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You cannot make something this stupid up

4K views 33 replies 22 participants last post by  Mulefeather 
#1 ·
I just have to relate a story or two.

We have a good friend here locally. [Actually, he is one of husband's coffee shop buddies.] He is a semi-retired small-time trader -- mostly of ponies and small mules but sometime big ones and about any other kind of 'junk' cheap horses, mules, burros and rescues he can find. He gets a lot of really thin ones off of Craigs List, deworms them, fattens them up, rides them if that is possible and takes them to a sale somewhere.

He gets husband to go with him once in a while and DH goes to his place often and tells me about what wretched creatures he has picked up recently.

He went with us to an auction a while back (I was looking for a big, older trail string prospect) and he bought an emaciated pony for $15.00. I was afraid it would die in our trailer on the way home so I made them put it in the front compartment. If it died, it would not block the horse I bought from getting out. That was 3 weeks ago and the poor little thing looks pretty good now.

Well, last year he bought a really nice big draft mule off of Craigs List. [Nicest thing I have seen him get.] He got her from a guy that had let her run for 2 years with a black stud horse wanting a big 1/2 mule colt for a trail horse. He explained that an 'all mule' was too difficult to train so he wanted a 1/2 mule. Obviously he got NO kind of mule. He was willing to sell this nice, big pretty mule for cheap since she obviously was not a good 'breeder'. You can't make stuff like this up. I don't how he kept a straight face.

That just could not happen twice --- could it? Well, last Saturday he bought an un-castrated 8 or 10 year old mule. He was pretty rank and barely halter-broke. The guy threw in several pony mares because he had been breeding them for several years and just has not had any colts born, so, he was getting rid of the whole bunch. He was tired of the feed bill. He said the mule was 'doing his job good' but either he or the mares were not good breeders. I asked him if he told the guy why his ponies did not have babies. He said "No, you can't fix stupid. I just loaded them up and brought them home."

He has dewormed them all, borrowed my emasculators to cut the mule and has them all broke to tie and lead.

It sure makes for good coffee shop conversation. Everyone always asks him what new stock he has in. It is like the best live show in town to go to his place.
 
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#5 ·
When someone goes out and buys the cheapest crap on Craigs List -- well, you never know what he is going to go home with. He's picked up llamas, sheep, goats, pigs, and a bunch of burros, but he likes mules best. It's like a circus comes to town every day.

He has also been known to go to yard sales and flea markets and picks up junk and critters. Somehow, he gets them all sold and makes money on most of them. He cleared a $1000.00 on the big draft mule. He cleaned her all up, gave her a haircut (nothing looks worse than a big mule with its mane flopping over both ways), found out she was broke to drive and a guy drove from Missouri to get her and was tickled to death with her.
 
#6 ·
When someone goes out and buys the cheapest crap on Craigs List -- well, you never know what he is going to go home with. He's picked up llamas, sheep, goats, pigs, and a bunch of burros, but he likes mules best. It's like a circus comes to town every day.
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The fellow I worked for as a teenager was always buying and selling horses and cattle. I stayed there all week, and my parents would pick me up Saturday evening and bring me back Sunday evening.. One weekend, unbeknownst to me, he had swooped in when a small zoo lost it's lease. I came back to find a mountain lion in a big rabbit hutch out front. Monday morning, when I went to feed the stalled horses, a llama stuck its head out and spit at me. When I walked down to the field where our horses were kept, I noticed too many animals in there. He had turned out 3 camels with them.

Everything was gone by the next weekend. The guy kept his finances close to his vest, so I don't know if he made or lost money on the deal.
 
#7 ·
Sounds like this guy. He would never have passed up a deal like that.

He has probably 'rescued' more animals than any 501.3c rescue. There is no telling how many emaciated animals he has 'saved' and sold them all for a profit. He has never called it that. He just says something like "Well, I gotta go hook up the trailer. There's a couple of mules down at such and such place that need a new Zip Code. Wanta come with me for the ride?"
 
#10 ·
See I don't know why people get huffy when you say that are not a rescue, they are a flipper, just what this guy is, and there is nothing wrong with it.

Guy I worked for many years ago did the same with livestock, he would buy at the bottom end of the market, take the beasts home, feed them well, then importantly regroup them and put them back to the auction a couple of weeks later. Funny how some good food, and sending them in a matching bunch made a difference to the price.

He also used to disappear with my husband, they would take the truck and leave after supper for some local farm or other, then arrive back in the early hours with something, cows, sheep, goats, ponies, anything he thought he could turn a profit on.
 
#13 ·
Welllll I have a similar one, funny that this was in Oklahoma too! My current riding molly was advertised on the Oklahoma City CL and I drove from KS to have a look see.

