Autumn in the Ozarks includes annual Mule Jump
It’s autumn in the Ozarks — time for football, hunting and mules jumping.
While raccoon hunters have used mules to jump fences for years, jumping mules for entertainment began nearly 30 years ago in Pea Ridge as just one of many events of the 1985 fall festival called Battlefield Daze.
Today, mules of all sizes — from the miniature Billie, at just 34 inches, to the statuesque Bulls Eye whose back is higher than many people’s heads — and colors — buckskin, sorrel, red, white, black and spotted — descend on Pea Ridge for the annual Mule Jump.
Blue, Bucky, Sunny, NutN-Honey and Frosty were some of the mules that competed in 1989. Red, Mollie, Scatty Cat, Radar, Molly Francis, Ragin’ Rooster, Ruby Tuesday, Buckwheat, Foxy, Colleen, Baxter, Missy and Babes have each delighted visitors over the years.
Thousands of people are expected to attend the 29th annual event which begins with opening ceremonies at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 11, south of Pea Ridge Primary School off Weston Street. Various events — including halter class, barrel racing, pole bending and jumping — will fill the morning hours, with a short break for lunch, before professional jump begins about 1 p.m.
“It ain’t no step for a stepper,” says Kent Morris, announcing the success of a mule as he flies over the curtain over which he cannot see.
“Come on, they feed off your excitement,” Morris encourages the crowd to cheer on a recalcitrant mule.
What began as friendly competition between coon hunters has become an annual tradition. For 29 years, people from around the nation have traveled to Pea Ridge, the town just west of the Pea Ridge National Military Park and the ridge after which both take their name, to watch mules and their owners battle wills over whether the mules will jump a curtain raised until all but one are eliminated.
This year, people have called from as far away as Hawaii wanting to come, said Nathan See, chairman of the event. “He said he’s coming and going to buy the winning mule.”
Mule jumping comes from a tradition in coon hunting of having mules jump over fences rather than finding gates. Hunters throw a blanket over the fence so the mule will jump it.
In the jumping contest, mules can jump flat footed. Once a mule walks up to the jumping barrier, it has three minutes to jump. The mule has two tries to clear the barrier without knocking it down. Trainers cannot touch the mule. They must get the mule to jump by word commands. They can hold the reins and tug them.
Mules are eliminated until only one remains and that mule continues to jump until it reaches its limit. The mule seems to know instinctively when that limit is reached because it just won’t jump anymore.
The first jump happened in October 1985 — “Battlefield Daze,” the festival, held on the downtown school grounds, included a trail ride, coon dog competitions, craft sales and other events.
“It was just a bunch of coon hunters getting together,” Peggy Hall, widow of Col. Negel Hall, said. The Halls are memorialized every year with an award given in their name to the high-point winners. Hall died in 1998; Mrs. Hall died in 2011.
Don Shockly remembers: “Negel bought the old big mule. I bought a little red mule. We just got together down at the 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.”