Dr. Faith Burden

if you're not careful those feet can get waterlogged and that leads to infections so you get soft crumbly feet you get nasty bacterial and fungal infections so top tip for donkey owners is please please make sure your donkeys get some dry standing somewhere every day areas that have got low rainfall are brilliant for donkeys but anywhere that gets lots of rainfall particularly if it's warm as well that's donkey foot nightmare time i'm afraid

Does that ever happen?

So some donkeys and mules are shod and they can benefit from it in certain conditions.

I would say most donkeys do not need shoes and it's just going to cause more problems than it solves.

Some mules that are working in particularly tough environments or that are going on roads a lot can really benefit from shoes.

But again, most mules will do just fine without putting a man-made metal shoe on their foot that they don't really need.

But us humans are great at thinking we can improve on nature, aren't we?

Yes.

And actually, they're pretty good.

Yeah.

So what brilliant questions from your listeners.

So the donkey and by virtue, the mule has a much more upright hoof.

So as your listener said, they're much more boxy, we often say, and they're much smaller, much more compact.

And

Again, we go back to the evolution.

The donkey has adapted to live in mountainous terrains with tiny little tracks.

So big feet like you might find on a Clydesdale or on a thoroughbred are not going to help you.

You're going to go over the side of the cliff if you're not careful.

So donkeys have a very narrow chest.

You'll notice that they don't have big muscles like horses do.