Three Generations Of Shockleys Involved In Mule Jump
The Pea Ridge Mule Jump takes place Saturday Oct. 8 at 9 a.m.
My mule jumps higher than your mule!
“How high is it?” yells the Pea Ridge Mule Jump crowd each time the Shockleys — father, Don, and son, Harold — raise the bar.
The winners have sailed over heights from 50 inches to more than 67 inches over the past nearly three decades of jumping, sometimes clearing a height higher than the mule’s head.
Each contestant has his own unique style to encourage his mule. From John Higgins Jr. fussing at Ruby Tuesday saying: “You’re not square. Come on there,” to Mike Call’s unique cadence causing Radar to dance rapidly before bounding over the bar.
That story has repeated itself year after year. Don Shockley of Powell, Mo., built the jump. Over the past 28 years, he, his son and grandsons, have shown, ridden and jumped their mules to earn trophies and prize money. The youngest two Shockley boys, Kilby and Seth, each earned enough money to buy himself a pickup truck. There was no prize money in the early years of the jump, just trophies and ribbons.
Good friends, coon dogs, a couple of mules and the Ozarks hills and hollers was the recipe for a community event spanning more than a quarter of a century and celebrating the heritage of the Ozarks.
“Negel bought the old big mule,” Don Shockley recalled, referring to Col. Negel Hall of Pea Ridge. “I bought a little red mule.”
Revealing his love of coon hunting and mule jumping is Don’s nickname — Squirrel, pinned to him by Hall. Shockley admits the name came about because he could climb a tree as adeptly as a squirrel when going after coons.
Together, the friends went coon hunting, following the baying hounds, throwing their coats over fences so the mules would jump the barbed-wire.
What became an annual mule jump happened with little planning.
“We just got together down at the (Pea Ridge, Ark.) school. We had a little mule jump, a trail ride and a coon dog contest,” Shockley said. “That’s where it started. Negel had that good jumping mule.”
The Shockley family and their mule Missy were instrumental in the inception of the Pea Ridge Mule Jump nearly 30 years ago.
Little Missy, only 49.5 inches tall, was a buckskin mule who carried three generations of Shockleys through mule jumps and other mule events. Missy has been in the Pea Ridge Mule Jump every year since its inception. She used to jump as much as 55 inches.
She was a staple at the event, carrying first Harold, then his sons Tyler and Kilby and finally, Seth, around the barrels, winding through the poles, and then jumping the curtain of the jump. Now retired, Missy does not travel well because of arthritis — but does give Don’s great-grandsons, Becklyn and Cash, a gentle ride around the 250-acre farm between Pineville and Powell, Mo., where the family has lived for half a century.
“Red was that first little mule,” Shockley said.
Don Shockley, Negel Hall, Tommie Yeargain Sr., Dale Shrader and Paul Arnold hunted together and were involved in the origins of today’s Pea Ridge Mule Jump. The men didn’t intend to start a tradition, they were just enjoying their long-held tradition of coon hunting in the Ozarks, then began competing with their mules.
For the first 10 or 15 years, the prizes were trophies and ribbons. Then the crowds began to dwindle. So, the organizers decided to add prize money. The pro jump winner earns a $1,000 cash prize.
“I got my first mule when I was about 14,” Harold said.
“Mules are real sure footed,” Lawanda Shockley, Don’s wife, said. “We always kept a good, gentle mule around.”
The younger generation of Shockleys began earning money with wins.
“It’s got better every year,” Don said. “Them boys come to win. You’ve got to put on a good show to get a crowd.
“There aren’t very many people who coon hunts on ’em anymore,” the elder Shockley said.
Harold Shockley said coon dogs are trained differently today for hunters who don’t use mules.
“If you’re hunting on a mule, you want the dog to stay with you. You go over fences, you ride through hills, round hedges and hollers,” he said. “Now, with the dogs, you cut ’em loose and they go deep. It takes a different kind of dog to hunt. We broke ’em differently.”
Over the years, there have been many mules on the Shockley farm — Harry, a big gray; Kate, a sorrel mule; Socks; Carrie; and Missy, the buckskin.
Of Missy, Don said: “She’s been a good mule. We’ll keep her ’til she dies.”