Do mules have horse fathers and donkey mothers or horse mothers and donkey fathers or both?

Question

How are the offspring different?

Answer 1

Mules are produced by a male donkey & female horse. Typically they are larger in size than a hinny (which is produced by a female donkey & male horse.)

Usually both mules & hinnies are sterile- if by chance they do produce offspring then the offspring (F2 generation) will be sterile b/c of chromosome number differing.

Answer 2

Hinnys are usually smaller than mules due to their dam providing limited resources during embryogenesis. However this is dependent on the choice of jennet used in breeding. Donkeys vary from 6 to 15 hands between the miniatures and the Mammoth breeds. This means the hinny will be a normal foal size for the donkey's breed at birth but will have the potential to grow larger if the stud was a larger breed.
http://www.lovelongears.com/about_mules.html

Mules can be used for riding just as horses are and have even been used in dressage. I was fortunate to be at Dressage at Devon the first time a mule competed. Since mules are not common on the East Coast it was a very interesting response from the audience. Since that time riding mules have become more established.

Answer 3

A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and female horse. The offspring of a male horse and female donkey is called a hinny.

Answer 4

mules have male donkey as father & female horse as mother

but in case of hinny its opposite.

both mule and hinny are sterile

Answer 5

If memory serves it is a male horse and female donkey only.