Er, WHW and mule people?!

stencilface

stencilface

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So, it seems i have arranged to go and see in a few weeks a young pony and his companion friend young jack mule to rehome. Can anyone please tell me what I'm getting myself in for?! Pony is a 10h 2yo and the mule is a similar size and a bit younger. Plan is generally for them to be companions and to back the pony for riding (daughter currently 7 months) in 1-2 years time. Maybe the mule wants to be driven?!
 
:D :D

He has such dinky feet! The mule in question is 10h, so unlikely I could ride him and do that, but theres potential!
Imagine the carnage you would cause taking a mule out, do horses get as freaked by them as they do by donkeys?!
 
I've no idea! Just spotted that chap on YouTube and thought he was amazing... If you ignore the head (and dinky feet) he looks like a big posh warmblood!
Your mini mule could be very cute driven. I know nothing about how caring for mules differs from horses and ponies, hopefully someone sensible will be along shortly!
 
If horses got freaked out by donkeys you wouldn't have a mule! ;)
By the way are you sure its a mule as male mules are not called jacks that's a male donkey
And why is the mule going to be driven and the pony ridden!Horsist I call it! :)
 
Ah thanks jinglejoys, I knew there were some mule people on here! yours is a a lot bigger than the one I'm looking at, and he's a lovely colour too. I only said jack as thats what is on the website so I just copied, he is definitely a mule not a donkey.

Are they a lot more stubborn than horses, like half donkey stubborn?!
 
Used to be a mule who did endurance. I remember seeing him at the Windsor Ride years ago. Horses were fine with him, & he did really well for his rider. much more athletic than they are given credit for.
 
I considered that too smellsofhorse, and possibly it isn't no, but we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it. Meantime I think we need a companion pony as we have 3 and it means one will always get left potentially. If the pony is not sensible (bear in mind will all be lead rein for a long time) then the benefit of being from WHW is that we could (probably won't!) return the pony, but it will be returned having been backed. Then you have the thing of, well who else rides a 10h pony apart from a child?! I have some very light friends who would be able to help with backing, but its not like a 10h pony would have many more adult uses is it, ponies are made for children :)

Or driving, we could break him to drive too, but then not sure who would drive him (then if my horse goes lame again, you'll see me driving a mule/pony pair ;) )

I bet a mule doing endurance would have been great, they probably have rock hard feet don't they?
 
Mules seem to have a similar thought process to donkeys rather then horses. For example of scared they will freeze rather then bolt which often makes then fantatsic for children to handle and learn tor ride.
People wrongly presume they are stubborn but its really that if they don't see the point in something or they find it enjoyable they won't do it. If you make it understand or enjoy its jobs it will do it all day long and be a very trustworthy and hardworking friend. I have a 14hh donkey stallion he is 100% with everyone including the smallest of children, he hacks all day long but he just will not lunge as doesn't see the point in it he just plants and nothing will move him. He also jumps and I am very tempted to try a local show but worried about other horses reaction to him :)
 
That's interesting to know about their reactions to things, I hope if we have the pony and potentially mule a while before theyre expected to do anything they should be well accustomed to us and hopefully chilled out :)
 
Ha ha yes, doesn't bode well for me does it! Our old donkey used to run rings round all his stoopid horsey friends. And took us grass skiing on numerous occasions, despite really being a mini donk....
 
If you're getting it from WHW I should think he's already gelded.No responsible person would sell an ungelded mule and no knowledgable person would by one!
One of the reasons they don't like mules in wild herds is because horses run mule stallions turn and attack :)
 
Stencilface - is this Wilson and Rodney from WHW? I don't know much about mules I'm afraid but I do know about rehoming from WHW as got my boy from Hall Farm recently so if you have any questions then fire away :-)
 
What a shame that the mule is going to be saddled with Rodney for the rest of his life making him more difficult to home. The horses and ponies don't seem to have this on their profile
My mules swop fields and partners and are not trained to be dependant on one another.
 
Yes it is Super T, I didn't want to let on in case someone else got there first ;)

The mule is Wilson, the pony is Rodney, I think Wilson's a great name but I admit I'm not sure about Rodney (wasn't that the guinea pigs name in Dr Doolittle?) although mine is called Norman so I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment!

I don't think I have any questions about WHW really, we've re homed from the blue cross before so I'm hoping it's similar. I think the lady was quite pleased as I don't think there's been much interest. It should keep my mum happy after we lost our blue cross donkey a few years ago, I know she was planning on seeing one for local rehoming. And it should see off the threat of llamas or reindeer which she's considered getting in previous years :eek3:
 
So excited for you :-) hope it works out. I wasn't sure on Diego as a name to be honest but it does suit him and I call him donkey anyway ;-)

There hadn't been much interest in D either, a few kids emailing that hadn't asked their parents and people who wanted to ride him.
 
Ooh, what was he like? Its hard to tell from the website pictures! I feel like I'm getting cold feet now, but realistically we can't have just 3 horses for companion reasons, its easier to get one into the herd in summer and they just looked cute! Plus if they aren't suitable, there might be something else. And at least if worst comes to it I know the WHW can always take them back if its going wrong or something happens.
 
Going to see them on Monday ST, but I keep getting cold feet with time and costs and I just don't know if I'm time wasting or not :o

I barely get chance to ride these days, so doing groundwork with little ones would come after that. And given that they're youngsters I wouldn't really be sure of them around a baby, I keep going round and round! I guess worst case we take them for a year or two until they need to do something beyond the basics and decide then? Feeding etc doesn't worry me cost wise, it's all the insurance, vets etc that scares me. I'm so indecisive! Still, we might see them and love them, or might not at all, they might have another more suitable pony, who knows. :)
 
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