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  • From: SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Draft Horses
  • Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:20:31 -0400

Lynda wrote:
Donkeys have a mind of their own and a sense of humor. Yes, a sense of humor and find humans entertaining. Mules are more stoic. Thus, mules are "easier."

In that particular conversation I'm pretty sure he was talking about keep and upkeep but I didn't ask specifically. However, that was the general thrust of the conversation at the time.

Having said that, I don't find mules at all stoic. None of ours have been, nor have been any of those I've known well enough to comment on. YMMV. I have known a couple mean mules, but if I had to live where/the way they do, I'd likely be mean too.
Herman, the fellow I shared with a neighbor for 24 years, was definitely into devilment if he saw the chance, and well aware of the consequences. He either 'liked' new people or he didn't. If he didn't care for someone, he'd wait until we were outside talking and sneak (yes, sneak) up behind them; when he got about 3' from their head, he'd let out with a gawdawful loud braying, then turn and kick heels, take off and watch from a bit away....so if it was muddy, the subject got that too. After the first few times, he and the dog worked in concert to accomplish their orneryness. My "job" was to keep talking until they (dog and mule) got into position. I admit to being so entertained by it, I just let them have their heads. There's no question they got a whale of a kick out of it, as did I. He (Herman) also picked up and moved things and then would stand back watching while someone looked for their jacket, or whatever they'd hung on the fence. He had so much fun with the sheep shearer that the guy used to call from the last place before here, to make sure Herman was put up before he got here.

I suppose they picked up their cues from me, because I usually had to agree that they both had uncanny good sense who to harass......they cured several unwanteds from hanging about, like the suited guys (with ties, no less, in Waldo County!) in shiny black cars that used to come to "speak" (in the New England sense) to me about my kids not being in school, that having been illegal at the time.
It's times like that I used to wonder why anyone would tolerate the city to go to the movies for entertainment. Of the critters I've had in my time, the mules were second only to the goats in having a sense of humor. I've never had donkeys here so don't know how they'd stack up, but I'd think just from watching them at the various places around here, they'd be high on the fun list.

Susan Jane, in Maine, enjoying the kind of weather and colorful scenery that toles folks to move to Maine




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