The sport of kings is recovering. Epsom, Aintree and Ascot are regaining their status as pilgrim centres. For that is what they exist for – horse-worship. We English venerate our bloodstock. Like steam locomotives it is part of our heritage.
We love our horses. We also love our donkeys. But mules ... Mules are so not to love. Not even Clint Eastwood could change that. If we think of mules at all we think of couriers in the drugs trade. Distaste for mules is not new. It was the same in the days of Moses. Readers of Leviticus 19.19 knew that the breeding of mules was off-limits. Horses were legit. Donkeys were legit. But mules, a cross between a horse and a mule, had no place in the continuing revelation to Israel. Such mixes were as much under the ban as garments made of both wool and linen. For King Solomon’s generation, however, it had become acceptable to keep mules as working animals. Tough and well adapted to a harsh environment, they could prove their worth as pack animals even if their pedigree was suspect.
That tough characteristic gave mules an opportunity to show what they were made of in military terms. In rough and rocky terrain pack animals could take supplies where wheeled and tracked vehicles were non-starters. By the end of WW1 200,000 mules serving the British army had seen more than their fair share of the action. Their successors were still at it in WW2.
The relegation of mules to an equine demi-monde in the Old Testament documents and their absence from the New Testament collection is not the happiest aspect of the way we human beings regard our animal neighbours. For a nation of horse-lovers this patronising disregard is not easy to understand. We lavish concern upon donkeys in an admirable fashion. Donkey sanctuaries are well supported. We are grateful to G.K. Chesterton for the poem he wrote about one special donkey (the one, that is, on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem). But our generosity of outlook is constrained when it comes to mules. Perhaps, however, mules can help us be more aware of our prejudices, wherever we find them.
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