FEW, I suspect, escaped, as “the men on the donkeys” were getting paid in cash “by the head” for every hog/shoat that they brought in at the last muster.
(Groups of stockmen like our family was for 3 centuries, in those long-ago days, were called “Ass Nomads”, as they herded swine into the mountains in the Summer to graze & then drove them into the river bottoms for each Winter, while mounted on donkeys/mules.)
Note: IF you have seen the move, OPEN RANGE, “Ass Nomads” were a very similar sort of mobile operation.= Only the kind of livestock was different.
Donkeys are cheaper to buy & more long-lived than horses, seldom get sick, do FINE on a diet without oats/expensive hay, are very surefooted, don’t “run off” at the first sign of trouble, usually need NO shoes (unless being ridden in rocky terrain) & are “plenty fast enough” to handle swine efficiently.
Yours, TMN78247
Yep I own a molly mule, grew up with hogs and no one worked that hard for nothing. Snakes didn’t get far on a hog farm. Hope this works out. Dead pig is good food. Going wild presents problems. I was About 7 years old and grandad was moving some sows with pigs and a big red boar. He told me to stay away from the hog wire fence. Didn’t listen well enough. The boar gotta hold of my pant leg and was dragging me through the fence. Uncle Phiiipp was ther with an oak club. He hit that hog and put him on his knees. Dam pig let me go and then I got my ass beat. I still love dead pig.