Brief by Central Staff
Education – December 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Every once in a while, we joke that collegiate athletics in Colorado would make more sense if state schools took up Colorado’s only indigenous sport: pack-burro racing.
While we have yet to see stables on any campus, or a donkey derby between Western and Adams State, let alone CU and CSU, we have learned that a California college has introduced mules to higher education.
Dale Orth, a Gunnison subscriber, tipped us to an article in the Oct. 7 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Pierce College in Woodland, Calif., now offers a semester-long course in “mulemanship,” taught by Johnnie Stroud. She points out that a mule, a cross between a jackass and a mare, has a thought process that “is a little different than a horse’s. A mule will think about things more.”
Pierce has an extensive equestrian program to educate horse trainers. Two of her nine students, Stroud said, want to learn how to pack with mules, while the others are merely curious. “There’s an interest out there, but there’s not a lot of education about them.”
We note that despite a dearth of donkeys, we know of other mules in higher education. Since 1899, the mascots of the United States Military Academy — West Point — have been mules. The current mascots are named Raider, Ranger II, and General Scott.
We understand why the Army has a mule for a mascot, since the hybrid beasts have a long military history. And the falcon makes sense for the Air Force Academy. But why does the Naval Academy use a land-lubber goat?
