Everything's Bigger in Texas-We Even Have the World's Tallest Don

Everything is bigger in Texas, including donkeys. The world record for the tallest donkey was set in 2013 by Romulus, a nine-year-old American Mammoth Jackstock, who measured "17 hands"...or five feet, eight inches!

That's a bis ass!

Check out this video featuring Romulus:

Being a man who works in radio and knows less than nothing about donkey husbandry, I looked to Wikipedia to tell me what an American Mammoth Jackstock actually is...

The American Mammoth Jackstock is a breed of North American donkey, descended from large donkeys imported to the United States from about 1785. George Washington, with Henry Clay and others, bred for an ass that could be used to produce strong work mules. Washington was offering his jacks for stud service by 1788. Large breeds of asses were found in Kentucky by 1800. Breeds that influenced the Mammoth Jack include the Maltese, the Baudet du Poitou, the Andalusian, the Majorcan and the Catalan.

Measured from the ground to the withers, Jacks (entire males) must stand at least 14 hands (56 inches, 142 cm), and jennies or jennets (females) at least 13.2 hands (54 inches, 137 cm) in order to be classified as mammoth size

I had no idea that a donkey could possible get that big! One thing I DO know is that donkeys and mules play a major role in early agriculture, and you can find them working on farms to this day. And you can't have a mule without a donkey.

Mules are a cross between a male donkey, or jack, and a female horse, or mare, and they have many differences from donkeys:

Mules are typically taller than donkeys
Mules have a slight curve in their backs, similar to horses, while donkeys have flat backs.
Mules are said to be intelligent and sensitive, and they're often able to cope with bad weather better than donkeys.
Mules are sterile because the chromosomes of horses and donkeys are too different to make viable sperm and eggs.

Now you know!