The Poitevin mule or is a type of large

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...

from the former

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Poitou Poitou ( , , ; ; Poitevin: ''Poetou'') was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers. Both Poitou and Poitiers are named after the Pictones Gallic tribe. Geography The main historical cities are Poitiers (historical ...

in western central France. It is the product of

mating In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite-sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. ''Fertilization'' is the fusion of two gametes. '' Copulation'' is the union of the sex organs of two sexually repr ...

between a

Baudet du Poitou The Baudet du Poitou, also called the Poitevin or Poitou donkey, is a French breed of donkey. It is one of the largest breeds, and jacks (donkey stallions) were bred to mares of the Poitevin horse breed to produce Poitevin mules, which were f ...

jack or donkey stallion with a

mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equidae, equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more th ...

of the Poitevin Mulassier breed of

draught horse A draft horse (US) or draught horse (UK), also known as dray horse, carthorse, work horse or heavy horse, is a large horse bred to be a working animal hauling freight and doing heavy agricultural tasks such as plough, plowing. There are a nu ...

. Mule production was an important industry in Poitou for three hundred years or more, and the number of mule foal births may have reached 30,000 per year. In the early twentieth century there were about 50,000 Poitevin Mulassier brood mares, which gave birth to some 18,000–20,000 mule foals per year. The Poitevin mule was well known for its size and strength, and was exported to other parts of France and to many countries, among them Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey; many travelled further, to the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

and the United States. With the

mechanisation of agriculture Mechanised agriculture or agricultural mechanization is the use of machinery and equipment, ranging from simple and basic hand tools to more sophisticated, motorized equipment and machinery, to perform agricultural operations. In modern times, po ...

after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, demand for mules rapidly fell to low levels. By the 1990s the Poitevin Mulassier was

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

, and mares were mostly put to Mulassier stallions in order to increase breed numbers. Approximately twenty Poitevin mules are born each year. In 2017 there were 195 active Mulassier brood-mares. Of these, about 25% were covered by Baudet jacks; 26 mule foals were born. The Poitevin mule was recognised by the Haras Nationaux of France in 2002; a mule foal born to a registered and approved Baudet du Poitou jack and a registered Poitevin Mulassier mare is automatically eligible for registration in the

stud-book A breed registry, also known as a herdbook, studbook or register, in animal husbandry, the hobby of animal fancy, is an official list of animals within a specific breed whose parents are known. Animals are usually registered by their breeders w ...

of the Poitevin mule.

References

{{reflist, 45em, refs= Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016)
''Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding''
(sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. {{ISBN, 9781780647944. Elwyn Hartley Edwards (1994). ''The Encyclopedia of the Horse''. London; New York; Stuttgart; Moscow: Dorling Kindersley. {{ISBN, 0751301159. Élise Rousseau, Yann Le Bris, Teresa Lavender Fagan (2017)
''Horses of the World''
Princeton: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN, 9780691167206. Mule Poitevine
(in French). Association Nationale des Races Mulassières du Poitou. Archived 8 February 2018. Trait Poitevin Mulassier
(in French). Association Nationale des Races Mulassières du Poitou. Accessed June 2019. Mules Agriculture in Nouvelle-Aquitaine Poitou