--- Ronn Blankenship wrote: > Deborah Harrell wrote: > > >As for riding - have you ever sat a donkey? It is > not > >a comfortable experience. And zebras are worse, so > >I'd bet the combo is poor. The only 'zorse' (zebra > X > >horse) owner I met said it was like a mule as far > as physicallly riding (ie. not bad), > > > Is that with or without a saddle? > > Mules--at least the ones my backside has had > firsthand experience > with--tend to be constructed in such a way that > their backbone makes a > rather significant ridge down the middle of the > sitting area, whereas > horses--again, at least the ones my backside has had > firsthand experience > with--are noticeably flatter in that region . . . <LOL> I haven't ridden a donkey since I was a child, and it's been years since the last mule, the latter _with_ a saddle, so I can't comment on mules bareback. As for horses, it depends on the breed, conditioning and age - Quarter Horses tend to have what I call "squishy" ie. comfortable backs, whereas the 27 year-old Arab I occ. ride has a spine that will crease your backside - pad or saddle, please! > >but mentally a very challenging creature.
> IOW, it takes even more than the traditional whack > across the noggin with a > 2x4 in order to get their attention? Now, then, no violence in the arena, please! Mules are much misunderstood: just because they won't go when you say, or where you say, and try to scrape you off on every tree and boulder, and step 'accidentally' on your feet, is that justification to vilify them? <g> Actually, I have met at least one friendly mule, but overall they really do require a lot of one-on-one work to develop respect for a rider. In a Leon Uris novel about Gallipoli (well, it was also about Irish immigrants to New Zealand, and Irish rebels in Ireland - don't recall the title...Trinity?), there are a couple of chapters devoted to mules and their superiority to horses in certain situations (war, in mountainous terrain particularly - as in 'Tennessee mules sent to Afghanistan to help the muhajideen'). Mules definitely have a wicked sense of humor. The Battery Mule Song Maru __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