The gal was selling her because they had a standard jack on their lagoon and were so afraid that this molly would get pregnant. They were separated but the gal knew that the jack would bust through eventually.

I was thrilled that this molly was exactly what I had been looking for.
 
#14 ·
Animal flippers are the ones who haggle to a cheap price of good, quality animals and then turns around and sells them for a profit, either while taking fair care of them or not giving a darn about it other than making that dollar.

Buying already cheap (or pricey) and crappy animals, then feeding them and giving them some manners and vetting, then selling them is not flipping as most people see it. I wouldn't call it flipping but just someone who cares and fixes them, then rehomes them.



I've bought countless rabbits, ones that were supposed to be worth something and in good health. But when I got there, they were all starved, dying, injured, etc. I can't leave them there with the nutcases...So I loose out money, time and space, to fix them. Most survive, recover and end up being petted out as they were no good for what I needed them for.

But I can sleep at night knowing I tried to help them. An animal flipper doesn't care.

My Pinto mini was supposed to be just a normal horse buy, but when I got there, she had bad feet, bad hair, eating trash and had no idea she was a horse and what horse food was (hay, grass, pellet feed.) I couldn't leave her there and risk her being bought by someone who would just breed her for a few dollars nor could I leave her there to keep eating junk and having bad feet. I just wanted a companion mini, even in that state she could be a buddy, so I kept her and she's turned into a great horse, though, she can be a little bit of a demon some days...haha.
 
#15 ·
An animal flipper doesn't care.
REALLY, that is by your definition, and maybe by your experience, but the flippers I have met do care, they care about making a profit, and they care about the horses, the two are not mutually exclusive....an upgrade is an upgrade...
 
#20 ·
Does a half mule make a Quarter Horse? It gets sort of confusing. :lol:

You know what's interesting, is that I was reading about "Quaggas" the other day, and apparently the offspring between a Quagga and a horse can also be bred back to a horse and produce offspring. For some reason, I assumed a horse/Quagga hybrid would be sterile like a mule, but I guess not. Wish I could find where I read that........

Oh, it's from Wikipedia.......am I allowed to quote from there?

Lord Morton tried to save the animal from extinction by starting a captive breeding program. He was only able to obtain a single male which, in desperation, he bred with a female horse. This produced a female hybrid with zebra stripes on its back and legs. Lord Morton's mare was sold and was subsequently bred with a black stallion, resulting in offspring that again had zebra stripes. An account of this was published in 1820 by the Royal Society.[33]


The entire article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga

Well, I guess I'm getting off-topic. But the whole "half-mule" thing reminded me of the Quagga article. :rolleyes:
 
#21 ·
Does a half mule make a Quarter Horse? It gets sort of confusing. :lol:

You know what's interesting, is that I was reading about "Quaggas" the other day, and apparently the offspring between a Quagga and a horse can also be bred back to a horse and produce offspring. For some reason, I assumed a horse/Quagga hybrid would be sterile like a mule, but I guess not. Wish I could find where I read that........

Oh, it's from Wikipedia.......am I allowed to quote from there?

Lord Morton tried to save the animal from extinction by starting a captive breeding program. He was only able to obtain a single male which, in desperation, he bred with a female horse. This produced a female hybrid with zebra stripes on its back and legs. Lord Morton's mare was sold and was subsequently bred with a black stallion, resulting in offspring that again had zebra stripes. An account of this was published in 1820 by the Royal Society.[33]


The entire article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga

Well, I guess I'm getting off-topic. But the whole "half-mule" thing reminded me of the Quagga article. :rolleyes:
That was interesting. I'd never heard of a quagga.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I enjoy horse dealing. It is fun buying something that is either out of control or unwanted.

When I was doing nothing but horse dealing I had buyers in Eire that went around farms and sales buying all sorts, majority quality but there was always a market for 'cheapies.'

In one load there was a bay cob mare. She had come through the sales and still had the sticker on her butt. Nice stamp, cost £185 including travel fee from Eire.

A riding school owner was there when they arrived and took three animals including the mare to try. She returned the mare next morning as she had terrible feet.

She unloaded her from her horsebox into mine as I was taking four for another riding school to try.

When we arrived the head girl told me she was riding the young horse, another told me she was riding the jumping pony, the third another pony and the lowest girl was left with the cob.

The cob was tacked in the horsebox and when the girl asked what she was called my b/friend told her "Mud Eye."
Only when she was unloaded dos I see why - she had obviously spent the previous evening out in a field and had lay down in the mud - she had a big lump of mud over her left eye!

