Re: Re: Re: Mules?

["Heidi Smith" <heidi@sagehillcmk.com>]

>If a person had enough
> savvy to get such a mule to conform to a conditioning program, I bet they
> would get in shape as quickly as your average Arab.

Actually, I've seen a fair number of the sorts of mules I described on our
old CTR circuit that we used to have in this area.  Even with diligent and
regular conditioning, most never were able to achieve anything approaching
the recoveries, etc., that most of the Arabs did.  However, we had one
really GOOD mule on that circuit--one that was very intentionally bred to be
a riding mule, out of a TB mare who was herself a good distance horse--and
THAT mule won our circuit championship one year.  So I'll stick by my
premises--that the ancestry of the mule is just as important in predicting
the ease with which the mule can be conditioned and the actual aptitude it
has for our sport as it is in predicting the same for a horse.

Heidi