F 1 Hybrid

A new friend, found on a long walk this evening.

A rare sight these days. Yes! For those of you that a sharper than me its a Mule!

The offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.

Once a more common sight as a pack animal, mules are now rather out of fashion here in the UK. However, they are still used by the army in Afghanistan in areas that are difficult to access by motor vehicles.

This little lady - she is the size of a small pony, was enjoying the evening sunshine, but stopped grazing for a few moments to come and say 'hello'.

When the parentage is the other way round i.e. a male horse and a female donkey, the offspring is called a Hinny.

Because the horse and donkey are different species, the offspring is invariably infertile, but there are a few known cases of mule mares that have bred foals of their own.