Good points Wynn. However, I thought we were going to keep the "love" thing private?
I agree that the trade routes were extensive and some Indians traveled far to capture horses/mules. Spanish stock show up all the way north with the Blackfoot too. You are right, I had forgotten about folks taking goods down the Santa Fe and bringing back mules. Seems like a few mules were coming out of California too.
I guess more questions I'd have are:
1.. Were the mules in the west really bigger than the horses, or is that assumption based solely on Miller paintings?
2.. Were the Spanish horses generally smaller than the American horses?
3.. Did the Spanish not breed their mules from their larger horses? Did the Spanish have enough large draft horses in their herds to influence the breeding of larger mules and/or in a real breeding program wouldn't they have selected the larger asses and mares (if available of course)? Since we assume they want mules mostly for packing and draft it would seem that larger would be better.
4.. I realize that most of the Mexican donkeys or burros that we think of are the small Abyssinian asses (burros), but when and where did the mammoth jacks come in?
Seems like we need more research into the historic horse and mule breeding in the Mexican areas. Good Hivaranno project or paper for the Museum lf the Mountain Man. Hopefully some of the southwest guys will jump on this.
Thanks too for recommending The Mule Alternative, I ordered a copy from Powell Book's, had it in a few days, and read it in one day. I highly recommend this book. Lots of historical documentation here too.
As Always,
Your Most Obedient Servant,
Gene "Bead Shooter" Hickman
Booshway Manuel Lisa Party
http://www.manuellisaparty.com/
Booshway Montana Brigade
----- Original Message -----
From: Wynn Ormond
...Now on to Gene's post. Gene knows I love him so don't nobody think he will be offended if I call him on a couple things.
.l..So the early Missouri mules were actually Mexican mules from the year before. Granted there probably was a breeding program in Missouri but there was always a huge deficit of mules every year as the book the Mule Alternative documents. So I agree that a mule breed from an American horse,ie any horse from the States was big by SW and Indian standards, had a possibliltiy of being bigger. Still even those would be an ass which is generally smaller breed to a horse and many of them had to be small Indian horses. Why would they be so much bigger?
..I wonder if the Indians did breed mules. Catlin says that the Comanche had 1/3 their herd made up of mules. Why wouldn't they steal an ass or six and make their own if they valued them so highly?..
Wynn
