hinny Advice

Does anyone have any experience with hinnies? I recently aquired one and am wondering if I can get some advice about them. She is 4 years old, extremely skiddish, and has never been trained. She does not like men at all and with panic to the point of possibly hurting herself to get away from them. Is it too late for her to overcome her fear of men and train her?
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A horse sire, and a donkey jenny.. I've never seen one in person, but wouldnt it be the most like a donkey, than a mule?

Its never 'too late' to train, not equine, not dogs, not anything.. if you have the time, she has the mentality to absorb what you're showing her.

Just start slow. ;)

Thanks, I've been working with her and am slowly gaining her trust, and I can tell already that it is going to be awhile before she truly trusts me.


As for appearance, one would think that a hinny would look more like it's donkey mother, but it is really just the opposite. The only traits that really appear in them from mom are their ears, height, and a cross on their back (I'm not sure if all hinnies have a cross on them, but mine does).

I'll post a pic of my hinny on here tomorrow:)
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Photos!

Hinnies are much more 'horse-like' than mules, but they respond very well to 'restraints' just like mules do.

1) I would first teach her to tie solidly.

2) I would sack her out with a long soft 'scotch rope' that I have made. It is 25 feet long made of 1 inch soft cotton rope that has been un-twisted and re-braided into a soft 3 strand braid. I tie one end around a horse's neck and get them used to the rope everywhere and pick up their back feet with it. This, alone, helps get a lot of them over their fears.

3) As soon as you can handle her feet and legs, four-way hobbles will teach her very quickly that anything you want to do is OK. Hinnies and mules are usually too smart to fight them and you can 'gentle' one very quickly with them. They have the added value of teaching them to NOT FIGHT getting tangled up or in a fence. They just patiently stand there and wait for you to get them untangled.

Hinnies and mules are so much smarter than horses, that they can get spoiled 10X easier. If a hinny or mule steps toward you or moves their butt toward you and you step back, they INSTANTLY think of you as 'unworthy'. You have to portray to them an image of strength and control and they respond by looking up to you as their leader. They do this much more quickly and easily than horses do. Their quick response to restraints like 4-way hobbles is nothing short of 'magical'. I used to demonstrate it to people and the could not believe the instant change in their mule's or hinny's behavior and whole demeanor.

They are almost as bad a mules about learning to pull away with a person in the end of a lead-rope. I always skipped round pen and longeing work with them because they usually just learned to get away from a handler. It is almost impossible to break this bad habit and usually dooms them to having to have a chain on their halter ever after. Restraints just work much better and having them anchored while they are learning prevents HUGE problems.

Here's a link to some photos!
But, just an FYI, there are also some pic.'s of my (hopefully preggo) donkey and lil piggy on here as well, couldn't get a link of just the hinny pics.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=eb8059ac13
She's the one in the blue halter.
Hope you Enjoy!

A friend's hinny is more like a large donkey. It's sire was an appaloosa curly and that is the only horse trait that showed up.

Interesting post Cherie. I didn't know that the training process when it comes to mules/hinnies is required to be so much more 'refined' than with horses. It certainly makes sense though!

It is interesting that you knew a hinny that was more donkey-like than horse-like. I have also seen a few mules that are more horse-like --- like mules with a full horse-type of tail.

Mules and hinnies are so much smarter that they just do not let you make the mistakes that most horses let you make. They just are not as 'forgiving' as a horse is.

But, once they are trained, they will cut you lot more slack than any horse. Then, they really take care of you.