Stumbled across this (as one does) while mooching around the web for something completely unrelated to donkeys.
Never knew donkeys killed mountain lions! From this day henceforth I shall show a new respect to the donkeys on the beach at Blackpool. If I ever go to Blackpool. Now that I come to think of it, I’ve never heard of mountain lions at Blackpool… now I know why.
If Eeyore and Tigger were running against each other for office, I’d likely vote for Eeyore.
Then again, Tigger looked more like a Zebra than a large cat, anyway, and zebras seem to me kind of similar to donkeys.
That’s not a donkey Gary, that’s a mule! Size advantage helped. Maybe its mama was a draft horse.
Tough nonetheless.
Only half a**, then.
That’s the most dangerous kind!
A mule eh? Then I reckon Sister Sarah got a good deal when she picked up two of 'em.
When I was a kid, I read a book about a guy in the US Army who ran a mule train, carrying artillery ammunition, through some mountains in Italy during WW2. He claimed that mules were smarter than horses, because they wouldn’t go where they couldn’t see, so you could back a horse off a cliff, but not a mule.
I couldn’t find the book using Google, but searching on “mule train” and “italy” produced lots of pages, some with great photos and stories. From one of them I learned that you can’t get a Purple Heart for being kicked in the head by a mule. 
Ah mules. Is there anything they can’t do? Besides not breed?
“Who is that guy?”
What’s with all the western movie references lately? Been holed up with a bunch of DVDs? 
Every once in a while, some of the females can.
But yea, most can’t.
William Brewer was one of the head men chosen by the US Geologicial Survey in 1860, charged with surveying California for geology, mineral wealth etc. He spent three years in the field, literally climbing every mountain he could find and kept copious notes. They used mules, as just about everyone did in those days for that kind of work.
He put it all together in a book, recently re-published, called Up and Down California. His respect and appreciation for his mules and their feats are amazing to read.
People idolize John Muir, sometimes a bit too much imo, though he left great legacies and is worthy of our appreciation. But remember, when you are out hiking with your 40+lb pack, that in those days, nature lovers didn’t haul their gear. They used horses and mules and you can wax a lot more poetic about the wilderness when you are NOT nursing a sore back and feet from it.
My grandfather used a team of mules to plow his fields and as the family’s only means of transportation until the mid to late 1940s. My mother always said Grandpa didn’t like horses because they weren’t as smart as a mule and didn’t have the endurance of a mule. Personally, I’ve always wondered if mules were simply cheaper since Missouri was the mule capital of the world for quite some time.
Eric
Mules are cool!
My great-grandfather was a teamster in SE Oklahoma, and could turn around his mule team and buckboard wagon in a city street. Story goes, old John Berry Bell didn’t care much for book learning, and saw little Charles (his grandson, my dad) walking to school one day. The two of them decided that the lad was better off riding around on the buckboard all day with Grampa.
Both were in terrible trouble when they got home that evening.
I had a plate of mules mariniere in Brittany once?
I’ll get my coat…
heh, I just knew you’d pick up on that one
Actually I recently watched “The Great Silence” on DVD… no mules in it that I can remember spotting. But it has to be the worst ever ending in any western ever made.
I’ve never seen that one. Now, maybe I won’t ever see it.
Of course, the best western ever made (and I ain’t talkin’ about motels) was “Blazing Saddles”. 
“Ooooooooh, Camptown ladies sing dis song, doo-dah, doo-dah…”
If you get the chance to see “The Great Silence” then do, a jolly good spaghetti western with a score by none other than Ennio Morricone. It doesn’t have a mule gunslinger, but it does have a mute gunslinger.
And the the final climactic showdown between baddie Klaus Kinski and his gang Vs the mute gunslinger Jean-Louis Trintignant has to be seen to be believed.
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1807427066&cf=info&intl=us
Twenty years ago I used a horse{male} mule to skid small trees for our families firewood. Before he was “cut” {castrated, for you sidewalk type folks} he was too dangerous work near if he wasn’t tied,or on the far side of an electric fence. Two months after being cut he lost enough of his agressivness to start training. After three months of training he was a civilized member of the barn lot.In a year he was a pet.But you never trust them not to hurt you 'cause a playful kick can be as deadly as a mean kick. I never knew an uncut male mule that wasn’t absolutely deadly dangerous. A mule will prosper on a diet that would gaunt a horse. He also is much less likely to eat himself to death like a horse will if he gets into the sweetfeed.Smarter than a horse? Maybe. A mule is more concerned with his own wellbeing than a horse, maybe that is smarter.
Bruce
Mama’s are always horses when speaking of mules. A stallion (horse) is much too picky and won’t touch a female donkey (unless he’s some kinda perve) I figure you already know this, but some folks wouldn’t.
I’m not a bit suprised at this. My grandaddy always had at least one mule. He loved to raise them. In fact one of his mules, named Kate, threw me and broke my arm when I was nine. But, now I’m off track…
Anyway, one of the reasons grandaddy liked mules was that they helped protect the other animals herded with them. He had one that would run a good half mile or more if it saw even a dog come into it’s field and try it’s best to stop them into the ground.Anything pastured with that mule was safe. Lots of folks run mules with sheep as “guard dogs”. Mules are smart critters.