American Mammoth Jackstock
Have a American Mammoth Jackstock to sell? List it.Critical on the Conservation Priority List, 2026 edition
About the American Mammoth Jackstock
The American Mammoth Jackstock exists because George Washington wanted better mules. From the late 1700s he and other early American figures collected donkeys from the best European strains. The King of Spain sent him an Andalusian jack called Royal Gift in 1785, and Lafayette followed with a Maltese jack. What Washington bred from them was far bigger and better than anything he had managed before, and he was standing jacks at stud by 1788. Offspring of one jack sold for $200, roughly $3,000 today.
By 1800 the breed had spread into Kentucky, Tennessee and the Missouri territory, which became the mule-producing heart of the country. Several thousand more large donkeys came over from Europe between 1830 and 1890, mostly Catalonian, with Andalusian, Maltese, Poitou, Majorcan and Italian blood added.
They bond hard to their owner.
One warning worth taking seriously: an intact jack is not a first donkey. The Conservancy is explicit that jacks should not go to owners without experience of intact equines, or to anyone who does not intend to breed. If you want a companion animal, buy a gelding.
Note: this catalogue also lists "Mammoth Donkey", which is the same animal under its common name. The two entries want merging.
Sourced from The Livestock Conservancy and the breed’s registry, reviewed by HoofnHorn.
No American Mammoth Jackstock donkeys at auction right now.
Heritage breeds come up in ones and twos, so this is normal. We will email you the moment a American Mammoth Jackstock is listed.