Customer Reviews

The Mule Alternative: The Saddle Mule in the American West

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Stamm is as willing to decry the school of mule fanciers who can see no faults in the animal as horse people who ignore the mule's existence. The book was put together to help a rider decide which animal best suits his or her individual usage, but it has a more important historical result. With his vast collection of quotes from all first-person journals and reports, he demolishes our usually distorted view of the mule in the West as an animal only for the poor or eccentric -- the beasts normally cost 50% more than horses, and was usually in short supply! I recommend this book to anyone researching the West, researching equid use, or looking for a mount surefooted enough to follow the worst deer tracks in the high mountains and tough enough to do it all day for a week.

This book will become a classic of livestock use in the West. Highly readable and entertaining, The Mule Alternative documents the little-known reality that mules were used extensively as saddle animals in western exploration. Beyond historical documentation though, the author affords the reader powerful insights for understanding why many early westerners preferred mules, why mules survived hard service better than horses, why mules can be difficult to manage, and about mule usefulness for modern "explorers".

Yes, this book is about mules, but it is primarily a history book, filled with mule stories discovered by the author in the journals of early explorers and settlers of the American West. Since I am interested in both mules and American history, this book was a complete delight for me. I have already recommended it to a number of friends.

The book is an easy and entertaining read, being mostly a collection of brief, and often humorous, anecdotes from historical documents. The weakest parts of the book are those sections where the author shifts gears and attempts to provide information about the use and management of the modern mule. There are other books that do a better job of addressing these topics. Such sections give the book a bit of a split personality and detract from the much more interesting historical focus.

If, like me, you love mules and also have an interest in the history of the American West, you will enjoy this book. I highly recommend it.

I thought I would get more information with respect to the handling of mules. Instead it is a compelation of stories from people who have owned mules at various times in the historical past.