Thursday, November 06, 2008

Just Horsing Around

We often seem to come up with ~~weird~~ ~~crazy~~ ~~bizaare~~ interesting topics in the chat room I frequent on a daily basis, particularly being a group with quite a large variation of backgrounds. Tonight I was asking insanelybusymomma about a photo of her horse on her blog and found out in all likelyhood said horsey is gonna be a momma. That in itself doesn't sound too ~~weird~~ ~~absurd~~ odd of a conversation. However, this is where the conversation went from there:

"C" (6:38:22 PM): Possibly, not sure, I've not had her preg checked yet
"C" (6:38:32 PM): She is in with our Joey ;-)
me (6:38:47 PM): :-D
"C" (6:38:50 PM): For some reason dh wants a baby donkey :-\ LOL
me (6:39:40 PM): and she's pregnant with a donkey?
"G" (6:39:49 PM): *scratching head*
me (6:40:56 PM): **stand beside Gwendy and scratch my head too**
"C" (6:39:52 PM): *sigh* yes....
ces't moi (6:39:54 PM): so that makes a mule?

And from there the conversation became a discussion on what happens when you cross a donkey with a horse (sounds like a bad joke doesn't it)... and this is what we learned thanks to the wonderful people that contribute their ~~useless trivia~~ wealth of knowledge to Wikipedia:

Horse: The horse (Equus caballus) is a hoofed (ungulate) mammal, one of eight living species of the family Equidae.

(This is my horse, Dee is her nickname... She is not pregnant by any one currently ;) )

Donkey: The donkey or ass, Equus asinus, is a member of the Equidae or horse family, and an odd-toed ungulate.

(The busy donkey in question, Chris' Joey)

Mule: In its common modern meaning, a mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, which is classified as a kind of F1 hybrid.

Colbran rancher Larry Amos watches as the mule foal nuzzles its mother, Kate, a 7-year-old "molly" that gave birth three months ago to the still-unnamed "miracle" offspring. Genetic tests confirmed that the foal is Kate's. (Ed Kosmicki | Special to The Post)

Hinny: A hinny is a domestic equine hybrid which is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey (called a jennet or jenny).

(Goody is a Mini-Hinny (I love the play on words with that))

And there you go... just in case you were wondering. A Campbell's Condensed version of Family Equidae (not to exclude or isolate zebras, but they did not come up in conversation ;) ). Hope you enjoyed that diversion into our little world... straight from the horse's mouth :D!