After two years of patience, they were starting to make progress with her and felt confident that she would come around, eventually. I haven't followed up to see how she is doing.

The above case probably has little or no significance, but it is interesting. I have seen other hinnies who were "wild"; including an Arabian Hinny that one mule writer owned and dubbed the Hinny from Hell, in some of her articles. In most cases, I believe, the behavior can be attributed it to their training or lack thereof. We've all seen spoiled or unruly mules and horses as well.

Hinnies are very interesting donkey hybrids which have fascinated many people, myself included, for a long time. But, if someone asked my advice on trying to raise one, I would probably recommend that they try to buy one instead. If you have the time and finances, a great deal of patience and tenacity to produce an animal which appears, at best, to be no better than a conventional mule, it could be an interesting project. Some would say that mother nature is trying to tell us something here ........... Perhaps we should listen.

Common mistakes by owners and trainers can have the opposite effect from that intended.

Why should you be aware of training techniques if you have your mule proffessionally trained? There are a number of reasons. Each time you get on your mule, you should spend a few minutes "training". That is "tweaking" the knowledge he already has and fine tuning his skills. Training is an ongoing process. I believe that mules are either learning or forgetting. They get rusty easily. A mule that is learning constantly is a much sharper animal than one that is just ridden. Besides, I've never seen a perfect mule. There are very few good mule trainers in this country. Hopefully as the popularity of mules grows, so will the numer of competent trainers. You may not work on your car, but it's important to know something about the mechanics of it. You might keep the trainer honest by questioning him. If your trainer doesn't respond openly to your questions, you should look for another one.

I have seen a number of good mules which were either ruined or set back substantially by riders (and trainers) mistakes. Lastly, (good) trainers are expensive (if you can find one). Many of us can't afford the 300 bucks a month or so that these trainers charge. Mules cost more to train than horses because they take longer to train. It's easy to get several thousand dollars in training on a mule before he's ready for serious competition.

I am not a trainer. Let's get that out and over with. I have trained quite a few mules and some horses. I train all my own mules, but, I'm not a "trainer". I consider myself, as a writer and careful observer, to be a communicator. You read a lot of articles on training by "trainers". Most of them have (in my observation) very definite and rigid opinions. This is written from an observer's standpoint who is (hopefully) impartial. For the record, this is not a "training" article.

As we travel around the country cavorting with mule folks of various persuasions, I have paid close attention to their training techniques. Having great respect for (good) trainers, I've made the study of their techniques a hobby. The successful trainers can teach you a great deal about what works. The ineffective trainers may be able to teach us at least as much about things that should be avoided. The old adage that if you don't do anything, you can't do anything wrong, is true, but, it doesn't get the job done either.

People often ask me who is a good trainer for their mule and the answer I give them is always the same. The best trainer for their mule probably looks back at them from the mirror each morning. There are a few people who simply have no patience and terrible tempers who shouldn't ever train a mule, but the vast majority of folks can carefully and methodically work their way through almost any basic training problem with the information that is available to them. Those with uncontrollable tempers probably shouldn't ride mules anyway. They might consider bicycles or camels. Training your mule is partly educating the animal but it also teaches you to work closely with him. It develops a working relationship and a trust between you and the mule. I have always felt that a horse/human relationship is (usually) one of servant and master; given the horse's nature. The mule and his owner seem to be closer to a working partnership with the rider (hopefully) being the senior or dominant partner.

All this observation of training methods has shown me that a few mistakes seem to crop up repeatedly. That is the purpose of this article. To point out those errors which are commonly made by amateur (and some professional) trainers. As in most endeavors, much of the information concerning training is opinion and many will disagree with mine. I guess that is what makes things interesting. You should consult a number of sources and decide for yourself what approach to take. Be flexible. If something isn't working, try another approach. Don't steadfastly subscribe to a single technique. A very fine article in the previous issue of this magazine dealt with leads. The methods used may be the best but certainly not the only way. A number of very highly regarded trainers and clinicians use other means to achieve the same result. As long as the procedure is not abusive, whatever works best is correct.

Equipment:

Gimmicks abound to make training "easy and foolproof". These range from running W's to magic bits. We now know that the old 2X4 attention getting techniques are counter productive. Most of these gadgets are designed to produce instant submission through pain or mechanical advantage. The methods often get results of sorts but the price can be the willingness and ""trainability"" of the animal. In short, you may win a battle and lose the war. Don't you hate cliches'? The mistake I see most often by inexperienced trainers is their choice of bits. Surprisingly, a number of pros also seem to think you can solve a range of problems by just using a more severe bit.

