#horses - #What percentage of their body weight can donkeys and mules carry on their backs and pull behind them? Is it significantly more than horses, or about the same?

What percentage of their body weight can donkeys and mules carry on their backs and pull behind them? Is it significantly more than horses, or about the same?

The rule that I've always stuck by with horses is that they can carry 15% of their body weight over long distances and/or in the heat, and up to 20% over short distances in pleasant weather, and that they can pull 2-2.5 times their weight behind them. For a litany of reasons, my wife and I are thinking that our next equine should be a donkey or a mule, however in addition to draught work, packing and livestock guardianship my wife and I would like to be able to ride, she's 4' 10" and 95lbs (though that was pre-pregnancy, after the baby is born she might weigh differently) and I'm 5' 7" and 180lbs.

Also, do mules have the same or similar guarding instinct and ability to donkeys? I know that mules have more of a tendency to stand their grown (and fight) as opposed to horses who run from danger, but one of the reasons that livestock guardian donkeys (and llamas) are becoming so popular is because donkeys have no qualms about stomping a coyote to death if it enters his or her pasture/property.

Finally, would our miniature horse make a fine equine companion to other species? She was a great friend to our Canadian horse who tragically died two years ago, but of course they were both horses! I'm assuming that a mule would do fine with a horse since every mule has a horse for a mother, but what about donkeys?

Thanks.

Submitted February 12, 2018 at 10:18AM by awfulmajestick
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/7x2a30/what_percentage_of_their_body_weight_can_donkeys/?utm_source=ifttt