# What are mules and donkeys good for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2020, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144 "2020-09-09T09:33:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/41 "2020-09-10T13:44:28Z")
Happy to oblige! Here he comes… [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50326151853_5d06a42200_b.jpg "Joey") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/45215582@N06/50326151853/) Ready to receive a big smooch [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50326995932_61ea77f0a1_b.jpg "Joeyface") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/45215582@N06/50326995932/) ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/42 "2020-09-10T14:54:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > burro And (my sister observed, 40 years ago) a burrito is a little piece of ass! ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/43 "2020-09-10T15:23:32Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Happy to oblige! Here he comes… > > [Joey | vamdpa42 | Flickr](https://flic.kr/p/2jF9FBk) > > Ready to receive a big smooch > > [Joeyface | vamdpa42 | Flickr](https://flic.kr/p/2jFe1wq) I don’t usually do the “D’awwww” thing on SDMB, but that second picture of Joey, with the big grin, is _utterly_ adorable. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/44 "2020-09-10T15:37:59Z")
He sure is! We had mules to carry our gear for one leg of our long hike at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico back in the day. They were strong, sure-footed and dependable. Couldn’t say how smart they were, but they seemed smart enough. There’s an old Army legend about a pack mule which accidentally fell into a rocky crevice somewhere out West long ago and couldn’t be recovered. The regimental quartermaster, realizing that this was a chance to clear up his account books, attributed every missing item in the equipment inventory to that mule. The War Department got a little skeptical when they figured that the mule would’ve had to be carrying a couple of tons of gear… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/45 "2020-09-10T15:45:41Z")
> [@phs3](#): > > And (my sister observed, 40 years ago) a burrito is a little piece of ass! And a burrito is a little burro. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/46 "2020-09-10T16:08:05Z")
“I believe I said that, Doctor.” – Mr. Spock ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/47 "2020-09-10T16:24:08Z")
This discussion got me interested in the etymology of the term [mules](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule_(shoe)) for a kind of backless slipper. Evidently it is a corruption of a Latin term and has no relation to the animal. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/48 "2020-09-10T16:34:00Z")
Oops. That’s what I get for trying to read the Board at the office. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/49 "2020-09-10T18:43:24Z")
According to my Grand Canyon tour guide, horses can only see 2 feet at a time, mules can see all 4 feet which helps them with hoof placement. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/50 "2020-09-10T22:53:51Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > The traditional picture in stories and movies is that a (non-wild) **horse is a gentle, smart creature** , but that a donkey – or a mule – will only move in the direction you want once you stop asking it to, and slowly at that. Is there some truth to that? Hoo, boy, the stuff in bold had me laughing - I worked on a horse farm for several years. SOME horses are “gentle” (even a small horse can injure without intending to if you’re not alert and cautious - they’re big animals) and some are “smart” for certain values of smart. Sometimes you get one that’s both but there are stupid horses and mean horses, too. Donkeys and mules will refuse to do something they think is dangerous rather than blindly obeying the human - that’s the “stubborn”. A well trained donkey or mule that trusts its rider/driver/trainer will be cooperative for normal tasks. > [@Stana\_Claus](#): > > A well trained horse can pretty much be taught to blindly obey their handler/rider once that handler/rider has gained the horse’s trust and established him/herself and the alpha member of their herd. At that point, the horse will unquestioningly do what is asked of them. ^ This is the thing. A trained horse WILL do something suicidal if the rider/driver/trainer commands it. Donkeys and mules not so much. There are some situations where this trait - self preservation - makes donkey and mules a better choice than a horse because they’ll act to protect themselves rather than obey hazardous commands from a rider/driver. > [@Stana\_Claus](#): > > Aside from that, mules are typically larger, stronger, more sure footed, and have better endurance than horses. That’s why they are frequently preferred for use as pack animals and plow pulling. Depends on the mule, actually - a draft mule is larger and stronger than non-draft horses (such a mule’s horse parent will be a draft horse) but depending on the horse parent the mule may or may not be larger or smaller than the typical horse. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Other than this, is there a difference between a mule and a hinny? > > That is, if I gave an expert a mule and a hinny without telling anything about their parentage, could the expert tell which was which, and if so, how? Maybe, maybe not. Depends in part in how the gene mix plays out, as there are subtle differences in traits inherited from a father rather than a mother and vice versa. Mules will tend to prefer to socialize with horses, hinnies with donkeys, but that’s not a hard and fast rule, either. [Genomic imprinting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genomic_imprinting) is a thing, and that’s why the names of hybrids sometimes differ depending on which species was the mother vs. which was the father. Mules and hinnies are not an extreme example, but there are tendencies which is why people go to the effort of breeding one or the other. A more extreme example are tiger/lion crosses. Tigons - tiger father and lion mother - are no larger or smaller than typical tigers and lions. Ligers - lion father and tiger mother - are BIG, bigger than either tigers and lions and are the largest felines currently alive in the world. It’s all because inheriting growth genes from your father can be different from inheriting them from your mother. For an even more extreme example - the same defective gene in humans results in Prader-Willi syndrome if inherited from one parent and Angelman syndrome if inherited from the other. So, back to the topic at hand - the genes inherited from a donkey father and horse mother will have subtly different effects than the genes inherited from a horse father and donkey mother. Hence, mules and hinnies. Similar in many ways, but with a few differences. > [@kanicbird](#): > > Are their