Mules and Hinnys are almost always sterile. There have been a very VERY few documented cases of either a mule or hinny foaling. Is your hubby sure it is a hinny? Most people cant tell the differance even when they are standing next to one another.
that is why at sales they will "lump" the two together alot. However those that do breed either can tell by the tail usually. The hinny has a much more "horse like" tail, and the mule a "donkey like" tail, yo ucan also tell by there head profile. Shawna and I did a head comparison on here a few years back (she has mules and I have hinnys) To breed for a mule you need a mare and a jack, to breed for a hinny, which is als VERY hard to achieve, you need a jenny and a stallion. Mini mules are very common, mini hinnies are not. (I have yet to hear of anyone on this forum who has hinnys other then myself) Out of a thousand stallions your chances of getting one to breed and SETTLE would probably be about ONE. (IMO, and from all the emails and people I have talked with includes university studies) If your talking about a standard size, the rate of a stallion breeding and settling a jenny is much higher. Its the genetic differance that makes the offspring sterile. If a stallion does breed a jenny, 99% of the time the jenny wont carry to full term, because her body will reject (abort) the foal because of the odd chromosone count, its like natures way of telling her something is wrong. If either a hinny or mule do settle and carry the foal to full term, and have a live foal, (in other words a fertile offspring) I would think it would be more like a genetic mutation. Anyone else know anything about this subject? I would love to hear what you think? ???? I have 9 stallions here, and out of the 9 only 1 will even give a jenny a second look when she is in heat. So, I really lucked out when I bought Frosty. (the stud who loves his jennys and settles them so easy) Another reason that a stallion dont like to breed a jenny vs. a jack breeding a mare is that the jenny is built differant and the odor.
Can you post a pic of your hinny?
Corinne