Yep, the minis are pretty much seen as toys, and a mini mule is a non-breeding toy. Same thing goes for those cute little mini geldings. Pet quality geldings go for rock bottom prices around here. It's pretty bad, really, you spend the money to geld him, and his value goes down? Mares of similar quality sell better, because there's always someone who'll see her as a uterus on hooves, a potential baby-making machine. The same thing applies to jennets, although there are several in this area that are priced at $700-$800, some of them have been "For Sale" for over a year.
I've been spending wa-ay too much time looking at online sales boards during the last few months. Apparently, things are really tight in Tennessee as far as horses are concerned. There's someone there with a trained, matched pair of 6-year-old, 36" mini mules that they want $1000 for. They've been listed for several months, with no takers (Oh, I wish! I wish!)
Betsy and Syd are at the local fair right now, where they are stealing hearts left and right. A lot of the folks around here have never seen a mule before, let alone a mini mule (there's an ancient Belgian mule there too, for comparison!) Actually, they have quite a bit of competition in the cute department, a local mini breeder is getting out of the business, and she has a couple of real quality mares at the fair, with their foals of this year (now weanlings.) I'm hoping to have some news about one of those babies, soon.
It always worries me to see an animal priced too low. There's always the chance of the impulse buyer that really doesn't have the means to care for it, or even a clue of how to do so. One can hope that, with a decent price, the potential buyer has put some thought into it before they made the purchase.
