Wynn you are right that Miller seems to paint the mules larger than the horses. I do not disagree with Dave Hunt that there was some artistic license involved, as we see that in a lot of the details of Miller's paintings. Most of which are done at a later date and some almost 20 years after his trip west.
However, when reading the fur trade journals etc., it seems that the majority of the Mules came from Missouri. It was a major enterprise in western Missouri to raise and sell mules for the expeditions west. It seems that most of these mules were being bred with the draft horses of the day. This may account for their larger size. There were also some mules coming out of Mexico and I don't know what they were breeding their donkeys with. These Mexican mules were probably more common in the southern Rockies than in the northern areas where Miller was. It would seem likely that the mules from both locations, being used more commonly for draft animals, that they would have naturally been breed to the larger horses. The Indians generally were not breeding mules and what they had came from the EuroAmericans. Now Miller leaves with Stewart from St. Louis to Waterloo or Independence, Missouri with representatives of the American Fur Company. The AFC is buying all of the mules and some horses they can get in Waterloo, for their trip west. Would these mules not be bigger than the horses encountered further west? Just my thoughts, I'm neither a horse nor a mule expert.
As Always,
Your Most Obedient Servant,
Gene "Bead Shooter" Hickman
Booshway Manuel Lisa Party
http://www.manuellisaparty.com/
Booshway Montana Brigade
----- Original Message -----
From: David Hunt
In his post Wynn Ormand said: <-----(stuff deleted)----- It has always interested me that
Miller painted the mules larger than the horses. Perhaps artistic license since a horse
was a romantic figure and the art of the day made such things as horses and men be drawn
with tiny feet and etc. Still I wonder. -----(stuff deleted)----->
Wynn,
I once read somewhere that the horses of the day were actually much smaller in size than
the horses of today, which would account for what appears to be small horses in the Miller
paintings.
Longshot
