Not a donkey, that’s a mule. Elongated face, wider at the top, colouring, thick set chest without the donkey v, no heavy knee.

Not sure why people keep saying donkeys are small - we have a mammoth jack who is 15hh at 4 years old. They absolutely get big, but there’s plenty of ways to distinguish a donk from a hibred.

Here is a picture of my mule and my mammoth donkey together.

There is absolutely no way to visually distinguish a hinny from a mule. There are horse like mules, and donkey like mules. There are horse like hinnys and donkey like hinnys. It’s like saying you can tell the parents genders of a blue heeler x a pitbull.

This was such a big point of contention it was a gambling game at bishop mule days. No one could get them all right.

Spotted donks don’t have patterns like this. It’s a mule.

They totally exist! There’s 17hh hinnies out there, because there’s 16hh mammoth donkey jennies out there. It’s true there’s zero reliable visual tell between a mule and a hinny - there isn’t a skinner out there that can tell every single time.

Most folks just prefer the mule cross - simpler to convince a jack to breed a mare, and mares have less trouble birthing (plus the availability and cost of replacement, mares can be a dime a dozen, quality sizey jennys are not.)

We have a 15hh donkey, mammoths absolutely get big — this is however a mule.

Donkeys don’t have a pattern other than “spotted.” They don’t tend to have this type of horse-like patterning.

There’s no visual difference between the two. There’s 17hh mules and 17hh hinnies. It’s a crapshoot what either end up looking like — the personality is a tell.

I truly doubt that. We have a 16.3 mule and they get that big via all leg — the dude leading is on the low end of a hill a few feet in front of the mule. Looks like an average 14.2-15.2 saddle mule to me :)

They don’t pick big animals to pack game, weight, military gear or camera rigs — as someone whose longears have had some movie appearances. You want something at shoulder height or shorter.

Here is a picture of my mule and my mammoth donkey together.

Here’s a picture of said mule with someone 6ft riding him.

He nailed it! Mules are tricky but if you have the time and patience for one, they’re good fun. Super smart, lots of opinion, always thinking.

Totally honest mistake - there’s very few big donkey Jennys being bred to stallions, they’re few and far between so you tend to see the lil guys a lot more often!

Spotted donkeys exist, but not with this pattern.