mulishness
brand new member, and probably won't be very vocal
, but just wanted to comment on mules as pack animals and their abilities.
let me start off by saying that most of my experience is with horses, and so almost all of my mule-information is related to horse information. so, to start with, mules are stronger, pound for pound than horses, although just how much weight they can carry varies by cross. Vern's number of 300-400lbs is a perfectly reasonably number for a 15-16hand animal, weighing about 1200-1500lbs. (most quarter horses - cowboy horses - are about that size, if you need a referent.)
mules are also smarter than horses, less prone to spooking, and more trainable than horses. they can go further on less fodder, and what they do eat can be rougher than what you give to horses. endurance riders would be the modern day equivalent to cav horses on a long march; some of them can get 40 to 50 miles a day out of their animals, but they feed them a high ratio of grain, which is expensive. mules will do that with more hay/graze. (i understand that might not be available, but it's still an advantage.) mules will also go into more areas than horses will; they're more sure-footed and agile.
best of all, mules are less prone to colic. this is a really nice feature, because colic can be - often is - fatal.
i agree that you should take the animals you train with with you. this is because you have no idea what the local animals will be trained for, and what they respond to, but you can train mules to handle just about anything. between the two, i'd far rather take a mule than a horse with me to a battlefield, and i'm an devoted horse-fan.
mule gear from the ground up:
hoof-picks; extra horseshoes; hoof-flex/ neat's foot oil; beogle oil/ horse liniment; polo wraps/ support wraps for general support or strained tendons; boots (optional) for protection; pack-saddle, saddle pad, and assorted d-rings, snaffles, and ties and snaps to attach gear; martingale or chest band if necessary; curry comb for caked on mud; soft brush (you should have individual brushes and combs for each animal); mane and tale combs; fly spray or other insect repellent; halter; lead ropes; pickets and picket line string. red ribbon if the mule is a kicker is standard. whips, twitches, and leads with lip chains. water buckets, even in the jungle. blankets for cold nights, sweat sheets for excruciatingly hot days, fly masks would be nice.
shipping wraps will be necessary, but as they're primarily used to, well, *ship*, it's not like you have to take them 'in the field' with you, as long as you have space for them at the depot.
i don't think you need to attach a full vet to a battalion for mule care, although that would be ideal on the home base. you could probably have a couple people cross-trained as vet medics, the way you have folks cross-trained as field medics. most civilian horse owners do a good deal of their own doctoring because large animal vets are few (which means they're always busy) and far between (which means it will take a while to get there) and clinics/ hospitals are even worse. i know of two large animal hospitals in the US, tho i'm sure there are a few more - one at texas a&m, main campus, and another in louisville, KY. most doctoring is done at the barn.
maintainence care for equids includes: shoes are on a 16 week rotation, provided the shoes don't get thrown off. deworming cycles are every 6 weeks, and the usual is to cycle between 3 and four worming medicines so that the parasites don't get resistent to one. teeth floating - basically, taking a file to the teeth to knock off the sharp points. you do this because most domestic equids don't get enough dirt and sand in their diet to do it for you.
if you're actually in-country for more than 4 months at a time, you can rotate groups of mules thru the shoeing, so you're not doing it all at once. and as someone pointed out, most shoes these days start as blanks, and are just altered a bit in a forge. this takes an anvil, and electric forge, a few shaping tools, and something that basically looks like a giant nail clipper to trim the hoof and later help hold the shoe on while you nail it. nails, of course.
deworming is usually, oral, tho there are intra-venous shots; this requires hitting the big neck vein on the side of the neck. again, something most horse owners take care of themselves.
teeth floating... well, the vet usually does this one, but i think, like shoeing, it's an individual skill you could learn without much difficulty.
there's a bunch of common ailments that most horse owners take care of themselves to a point, too - thrush; strained muscles; colic can often be walked out; minor wounds might require corona or other topical anti-biotic, major surface wounds would require stitching, but horses can be taught to withstand the sensation (twitches help, so does local anesthetic); etc ad nauseum. the big key to equine care is to know the foibles of each animal under your care, and learn how they signal something is wrong. most equids don't make noise if they're in pain. they don't whimper like dogs do, for example.
i don't think it would be that hard to add basically a 'vet medic' specialty as a variant, and i think given the loads being mentioned here that a mule train would be a very good idea in some situations.
i should also remind folks that equids pull much more than they carry. single draft horses regularly break, start, and pull 2 ton+ trees in some fringe forest harvesting operations. so if you can fathom a reason to need an equid to *pull* a wagon or sleigh, the right one can pull quite a lot.
my two cents.
-boogieshoes
