Horse, Mule, Donkey, Burro by Paty Jager

George

Sprinkle me with glitter and call me a fairy! Ever since reading Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry  in grade school, I thought burros were different than a donkey. That only burros had the line across their shoulders and down their back.

Fifty years later, I learned the truth. Donkeys and burros are the same thing! While some people call a wild donkey a burro and a domesticated burro, donkey. The word burro came from the Spanish word borrico meaning donkey. It was shortened to burro and used instead of the word donkey by some people. These days burro refers to the wild burros/donkeys. Or sometimes if a donkey is smaller in stature.

The agile, strong little equine helped to populate and expand the western United States. The miners found them to be low maintenance and could carry 20% of their body weight or around 100 pounds. Because the donkey came from Africa originally, they require little water and can live on forage that isn't high in protein. In fact, they do better with less protein and having to travel to get their food.

Why did I bring all of this up? Because we have a donkey, who I have always called a burro. His name is George. He is also affectionately called Houdini. If he is in a corral, pasture, field, or any place he doesn't want to be, you will find him outside of it and not be able to figure out how he got there.  He loves kids and being messed with.

Here are some terms for donkeys and mules you might find interesting:

Mule: Cross between a male donkey and female horse
Horse mule: Male mule
Hinny: Cross between a female donkey and a male horse
Jack: Male donkey
Jennet: Female donkey
Mare mule: Female mule
Horse hinny: Male hinny
Mare hinny: Female hinny
John: Male mule or hinny
Molly: Female mule or hinny
Jackass: Donkey
Burro: Same as a donkey but often referred to as a small donkey
Miniature donkey: a smaller breed of donkey

And I have a mule, named Horse, as a secondary character or sorts in my Gabriel Hawke novels. Hawke named the mule Horse hoping the animal would behaved like what he was called. You know, how they say if keep calling someone a liar or a thief or a bad egg they become that. Well, he wants the mule to act more like a horse and that is why Hawke calls him Horse.

I had thought about giving Shandra Higheagle a burro/donkey and didn't do it, but as I am thinking of a new twist in that series, I may just give them a donkey or two. If you could have a donkey-male or female- what would you name he or she? I'll need a name when I add a donkey to the horses, dog, and cat already at Shandra's place on Huckleberry Mountain.

Abstract Casualty the newest release in the Shandra Higheage Mystery series is out. This one is set in Kaua'i so it's not really a western in any sense, but if you have been following the series, you might be interested in it.

Next month I'll have the first 3 Tumbling Creek Novellas in an ebook boxset. I'll give you all the info on that at the Cowboy Kisses Facebook page when they are ready.

Abstract Casualty

Book 14 in the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series

Hawaiian adventure, Deceit, Murder

Shandra Higheagle is asked to juror an art exhibition on the island of Kauai, Hawaii.

After an altercation at the exhibition, the chairwoman of the event, Shandra’s friend, arrives home with torn clothes, scratches, and stating she tried to save an angry artist who fell over a cliff. Shandra and Ryan begin piecing together information to figure out if the friend did try to save the artist or helped him over the edge.

During the investigation, Shandra comes across a person who reminds her of an unhealthy time in her past. Knowing this man and the one from her past, she is determined to find his connection to the dead artist.  When her grandmother doesn’t come to her in dreams, Shandra wonders if her past is blinding her from the truth.

https://books2read.com/u/4XXLke

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 44 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

blog / website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter / Pinterest   / Bookbub

Tracking is an Art by Paty Jager

When I go on walks, I am constantly scanning the ground, watching for rattlesnakes. The benefit of that is I get to see all kinds of tracks in the dirt. Tiny, tiny dots that are prints from an insect, a squiggle whose width tells me how big a snake has crossed my path, the crutch of a bird's track, and the clawless print of a bobcat or lynx.

I enjoy seeing it all, seeing which direction they headed and thinking about where they are going and why.

It wasn't until I decided to make one of my characters a tracker that I purchased two books on tracking by Tom Brown, Jr. Reading the books has been fun! I bought them for research and have used much of the useful information when my character Gabriel Hawke is tracking a person.

What I love the most about the books and the author is the fact he was taught to track by "Grandfather" an Apache elder. This also works well for my character who is Nez Perce and Cayuse two American Indian tribes of Oregon. In my character's background I have that he was taught by his Nez Perce grandfather to follow the animal tracks and learn the ways to be scan an area and know where to find animals and in the case of Hawke following people, where a person might try to hide or look for water.

The most fascinating thing I discovered while reading the book and practicing making marks in the sand to see how you could tell which way a person or animal looked, is while I have a knack for seeing tracks and wondering, I don't have the patience to really be a tracker. I like finding and thinking about or making a story up in my head, but I don't want to get down on my hands and knees and really look at what may or may not have happened.

See the snake trail?

However, my character is focused and he does take the time and slowly piece together every morsel of evidence he can find.

There is so much that can be told by looking at a print. There are pressure points- seeing which way a person is looking; if they are carrying extra weight; injured; or how fast they are moving by the direction of moved dirt or debris.  Then there is the telling of how old the print is. That is the hardest for me to figure out and after reading how the tracker, Tom Brown Jr. learned to tell, I know I'll never be able to learn. Other than it's fresh, it's old. That's it.

He and his friend, the grandson of the elder Apache, would watch an animal make a print and then go look at the print every hour for twenty-four hours to learn what it looked like after so many hours. That is due diligence- something I don't have!

And not only did you need to see the track each hour but you also had to learn how long depending on what the animal/person walked through. Because, grass will spring up as will some plants, while others will break. There is mud - different types which act differently; dirt - same as mud; sand again different types will act differently. dry grass, straw, bark,leaves. It all reacts differently over time.

tracks I made on the beach to see details in direction

Tracking isn't always about what you see.Sometimes it's about what you don't see. There was a discussion in the book about how when trying to track across rock you don't look for something left by the shoe, but something that is displaced by the shoe. The author told about trying to track an ant across a rock. Just tracking an ant is a feat in itself in my mind! But he said, that by getting down on his hands and knees and looking across the rock, he could see where the ant had crawled by the tiny spots of dirt missing in a path across the rock.  That's good eyes!  Luckily my character doesn't track anything as small as an ant!

I love knowing all of this an having read this man's books on tracking. It helps me feel like I give my character a real basis for the things he does in the book not only while tracking in the wilderness but also when he is following leads to find the murderers.

If you like mystery novels that deal with the outdoors, horses, mules, and dogs, you might like my Gabriel Hawke series. There isn't a romance, but there is a budding male/female friendship that may end up in romance....

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 42 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

blog / website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter / Pinterest   / Bookbub