The Mule: A Treatise on the Breeding, Training, and Uses to Which He May Be PutRiley, Harvey
History
The Mule: A Treatise on the Breeding, Training, and Uses to Which He May Be Put
Riley, Harvey
Mules
fourteen and a half hands high, and not one that weighs over nine
hundred pounds. This team, I ought to add here, has frequently been
without a bite of hay or grain for four or five days, and nothing to eat
but what they could pick up along the road. And there are instances when
they have been twenty-four hours without a sup of water. The experienced
eye will see that they have round, compact bodies, and stand well on
their feet.
No. 2 is the leader of the team, and for light work on the prairies,
packing, or any similar work, is a model mule. Indeed, she cannot be
surpassed. Her bone and muscle is full, and she is not inclined to run
to flesh.
No. 3 is the off-leader of the same team. She is a good eater, tough,
hardy, and a good worker,--in every way a first-class mule. I would
advise persons purchasing mules to notice her form. She is a little
sprung in the knees; but this has in no way interfered with her working.
This was occasioned by allowing the heels on her fore-feet to grow out
too much. During, and for some time after, the second battle of Bull
Run, the train to which she belonged was kept at very hard work. The
shoes that were on her at that time, to use the driver's own language,
were "put on to stay." Indeed, he informed me that they were on so long,
that he concluded they had grown to the feet. And in this case, as in
many others, for want of a little knowledge of the peculiarities of a
mule's feet, and the injury that results from over-growth, the animal
had to suffer, and was permanently injured.
No. 4 is the off-swing, or middle-leader mule. She is perfectly sound,
of good height, a good eater, and a great worker. She is also well
adapted for packing, and a tolerably good rider. Her ears and eyes are
of the very finest kind, and her whole head indicates intelligence. Her
front parts are perfection itself. She is also remarkably kind.
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No. 5 is the near swing mule, or middle leader. She is what is called a
mouse-color, and is the fattest mule in the team. She underwent the
entire campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, and is to-day without a
blemish, and capable of doing as much work as any mule in the pack. Her
powers of endurance, as well as her ability to withstand starvation and
abuse, are beyond description. I have had mules of her build with me in
trains, in the Western Territories, that endured hardship and starvation
to an extent almost incredible; and yet they were remarkably kind when
well treated, and would follow me like dogs, and, indeed, try to show me
how much they could endure without flinching.
No. 6 is an off-wheel mule, of ordinary quality. I had to take the
spotted mules from the wheels of this team, as they were not equal to
the work required of them, and got very sore in front.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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