Here comes the controversy. Based on my observations and experience, the mule (and horse) world would not be much worse off if the only bits available were a D-ring snaffle and a "Tom Thumb" type curb bit. You are now thinking that you've known mules that absolutely required harsh curb or correction bits and you're right; so have I. I believe that these mules were "created" by the use of severe bits in place of training (skill or patience). There are "mule bits" being marketed widely which are extremely severe. One is a pair of large rings with a sharp chain for a mouthpiece. Another which has been widely advertised as a "mule bit" has steel bars over and through the mouth as well as a chain below with tremendous leverage. In my opinion, anyone using this bit in a mule's mouth should be charged with animal abuse and barred by the court from ever owning a mule. They inflict maximum pain and, of course, you get the animal's attention. He also learns pain, fear and contempt.

The trainers I have seen whose animals excel at finesse events like Pleasure classes, reining or trail do not use these bits (with an occasional exception). Sometimes the speed events are won by mules trained this way but the animals absolutely hate the presence of anything in their mouth. You can watch them constantly yawing and tongueing the bit. This type bit creates tremendous resistance in the training process and because of the pain inflicted by it, the animal is "bludgeoned" into submission. Unfortunately, it creates a relationship of domination and defiance rather than influence and cooperation. I believe it's important to maintain the mule's willingness and his enjoyment of the training process to get his full potential. Most professional trainers know this but they are often pressured by clients to produce results quickly and some resort to these type devices. As your own trainer, you have plenty of time and a close working relationship with your mule. Avoid the short cuts and be patient.

After "boot camp" in a snaffle, I use a side pull with double ropes over the nose (no bit) for the first year. It is milder than a bosal and keeps out of the mule's mouth while still giving good directional control. We use a snaffle every fourth session or so to keep the mule accustomed to having a bit and for green and futurity classes.

Rather than use a harsh bit on a "stubborn" mule, I prefer to work them in a smaller area like a round pen until they respond well. They are then graduated to the arena.

There, now that I've made a few enemies we can go on to another common mistake which is starting a mule under saddle too young. This is probably a good place to put in a plug for a very handy reference that will save you ten times its price. Get a copy of Meredith Hodges' book, TRAINING MULES AND DONKEYS and keep it handy. I have started mules under saddle as young as 17 months. That was a mistake. A mule should not be started under saddle until he has reached his third birthday. Having done it both ways, I will never go back to starting them early.

In general, mules are not physically or psychologically ready for riding before 3 years of age. Growth plates above the knees of Quarter horses close at 18 - 24 months. We have X-rayed mules at 30 months which still had not closed. They may seem quiet and indeed may be, but with few exceptions, aren't ready to be ridden before 36 months of age. Some small or psychologically immature mules might be better left another year. I have seen that Quarter mules seem to mature in their attitudes at 3 years whiles some other breeds such as Walking horse mules can still be mentally immature at that age. Certainly not all of them, but, a larger percentage seems to fit these profiles. I don't put much training pressure on any mule until he is about 5 years old. That is to say I work them in all the normal moves but don't ask for "perfection" until then.

Very young mules should also be worked sparingly by watching their attention span. When you start to "lose" them, either end the session or do something that is enjoyable for them such as a brief ride outside the arena in the woods. I have seen a number of mules started early and pushed too hard. Many of these animals either became ring sour or were physically broken down. In his 1867 book, MULES, Harvey Riley states that nearly all the health and soundness problems came from those animals under 5 years old. He should know . He handled up to 20 thousand mules a year for the US Army. Mules are easily bored in training. If you can keep their regimen interesting, they absorb training much faster with less resistance and learn more.

I am not implying that training cannot be done on a youngster. On the contrary, I believe strongly in imprint training a mule before it stands to nurse and working with it for the entire 36 months on manners, ground driving, grooming, halter showing and "despooking". If you are fortunate enough to raise your own foal, get Dr. Robert Miller's book, IMPRINT TRAINING THE NEWBORN FOAL. It will save you and the baby mule a world of pain. This establishes the mule's relationship with people and it's attitude toward training that will influence it's entire life.

