BREEDER IS MULE-HEADED AND PROUD OF IT

WHITEWATER -- Seven mule colts, one only a few days old, sidle up to their Belgian mare mothers in Terry Givens' pasture. In a few years, they'll likely live in Lancaster County, Penn., where they will be prized and worked six days a week by Amish farmers.

These are big mules with strong backs, bred out of muscular, 2,000-pound Belgian mares and jacks much larger than the stereotypical donkey. One of Givens' jacks is 16 hands (a hand equals 4 inches).

The full-grown product will weigh up to 1,800 pounds and stand about 17 hands.

There are stereotypes about mules as well. "A lot of people think they're stubborn," Givens says. "The thing of it is, they're smarter than people."

The reputation for stubbornness may be due to the mule's keen sense of self-preservation. If mistreated, they become uncooperative. Treated well, they bond with people and are more sociable than horses. Unlike horses, mules don't overeat or overwater.

Givens has been breeding mules on his 264-acre farm since 1979. As far as he knows, he is the only breeder of mules in Cape Girardeau County.

Missouri is known for mules, of course. In their book "Mules, Jackasses and Other Misconceptions," authors James A. Burkhart and Eugene F. Schmidtlein claim the state became famous for mules in the past two centuries because so many fine specimens were produced here. The mule is now the state animal.

Mules were the backbone of Missouri agriculture until tractors came along in he 40s. Now only the Amish keep Givens' in the mule business. Once his colts are weaned they often are bought by a man in Virginia who feeds them for two-and-a-half years before they are big enough to go to work on a farm.

The mule ready to go to work can bring as much as $7,000.

Male jacks usually are bred to horse mares to produce a mule. The result of breeding a female donkey (jenny) and a male horse is called a hinny. Givens doesn't bother with hinnies. "It looks like half a mule," he says.

His Belgian mares have very good dispositions. He also has a few mares called Perchersons, which also are draft horses.

A male mule is called a horse mule. They usually are gelded. A female mule is called a mare mule. Both will attempt to breed but cannot because mules have an odd number of chromosomes.

Mules pair up, Givens says, and once they do don't like to be separated.

Mules are valued for their durability, their intelligence and for their ability to work in hot weather. The Belgian draft horses these mules come out of wilt when the temperature soars, Givens says.

Mules can be bred for other purposes, as well. The riding mule is produced by breeding a jack to a riding mare.

Givens starts breeding his mares when they are 2 years old. After about 11 months, he begins keeping an eye on them at night via closed-circuit TV cameras. He and his wife, Shirley, arise every two hours to make sure they're OK. He has had to call a veterinarian to help with a birth only once, when the colt was breech.

One problem mule breeders encounter is a condition similar to the RH factor in human beings. If the colt has neonatal isoerytholysis, the milk of its mother can be poisonous.

The mule breeder also sells some colts to people who want them for shows. He shows some himself at the SEMO District Fair and the East Perry Community Fair, and used to show at the state fair in Sedalia.

Givens also grows corn, wheat and beans on his farm and raises a few cattle. He can stand in the road in front of his farm house and point to the twin red barns that mark the house where Shirley, an elementary teacher, grew up. His 82-year-old father, Cletus, lives up the road a few miles and helps raise the mules, too.

Givens genuinely likes mules but usually doesn't name either his horses or his mules. "Usually Kate or Blondie will do," he says.