The Difference between Horses and Mules

good morning duane here dry creek wrangler school uh gonna try to make another video this morning got me a new wireless mic so hopefully this will fix the audio problems i'm not gonna lie the audio situation on this whole youtube video thing has been a bird under my saddle from the start and if this don't work this time i think i'm gonna do something different like take up underwater basket weaving or something but anyhow so we got audio and i got me a little bluetooth clicker from walmart so i can stop and start the video from sitting right here so this morning i am a high tech redneck mama's not here she went back up to idaho to help our oldest daughter with the birth of her third child she has two children now that are like four and one and a half and so she's got her hands full so mama's up there helping that until the baby's born so i'm on my own i want to do a video this morning on the difference between horses and mules i've got several requests on that and so that's what we want to cover today now the question is which is better for me a horse or a mule now that's probably not uh the best approach to that question the best approach to that question would be which is better for you and what you're doing a horse or a mule it's not which is better a horse or a mule so we'll look at the differences this morning now as you probably know a mule is a hybrid between two separate species it's a hybrid between a donkey and a horse [Music] most the time most the time you take a jack which is a male donkey and you breed it to a mare which is a female horse and the results are a mule now sometimes and it's much more rare you can take a stallion which is a male horse and breed it to a ginny which is a female donkey and get a mule but that's that's a that's a lot more rare okay uh so we're gonna look at the just the average in the normal a mule out of a jack and a mare okay now i've had i've owned mules i've ridden mules and i've packed meals but i don't consider myself to be an authority on mules but i know that there's guys on this channel uh who know way more about mules who have way more experience than i do guys and gals and uh and so i want you guys to chime in okay we want to hear your input we want to hear your experience this is this is no longer my channel this is our channel this is a resource for people okay a community so i want to hear from from you as well i like to say that mule lovers are like vegans and that's not a poke against vegans or mule lovers but you don't have to ask them if they are one you meet them and within five minutes they'll tell you um and that's just a testimony to what a good mule is uh people are passionate about good meals so let's look at the difference between the two okay so they're a hybrid being a hybrid they get the best qualities from each species the mule and the horse okay um so from i mean from the donkey and the horse so from the donkey now we're talking there's exceptions to every rule in the universe wars are started over people being exclusive and dogmatic about everything all right i know there are excuses there are um exceptions all right but pound for pound if you take a a jack and breed it to let's just say for example a quarter horse mare all right and then later on you breed a stud to that same quarter horse mare let's just do it like that okay let's have a benchmark where we're starting all right normally pound for pound the mule will be stronger than the horse will it'll be able to carry more weight uh the mule will have more stamina than the horse will he'll be able to go longer under duress the mule will be more sure-footed in rough country uh the mule will be able to eat rougher that means he'll be able he won't require as much food and he'll be able to live and excel on poorer quality grazing and feed than the horse will and he won't require as much water as the horse will okay that's the rule um so the question would be then why doesn't everybody ride a mule if a mule as a rule is superior to a horse in trail riding at least riding in rough country why doesn't everyone ride a mule well it's a good question we'll answer that um one of the horse brings to the mule and i don't i don't want to leave the other side out the horse adds refinement to the donkey and speed and agility okay so a mule will usually have a refinement a speed and agility that his the jack his daddy would not have and he'll get that from his mama okay so a mule they have a confirmation is different from a horse all right they won't have the withers that a horse will and their belly underneath is not shaped exactly like a horse so with a mule it's better to have a saddle that's built for the shape of a mule's back although you can get by if you pad everything right but you pretty much always have to have a breast collar and a cooper to keep the saddle in place on a meal their confirmation is different okay um but a mule has one i'm not going to call it a weak point because it's definitely not a weak point but a mule has one characteristic that differs greatly from a horse that gives most people the most trouble and that's their mind that's their thinking process that's where most people have trouble with a mule now the the old caricature is stubborn as a mule you've seen the cartoons with amer the mule's just he he sets on his butt and he says i'm not going and somebody's tugging on holding and trying to get him going he just such a stubborn as a mule he won't go a mule gets from the jack a very strong strong sense of self preservation coupled with that he also gets very much unlike your average horse he gets a strong ability to reason a a mule will think logically on average more than a horse will um and so and a mule's not he has a strong sense of self-preservation he's not going to hurt himself and he's not going to let you hurt him so a horse and it's been known since the dawn of time you can ride a horse to death it's a it's a terrible thing but you can you can ride a horse the horse will go for you until the horse dies all right not doing that with a mule a mule has a