Attitude:

If you only get one point from this article please remember that your attitude is the most important tool in your training program. Charles Swindoll (whoever he was) said that attitude is 90 percent of life, since life is 10 percent what happens to you (or what your mule does) and 90 percent how you react to it. We often react to a given situation without thinking about what brought it on or what the mule will get from our reaction. Mules are not, in my opinion, inherently lazy or scheming animals who are out to beat you, deliberately defy you or misbehave. I believe they are basically honest and willing animals who would rather please you than have you upset (with a few exceptions).

I used to think that some mules are lazy. After attending a lecture on the subject at the North American Veterinary Conference, I now know that is incorrect. They are merely excersize intolerant. This brings me to my point which, in continuing the theme of this article, should point out a mistake made by many trainers. That is, when asking a young mule to do something, make sure that he knows what you are asking. (I think Lloyd Hawley said that) Remember that even an exceptionally smart, trained mule probably has the mentality of an 18 month old child (I said that). Amateur trainers often expect too much from their mule. When you give a cue for a turn make sure that you clearly communicate what you want. Use your rein, leg, weight and voice (all exaggerated) at first. If the basics have been taught according to the book mentioned earlier or some others available, the mule should respond favorably. If not, continue to exaggerate the cues until he does. When he begins to see what you want, gradually decrease the number and strength of the cues as he becomes more responsive. Each mule is different just as each person is different. Mules will usually respond well to kind and considerate but firm treatment. Take them at their own pace and be adaptable in your methods to find what works with that animal. Most training is just common sense. Try to plan what and how you will teach your mule before you get on him and be willing to settle for any improvement regardless of how slight.

Short cuts:

Mules are more difficult to train than horses. You have all heard that and to some degree it's true. You show a horse what to do and make him do it. You show a mule what to do, make sure he understands why he must do it and then make him think it was his idea. The difference I have found is that there are no gimmicks or short cuts. This is a major mistake made by the beginning mule trainer who is getting advice from the local bronc buster over on the next spread.... " you jes throw a runnin W on that longeared critter an he'll be workin' cows by sunset". Dr. Robert Miller said that mules must be trained the way horses should be trained (I wish I'd said that). Patience and persistence with a little "horse sense" thrown in are the main tools you'll need to train your mule.

Saddles:

Mules generally, have straighter, narrower backs than horses and many horse saddles don't fit them well. That doesn't mean you have to go out and get a mule saddle. If you try a few different widths and blanket combinations, you can probably get a decent fit. Try to get one that's 3/4 rigged. Full rigged saddle cinches often chafe and pinch the mule's leg behind the shoulder. One common error made by many new mule owners is the saddle placement. Those accustomed to horses place the saddle over the withers. However, many mules have straighter shoulders and need to have the saddle behind the withers. A frequent problem in early training is bucking when the mule is loped. This can sometimes be traced to the saddle being too far forward. If you seem to be having an attention problem in your training,, look for any discomfort from equipment first.

Despooking:

The old cowboy tradition of sacking his horse before starting to train it is, I believe unnecessary and probably counterproductive. This consisted of tying a sack of tin cans and tires or whatever to the terrified animal who ran himself into a lather trying to dislodge the things. In the foal, during imprinting and early handling, we have had great success with "despooking". Adult mules probably should not be horrified in this way. It does little to train them to ignore strange things and sets a negative and apprehensive atmosphere for training by association with the trainer or the training area. The old thinking was to expose the animal to the worst possible thing you can imagine in hopes that any lesser distractions will be ignored. Kind of like eating a live toad first thing in the morning so that will be the worst thing you have to do all day. It doesn't work. We all know mules who will fall asleep during an attack of a killer mule eating bulldozer and a half mile later turn inside out at a plain mailbox. The best way to accustom a mule to unusual things is to expose him to them patiently and often. Take him to shows and (when reasonably quiet) ride him in a parade. Lead him around places with noise and confusion as often as possible. Don't make a fuss when he quietly stands when something distracting is happening. This will give the idea that there is something there to worry about. One sure way to make a dog gunshy is to run over and praise him while shoving a dog bisquit in his mouth the first time he doesn't jump at a gunshot. Pretend to ignore the distraction and eventually the mule should too.

Hopefully your relationship will last for 25 or 30 years. Time, patience and the application of common sense in the early going can make that experience much more enjoyable for you and your friend, the mule.