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Young Mule Has Job Cut Out For Him

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By JO-ANN JOHNSTON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

DADE CITY - All new additions to the Pioneer Florida Museum & Village's collection are met with excitement and gratitude, but nothing has topped the arrival of Michael, the museum's mule.

This mule is not one of those motorized, all-terrain vehicles invented by car companies for modern hobby farmers.

Michael is the original equine variety, powered by hay and grain, and descended from the union of a mustang mare and a transient male donkey.

While Michael spends most of his time on a Lacoochee farm, relaxing with his new mule-friend Lucy, he will be tapped for demonstrations and appearances at Pioneer Florida Museum.

'He'll demonstrate the important role that animals played in early pioneer life,' said Christine Smith, museum director. 'A lot of what our animals accomplished would not have been accomplished without animal power.'

Historian after historian will tell you that mules were bred to plow endless fields and pull heavy loads. The crossbreed was specifically propagated for work horses didn't have the stamina to accomplish, and that donkeys weren't so easily trained to perform or recall.

In the South's sugar states, mules were used to power small, wooden mills that ground the cane stalks into the sugar syrup used for cooking and trading.

'We need to promote the mule,' said Ed Schultz, a board member with The Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums 'It is the icon of Southern agriculture from about 1850 on.' And yet, even among farm museums that count cows, chickens and pigs among their regular inhabitants, mules are rare, Schultz said. The Cracker Country exhibit in Hillsborough County at the Florida State Fairgrounds doesn't have a resident mule, for instance.

Since the breed has thinned out in recent decades - most mules are infertile - a good mule just isn't so easy to find.

For many years, Pioneer Florida Museum got by with the use of a mule from a friendly older farmer who donated the use of his animal for farm-related events, but the farmer died, and his animals were dispersed.

The museum trustees decided to buy a mule they found on the market: Lucy. Trustee Charlie Kirksey, whose family had mules when he was young, volunteered to house Lucy on his farm and train her, but it turns out the 6-year-old needs more training time to get used to noises and crowds.

Kirksey then heard about a rescued mare in Sumter County. The mare, a mustang, was put into foster care while pregnant, and on Mother's Day, delivered a mule. Telltale markings on Michael's back show that his sire was a Sicilian donkey, said Patricia Cheston, equine director for The Humane Society/SPCA of Sumter County.

Kirksey helped wean baby Michael from his mother and started working with him. The SPCA was more than happy to let the museum and Kirksey adopt Michael.

Cheston said she has no problem with the fact that the mule will perform occasional labor: 'I think that horses, mules, everybody needs a job.'

Kirksey said Michael adapted well in his first week in Lacoochee. 'He's friendly, he's easy to approach in a wide-open pasture. He wants to see everything ... he catches on to things really fast.'

It will be a couple of years before Michael is fully grown and able to take on the adult job of grinding cane stalks, Kirksey said. But he and Smith agreed that Michael can come to the museum and make appearances, and perhaps get children interested in museum activities. The first such scheduled appearance will be Dec. 15. For information, call (352) 567-0262.

Kirksey is certain that visitors will be impressed. 'Michael is awful cute.'

TO LEARN MORE

For information about the museum, visit the Web site www.pioneerfloridamuseum

.org, or call (352) 567-0262 during regular museum hours, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

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