genetic differences between a hinny and a mule? Or are the differences in the 2 hybrid animals just due to what type of womb they were in? The difference is epigenic - see my above link on genomic imprinting. > [@TriPolar](#): > > I don’t know all the details in this case, but epigenetic factors can include RNA which is only passed down from the mother. No, it’s _mitochondria_ that are passed on only from the mother, and they have DNA. RNA is produced from your body’s DNA, you don’t get it directly from your parents. > [@Kimera757](#): > > There are small horses trainable like seeing eye dogs (I think for people who are allergic to dogs). I have a hard time seeing horses as unintelligent. Sure, donkeys and mules are even more intelligent, but I think horses are pretty smart for prey animals. Animals are individuals. While on average donkeys and mules are smarter than horses there’s a lot of overlap. It would not be difficult to find an individual horse smarter than an individual mule. A big difference is that horses have been bred for _obedience_, not smarts. So that’s what you get - an animal more likely to blindly follow your orders which may or may not be smart as an individual. > [@DPRK](#): > > Why do they use horses/donkeys/mules to haul loads in the first place, though, instead of a ute or pick-up truck? Well, for one thing, equines don’t require a nice, leveled, paved road. In areas where good roads are not taken for granted pack animals are still an important thing. As for equines in a city - could be a number of reasons, from “that’s what these people have” to making deliveries in narrow alleys that can’t accommodate cars and trucks to probably half a dozen other reasons. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/51 "2020-09-11T00:22:27Z")
The last time I used it was a few years ago, but I remember trying to figure out the name “Twenty Mule Team Borax” and looked it up: “The product is named after the 20-mule teams that were used by William Tell Coleman’s company to move borax out of Death Valley, California, to the nearest rail spur between 1883 and 1889.” There’s even a wiki about Twenty-mule teams: they were “teams of eighteen mules and two horses attached to large wagons that transported borax out of Death Valley from 1883 to 1889. . . . The wagons were among the largest ever pulled by draft animals, designed to carry 10 short tons (9 metric tons) of borax ore at a time.” ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/52 "2020-09-11T00:49:52Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > There are some situations where this trait - self preservation - makes donkey and mules a better choice than a horse because they’ll act to protect themselves rather than obey hazardous commands from a rider/driver. Donkeys are often used as [guard animals for flocks.](http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/sheep/facts/donkey2.htm) They have an innate dislike of dogs (such as coyotes) and will be very aggressive towards them (although doubtless they can become accustomed to the friendly dogs on a farm). Since they are a herd animal they will happily follow sheep around all day (if properly bonded to them) so are usually nearby if a predator shows up which they will then try to chase off. Apparently they are pretty good at this job and are a popular choice for it. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/53 "2020-09-11T03:56:37Z")
> I recall a thread around here in which people in-the-know were discussing the intelligence of farm animals. At least some posters reported knowing horses that were incredibly dumb. Old saying: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it smart. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/54 "2020-09-11T04:22:01Z")
This translation is about cattle. > **[Leviticus 19:19 ESV - “You shall keep my… | Biblia](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/leviticus/19/19)** > > “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed,... I’m sure it’s actually some kind of analogy that I don’t know because I don’t speak Greek. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/55 "2020-09-11T05:06:45Z")
Except- horses spook. And there is no telling what will spook a horse. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/56 "2020-09-11T10:21:07Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > This discussion got me interested in the etymology of the term [mules](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule_(shoe)) for a kind of backless slipper. Evidently it is a corruption of a Latin term and has no relation to the animal. I’d never have guessed. In my animal-centric brain, I assumed they were named because they’re shaped like a mule’s smallish hoof. I mean, of course! It’s only now, on learning ^^ and considering the people who think all dogs are boys and all cats are girls (ditto the folks who think that about sheep/goats, or that think chocolate milk comes from brown cows) that I realize my theory may have been mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/57 "2020-09-12T22:21:15Z")
One of my uncles used to have several mules. He found them useful for tasks that horses were more likely to be too skittish to perform. My uncle is an avid hunter, and when raccoon hides were more valuable a few decades ago, he would take a mule or two with him to go hunting. He could lead the mules around in the dark with coon dogs barking and running in the vicinity, fire a weapon, tie dead raccoons onto the pack saddle, and the mules would jump fences on command in order to wander all over the countryside in pursuit of more raccoons. He has pictures of one of his mules loaded down with 30 raccoons after a particularly good night. Supposedly, all those activities are less likely to be tolerated by horses. ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/58 "2020-09-12T22:36:18Z")
This is not one of my uncle’s mules, but it is a hunting jumping mule. Since the state animal in Missouri (where my uncle lives) is the mule, and some rural inhabitants take pride in this, you can also find other mule-related activites going on there, like jumping mule festivals. [![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a1/d2/7c/a1d27c24a9574d7b0c045f151abe9a4a.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a1/d2/7c/a1d27c24a9574d7b0c045f151abe9a4a.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Apodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apodder/32/17727_2.png) [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/59 "2020-09-10T17:33:07Z")
Aww, I love him! Does he make house calls? Lol [Mod: edited out spam link] ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2020, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144/60 "2020-09-14T21:56:00Z")
No, but I’ve often thought the house might be cleaner and quieter if Joey were indoors and the dogs were out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-mules-and-donkeys-good-for/920144.md?page=4)