reserve and you a mule will get down to the point where his body is tired and he gets down the point and he taps into that he gets to that reserve and he says no i'm done if i go anymore it's going to be detrimental to my health and i'm not going to let you kill me and so i'm done and he'll stop and if you don't know mules if you don't know horses if if you don't know and and you know people will overwork animals just out of ignorance they won't know but the mule knows and he will not let you hurt him out of ignorance uh you take a horse now this is a barbaric wrong way to do it but you can take a horse down to a water say creek or river or something and the horse is scared of that water and you and i've seen it you can get somebody out front with lead rope pulling the horse and somebody back behind him whooping them with a switch and you can get the horse across that water um now don't recommend that you try to pull that stunt in front of me but that's the way people do it you ain't doing that with a mule you can you can pull back a truck up the other side of the river and tie a rope to the bumper of that truck and haul through that mule and you ain't dragging that mule across that river if he thinks that river is going to hurt him he's not going to trust you the biggest downfall i think in people riding mules as the mule is smarter than the rider and that's where it comes down to you've got to talk that mule through the situation and you've got to convince that mule that this isn't going to hurt him you're not trying to hurt him and he has to trust you and he has to have the experience of going through different things and not getting hurt that he he has confidence self-confidence in that so the different this is how i illustrate the difference okay in my experience and my experience in the grand scheme of things is very small so it's worth it's not worth much all right there's other people who have different experience so we just we'll pull all our experiences together in my experience when i'm wrangling other people i've got other people behind me on horseback and or i'm packing mules if i'm dealing if i'm responsible for the care of others i'll ride a horse and i'll pack mules that's what i'll do now is that because the mule is inferior to ride absolutely not let me illustrate it like this if i have a good horse that i have a good relationship with and i've got half a dozen people behind me going through the woods and up through the mountains over some rough trails now let's say someone about halfway back in that string we all stop so we could pick our way one at a time down a really rough place all right and let's say someone back in the string forgot what the reverse is on a horse now one of the biggest riding mistakes i've seen people make is they pull back for a horse to stop and then they don't let off for the pressure and so if you pull back and hold back on a horse that's her signal and start backing up on a green horn when the horse starts going back without them wanting it to they get scared so what do they do they go into that panic mode and they just pull more and they just freeze and so the horse just does what the horse told the horse keeps backing up and starts backing up faster now let's say that i turn around and i see this is going on okay now if i've got a really good horse that i've got a good relationship i can spin that horse around and i can go right down that string right in the middle of that the horses in front and back are starting to get nervous everything's starting to get a little bit jacked up and i can ride right up to them immediately and reach out with my hand and take the reins and give some slack the horse stops the person calms down and we get everything under control okay i can do that on a mule as a ruler can't do that same scenario same thing happens i turn the mule around i say hey we got a problem we let's go fix it meal will assess the situation the horse will say he said go i trust him let's go the mule will logically assess the situation and the mule will then say are you out of your mind do you not see what's going on in there we could get hurt in there you could get hurt in there but much more importantly i could get hurt in there i'm not going in there not doing it and so i have to jump down off the mule and run on foot up there and hopefully get control the situation before it gets out of hand um so to me when i'm in a job situation where i need a amount that will follow my instructions immediately without hesitation and without question i want a horse but if i'm by myself and and i'm in rugged territory and the going is tough um and uh the feed is a little bit not perfect water might be a little bit few and far between i don't want something that's going to get out there and freak out and lose its mind and and i want a good mule okay so in a nutshell on the surface that's the difference between a horse and a mule the difference is number one do you have the patience and the experience and the intelligence to talk your way through a good mule uh if you don't get a horse um either one is perfect for what they are and so what you have to decide is is what they are what you need okay so i hope that helps again i'd i'd love for you guys to chime in um and i hope this helps you click the like uh if you would and uh comments and questions subscribe if you haven't hit that bell and to notify you when i put out more content and maybe do the share if if there's somebody else in your circle who has these questions and who's looking for a little bit of of direction on feedback share this with them and uh so again if anything if if it holds true anywhere be logical be reasonable be safe and have fun it's with mules okay you got to be logical you have to be reasonable you have to be safe and that can be a tremendous amount of fun all right so we'll catch you next time

Channel: Dry Creek Wrangler School

Views: 137,262

Rating: 4.9459457 out of 5

Keywords: Horse, Mule, Stubborn as a mule, Donkey, Jack

Id: tPrxXbaRmSI

Length: 14min 39sec (879 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021