Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's Salmon Mule Sale

The Salmon Idaho Mule Sale this Friday Night! Packing Clinics this weekend. Steve Edwards Training Wednesday and Thursday, need a mule? Come getchaone.....or two.

Poked my head in at Jake Clark's mule sale last year. Nice bunch of people,

Both my geldings were bought at that sale. The horses go Saturday.

Got me a dandy molly appy mule. $1500 what a hoot!

Wish it was closer to me id be there

I come from Pa to go to that sale. Wish I was closer also.

Angus 1895 how is the molly mule working out?

She is a dandy. We kept her in isolation for a while. Floated her teeth, then the new farrier hit the quick on her sole! Now she has a shoe boot and is on antibiotics. She come sound today. I honestly believe she will be one of the best mules I have ever owned. She mouths a few years older than represented and she is nearly 16 hands. But I have not been around a more gentle and respectful mule in a long long time. Thanks for asking!

What are the advantage of a mule over horses guys? Are they decent riding stock, or just good for packing?

Thanks,

Jordan

Young Californio kid I rodeoed with in the 70s trained spayed bit mules in the old bridle horse way starting with a bosal and working down in size to a pencil then letting the mule learn to carry the spade before he ever put reins on it then 4 reining to the finish took about 2 years but what a joy to watch a finished one, you could hardly see his hands move on the reins but those mules would put on a show not to be believed. His were all about 15 hands with very fine heads. Looked almost lie a QH with long ears beautiful animals.

I have been riding mules since 1976, used them since 69 .Don't have horse on the place and haven't since 2001 and that was a mare to breed and make mules.

Some generalities.
A good mule is ten times better than a good horse, but a bad mule is 100 times worse than a bad horse.

Very few riders that switch to a GOOD mule seldom go back to riding a horse.

Mules are healthier than a horse,
Can subsist on rougher forage
Eat less.
Usually have better feet if taken care of.
Are smarter than horse.
A mule the same size as a horse can out work the horse due to the hybrid vigor.
Are more personable than a horse.

However, not everyone can get along with a mule and a mule may or may not get along with certain individuals. It's mostly because the human tries to treat the mule as they treat a horse and that doesn't work. They don't take time to learn how a mule's mind works and that gets the human in trouble.

Mules have a higher sense of self preservation that they get from the donkey part of the equation. Consequently it takes different training techniques and many time it takes longer to train the mule, but once trained they don't back slide like a horse. You can take a well trained mule, turn it out to pasture for two years, catch it up and saddle it and it will act like it was rode yesterday a horse.

Although some mules will work with a horse barred saddle, most of the time you have to have a saddle that fits a mule's back that is different than a horse.

I don't buy mules at auctions or sales.

These are some of the basics ,but you could fill three-four pages.

Yesterday we took some goats to the local livestock Saturday sale. Someone sold a mule for $100. It was a long, rangy looking critter. Why do I think that it wasn't the best way to spend $100?

Years ago, I bought a mule that came out of a herd that was running on a big pasture in Nebraska. The guy brought down 75 head and I bought one for $225 as I recollect.

I worked on that mule for 16 weeks, twice a day, and I got so I could put a pack saddle on him and taught him he could not drag me all over the place if I had tree close to snub before he hit the end of the rope. I figure with vet fees, gates he smashed and other damage I had another $500 tied up in him.

I finally took him to a local sale ring. I had an older two horse Stidham trailer and when I put him in, he promptly put both his front feet thru the windows in front. He rode to the sale barn that way with his front feet sticking out.
To keep him from climbing out, we had to put him in a bull pen that had a top on it until I took him thru the sale. I got $90 for him.

I'm sure the guy who bought him probably could have spent that money more wisely, but I was extra happy. That mule was sort of like my college degree in mule handling.

Reminds me of a friend that bought a mule to deer hunt on. At the time there was a lot of CRP ground in grass and small pines. Some would stand on the edges of the field and others would ride through and try to jump the deer. My friend was lucky enough to kill a buck and the mule did not seem to mind, until they tried to load the deer on him. He took exception and kept bucking it off. Next day they jumped a deer and the mule went to bucking at once. My friend vowed to break him to deer hunt on but after two more years, he gave up. miles

We have quite a few mules in our strings that we got for less than $300. We don't ride them, but they've made great pack mules. They get the advantage though of being worked all summer and fall. They probably wouldn't have made anything if all they ever did was one elk hunt a year.

I love mules, I like horses. To me riding a horse is like riding a snowmobile that is losing traction. I cannot seem to feel the back foot land as well. You need a good bell mare though .....make for better mules! I think my biggest bias is I am too cheap to buy a good horse.....rather buy a gentle mule...just braying.

Running a pack string, a good mare is sure helpful in leading mules, but a good mule will work as well. The problem arises when you want to make the mule go somewhere it deems unsafe. With a horse, you can force them, not so with a mule. This is why most packers lead with a horse.

Run your saddle mules with horses, particularly mares out in open pasture or all penned together and you quickly get mules buddy soured to that mare. That is a hard problem to cure. Most fixes are only temporary until you turn the mule back out with the herd.

I got rid of the few horses I had about 12 years ago and have only had mules since then. Everything is a lot quieter and more pleasurable now.

I did just trade off a molly though. Last spring I had to put down a little mule I had that was 30 years old. This molly had been with that mule all her 12 years and when she lost her buddy her disposition changed dramatically. I didn't mind her being attached to that little mule because 99% of the time, he was along as a pack animal. For the first 4 months, she moped around, really acted depressed. Then she would attach herself to any horse or mule that was near. I could ride her out by herself and she was fine, but if we passed another horse or mule, she would act out and it was darn near impossible to get her to leave it. She is in a pack string now with an outfitter in a herd environment and I think she will do fine. Darn shame because she was a good saddle mule before she changed.