Her feet were bad, she was shod but it must have been some six months previously as the shoes were still on very long feet. As she moved the shoes didn't chink as a worn loose shoe would but went kerflop.

In the arena is was obvious that she had been driven more than ridden and she set her head and neck and just trotted round and round. The girl couldn't stop her and when I called out "Whoa there," in an Irish accent she stopped dead.

They turned her down. No one wanted her over the next few days because of her feet. My farrier came and actually cut her feet back with the shoes still attached they were that long.

One woman who was after a show cob had turned her down. I had her clipped out, hogged (roached) and got her off her forehand. The show woman arrived to look at another horse and immediately bought her. She didn't recognise it was the same horse. Of course the price reflected the couple of weeks we had kept her, and she was sold for £900.

So many cannot see what is underneath a thick coat or how skin and bones would look if they were filled out.
 
#23 ·
The reason mules are sterile has to do with the number of chromosomes the offspring winds up with - a mule has an odd number because a horse has 64 chromosomes, and a donkey has 62. While this can produce a viable offspring, the mule winds up with 63 chromosomes - to be able to reproduce, you have to be able to pass an even number of chromosomes on to your offspring. There's a one-in-a-million mare mule that can, but they're genetic anomalies bred to either a horse or a donkey- there's never been a record of a stud mule producing offspring, or impregnating a mare.

Due to a phenomenon known as "Haldane's Rule" (essentially, if only one sex of a hybrid species is going to be sterile, it's almost always going to be the male), female zebra/horse hybrids aren't sterile (but can have poor fertility)- they usually wind up with 54 chromosomes, giving an even number and allowing them to reproduce. It's one way the Quagga Project has been able to succeed!
 
#28 ·
I have a similar story...
My sister in law has a donkey that she's had for maybe five years? He lives with our cattle as a guard against coyotes. He was gelded before she got him.
She recently picked up a Jenny, and turned her out with Murphy, the male donkey. A couple of months later, she posts on Facebook about how she can't wait for a donkey baby....
A few months go by, and she puts a post up along the lines of "c'mon April!(the female donkeys name) looking for that baby!"

April is fat...rotund. but she's not pregnant. Because Murphy is cut.

Last weekend, we were talking about her donkeys, and how I had been able to get Murphy to pick up his feet for me. She asked if I could go catch him again and see if he's cut...I didn't have to go catch him. I just told her then, that Murphy was gelded. She asked, but he can still breed right? I told her no, he didn't have the goods...She wouldn't be getting any babies.

She was very let down.

Now she's on the hunt for a pony stud, to breed her Jenny for a mule baby.
 
#29 · (Edited)
Analisa - Oh lord. I hope she likes untractable animals, because most Hinnies are like donkeys with a horse brain. I've never met a hinny I liked.

For those who don't know: Jack donkey + mare = A mule. Female donkey + stallion = a hinny. Very, very different animals. There's a reason people raise mules and not hinnies 90% of the time.

Kigerqueen - Actually they are "related" to horses, in that they belong to the same biological family, or Genus, of Equus- any farther out and you're getting into the Order, which is Perissodactyla (rhinos, tapirs, and equids). So zebras and horses can interbreed, but often the males will be sterile, while the females can usually still breed with male horses or male zebras- again, due to Haldane's Rule.
 
#33 ·
Analisa - Oh lord. I hope she likes untractable animals, because most Hinnies are like donkeys with a horse brain. I've never met a hinny I liked.

For those who don't know: Jack donkey + mare = A mule. Female donkey + stallion = a hinny. Very, very different animals. There's a reason people raise mules and not hinnies 90% of the time.
Thank you, I was just about to ask about the two. I know their "names" in German, but was too lazy to google :wink:

One of the reasons I've heard why hinnies are often more difficult is, that you need quite an agressive/relentless stallion to breed a female donkey... Mating rituals are quite different between donkeys and horses, and female donkeys reject the mating pretty hard until giving in. A mannerly horse stallion will stand back and be " ok, not yet":wink:
 
#31 ·
I've had a couple of Hinnys I liked. I thought they trained very nice. I did not raise them and have never owned any Jennys. I lot of stallions will not breed a Jenny. Some Jacks won't breed a mare either.

The old timers all said that Hinnys were not as hardy and tough as a mule is. The ones I had had very round 'horse-like' hooves and more horse looking manes and tails and one's voice was even squeakier than a mule's while the other whinnied.

Sure is strange how hybrids work out.
 
#32 ·
i thought zorses were sterile for the same reason mules were? and i know quaggas/zebras ARE related to horses but not in the sense the wiki quote was. they are related like to horses like donkeys are related to horses. so they could breed but either male or female offspring would have a almost non existent chance of breeding.
 
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