A stud stable was from an early time maintained, and the Virginia papers regularly advertised that the stud horse “Samson,” “Magnolia,” “Leonidas,” “Traveller,” or whatever the reigning stallion of the moment might be, would “cover” mares at Mount Vernon, with pasturage and a guarantee of foal, if their owners so elected.  During the Revolution Washington bought twenty-seven of the army mares that had been “worn-down so as to render it beneficial to the public to have them sold,” not even objecting to those “low in flesh or even crippled,” because “I have many large Farms and am improving a good deal of Land into Meadow and Pasture, which cannot fail of being profited by a number of Brood Mares.”  In addition to the stud, there were, in 1793, fifty-four draught horses on the estate.

A unique feature of this stud was the possession of two jackasses, of which the history was curious.  At that time there was a law in Spain (where the best breed was to be found) which forbade the exportation of asses, but the king, hearing of Washington’s wish to possess a jack, sent him one of the finest obtainable as a present, which was promptly christened “Royal Gift.”  The sea-voyage and the change of climate, however, so affected him that for a time he proved of little value to his owner, except as a source of amusement, for Washington wrote Lafayette, “The Jack I have already received from Spain in appearance is fine, but his late Royal master, tho’ past his grand climacteric cannot be less moved by female allurements than he is; or when prompted, can proceed with more deliberation and majestic solemnity to the work of procreation.”  This reluctance to play his part Washington concluded was a sign of aristocracy, and he wrote a nephew, “If Royal Gift will administer, he shall be at the service of your Mares, but at present he seems too full of Royalty, to have anything to do with a plebeian Race,” and to Fitzhugh he said, “particular attention shall be paid to the mares which your servant brought, and when my Jack is in the humor, they shall derive all the benefit of his labor, for labor it appears to be.  At present tho’ young, he follows what may be supposed to be the example of his late Royal Master, who can not, tho’ past his grand climacteric, perform seldomer or with more majestic solemnity than he does.  However I am not without hope that when he becomes a little better acquainted with republican enjoyment, he will amend his manners, and fall into a better and more expeditious mode of doing business.”  This fortunately proved to be the case, and his master not merely secured such mules as he needed for his own use, but gained from him considerable profit by covering mares in the neighborhood.  He even sent him on a tour through the South, and Royal Gift passed a whole winter in Charleston, South Carolina, with a resulting profit of six hundred and seventy-eight dollars to his owner.  In 1799 there were on the estate “2 Covering Jacks & 3 young ones, 10 she asses, 42 working mules and 15 younger ones.”