I photographed this mule on a sunny day last week down in the valley by the river. He was very happy having found his way to a nice lush patch of grass and couldn’t even be bothered to look up at me. I THINK he’s a mule and not a horse, I have never really worked out the differences. I do know he’s NOT a donkey 🙂 He was quite hairy but his mane was quite thin – I wanted to draw him in a thick mane but resisted the temptation. He was hobbled; his front legs loosely tied together which meant he could move about but not get too far. This is cruel and I believe may not even be legal now, however I passed another mule further along that had a tether to one leg tied to a rock and he was not happy about it at all as the patch of grass he wanted was just out of reach, so I feel maybe the hobbled mule was better off. I have a friend who will un-hobble them if she sees it but I am not so brave as to want to get near those hooves, that’s for sure. It is very much the Spanish way here.
Spanish scribbles 
I love your drawings, they remind me of an illustrator whose name I cannot remember. I’ll see if looking things up on the Internet will jog my memory! I hate seeing animals hobbled or tied up, it makes me sad. The way to tell if it’s a mule is by the ears. Mules have longer ears than horses, but shorter ears than donkeys. They are also a slightly different shape than horses, squarer if that makes sense?! Oh, Lottie what on earth are you talking about….! I’d better go and google ‘how do you tell the difference between a mule and a horse’ as well as the illustrator’s name!
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Thank you Lottie for your kind words and encouragement – I would LOVE to know which illustrator you think I draw a little like 🙂 I’m not sure this mule was very ‘square’, I thought maybe the clue was in the tail, which was a bit fused at the top like a donkey tail but then turns into a horse tail but actually I have no idea either….
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Mule, horse or non-donkey, it looks pretty good to me!
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My favourite so far.
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