# What I found out about mules!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 1, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780 "2004-04-01T19:25:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/21 "2004-04-02T08:35:10Z")
> [@pugluvr](#): > > Okay, I’ll ask the obvious: does the donkey stand on a chair? Of course not. It stands on phone books. ---
**Author:** ![Frumious\_Bandersnatch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Frumious\_Bandersnatch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frumious_Bandersnatch)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/22 "2004-04-02T16:45:41Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > This reminds me of a funny story. > > Apparently when they are breeding expensive race horses, they will bring in an imposter stud to get the mare ready to “receive”. When the imposter is courting the mare, she might kick and bite him repeatedly, so it’s pretty rough play. Then the imposter is lead away, without having any fun, and the real expensive stud is brought in to finish the job. > > My buddy said he feels like his life has been that of an imposter stud. > > 😃 When I first heard of this a couple of radio DJs referred to this imposter as ‘the Fluff Pony’ ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/23 "2004-04-03T01:42:06Z")
**Machetero** - reread the part I quoted. Add a “w” in there somewhere. Add to this the thread title (and sleep-deprived comprehension). Understand why I spit all over the monitor. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/24 "2004-04-03T04:29:02Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > Apparently when they are breeding expensive race horses, they will bring in an imposter stud to get the mare ready to “receive”. When the imposter is courting the mare, she might kick and bite him repeatedly, so it’s pretty rough play. Then the imposter is lead away, without having any fun, and the real expensive stud is brought in to finish the job. They don’t use the teaser stallion (that’s the term used for the “imposter stud” among horse people) to get the mare ready; they use him to tell if the mare IS ready. Horses, with few exceptions, don’t have obvous heat periods, so the breeder can’t just watch her and know if she’s in season. But when a stallion tries to make a move on a mare who’s not ready to be bred, she will make her displeasure known in no uncertain terms. Conversely, if she IS in full heat and ready to be bred, she’ll flirt with him and stand still for him to mount her. So the breeder leads the mares past the teaser stallion every day or so to check to see if any of the mares are ready to be bred; the teaser stallion flirts with each mare, and the ones who indicate by their behavior with him that they ARE ready to be bred then go off to the expensive stud. A teaser stallion must live a life of continual frustration! ---
**Author:** ![Lando\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f17d59/32.png) [@Lando\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lando_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/25 "2004-04-03T05:46:42Z")
> [@Machetero](#): > > a Mammoth Jack (14 hands and up) Call me perverted, but am I the only one who had to read that a few times before it made any sense? 😕 “Its important to feel like your job matters - that’s why I manually masturbate horses for artificial insemination.” :eek: 😃 Well, somebody had to say it… ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/26 "2004-04-03T07:41:43Z")
> [@artemis](#): > > A teaser stallion must live a life of continual frustration! Thus, my friend’s lament :mad: ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/27 "2004-04-03T13:26:39Z")
My understanding is, teaser stallions burn out with frustration after a few years. Just can’t get it up any more. Lose all interest in the opposite sex. Then they take up drinking and hit skid row, or renounce the world and join a monastery. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2004, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/28 "2004-04-04T03:27:29Z")
> [@Intent](#): > > Also, when you have an expensive stud, it’s not practical to allow the stallion to actually mate a mare, when all that semen will produce only one baby. If you use AI, you can get several babies from one collection. And when stud fees are a couple grand per baby, that’s alot of money. It’s my understanding, with racehorses at least, that AI can’t be used if you want the progeny to be able to race. ---
**Author:** ![Intent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5e9695/32.png) [@Intent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intent)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/29 "2004-04-04T04:32:50Z")
> [@easy e](#): > > It’s my understanding, with racehorses at least, that AI can’t be used if you want the progeny to be able to race. Yeah, but as I believe, you can with warmbloods, polo ponies, other show horses who also have high stud fees. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2004, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/30 "2004-04-04T13:33:11Z")
Yes, Thoroughbred racehorses must be sired by live cover, according to [Rule 1D of the Jockey Club](http://www.jockeyclub.com/registry.asp?section=3#one), the official TB registry in the United States. **Intent** is right about other breed registries. The American Quarter Horse Association, for example, allows AI, and in fact accepts foals produced via embryo transfer. Which has led to the curious fact that a Quarter Horse mare can now, [under AQHA rules](http://www.aqha.com/association/registration/embryo.html), produce more than one foal in a year, yet never give birth. Valuable show mares can be artifically inseminated, have the embryorotheir show career. The AQHA when it originally permitted this restricted embryo transfer foals to one per year per mare (the usual reproductive rate of horses) but were forced through a breeders’ lawsuit to allow more than one per year. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780/31 "2004-04-04T13:36:53Z")
I forgot to mention that Thoroughbreds can in fact be bred by AI, but the foals can’t be registered with the Jockey Club, so they can’t race, or be used in a breeding program requiring registered horses. Other registries that allow crosses to Thoroughbreds (warmblood, Quarter Horse, Paint, for example) will accept AI siring by a TB, often with some form of DNA parentage verification. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-found-out-about-mules/237780.md?page=1)