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Concept
Mule
Summary
The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two possible first-generation hybrids between them, the mule is easier to obtain and more common than the hinny, which is the offspring of a female donkey (a jenny) and a male horse (a stallion).
Mules vary widely in size, and may be of any color. They are more patient, hardier and longer-lived than horses, and are perceived as less obstinate and more intelligent than donkeys.
A female mule that has oestrus cycles, and so could, in theory, carry a foetus, is called a "molly" or "Molly mule", although the term is sometimes used to refer to female mules in general. A male mule is properly called a "horse mule", although it is often called a "john mule", which is the correct term for a gelded mule. A young male mule is called a "mule colt", and a young female is called a "mule filly".
Breeding of mules became possible only when the range of the domestic horse, which originated in Central Asia in about 3500BC, extended into that of the domestic ass, which originated in north-eastern Africa. This overlap probably occurred in Anatolia and Mesopotamia in Western Asia, and mules were bred there before 1000BC.
A painting in the Tomb of Nebamun at Thebes, dating from approximately 1350BC, shows a chariot drawn by a pair of animals which have been variously identified as onagers, as mules or as hinnies. Mules were present in Israel and Judah in the time of King David. There are many representations of them in Mesopotamian works of art dating from the first millennium BC. Among the bas-reliefs depicting the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal from the North Palace of Nineveh is a clear and detailed image of two mules loaded with nets for hunting.
Homer noted their arrival in Asia Minor in the Iliad in 800 BC.
Christopher Columbus allegedly brought mules to the New World.
George Washington bred mules at his Mount Vernon home.
Official source
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