Bosnia (Croatian Part) 2014 issue:

I was never taught it at school, but my father had been in the Royal Veterinary Corps in WW2 and had worked a lot with mules (for which he retained no affection whatsoever!) which had been used as pack animals by forces in the Middle East and North Africa; so when travelling with me he would always point out which was which. On a good day with the wind behind me I could tell a donkey from a horse, but the rest was a mystery to me. He always distinguished mules from hinnies, but never explained how to tell them apart by sight, as distinct from explaining the genetics of them. In retrospect he may well have been bluffing - he knew that neither I nor my mother were in a position to argue with him.