Good friends, coon dogs, a couple of mules and the Ozark hills and “hollers” — the recipe for a community event spanning a quarter of a century and celebrating the heritage of the Ozarks.
“Negel bought the old big mule,” Don Shockley recalled. “I bought a little red mule.”
Together, the friends went coon huntin’, following the braying hounds, throwing their coats over fences so the mules would jump the barbed-wire fences.
Then, “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.”
“Red was that first little mule,” Shockley said. “You got Missy,” Shockley’s son, Harold, reminded him. 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 Ozark hills, 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.
“It got so the jump wasn’t very high,” Shockley said.
“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 Shockleys bought Missy, a little 49 1/2” tall buckskin mule. At her best, she jumped 55 inches. Now, at about 34 years of age, she’s retired and gives the greatgrandsons rides around the farm.
“She has arthritis. It’s too hard on her to travel,” the senior Shockley said of taking the little mule to the annual mule jump.
She was a staple at the event, carrying first Harold, then later his sons, Tyler, Kilby and fi nally, Seth, around the barrels, winding through the poles, and then jumping the curtain of the jump.
The younger generation of Shockleys earned money with wins, enough to buy a pickup, their dad said.
“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.”
The Shockleys have lived on the 250-acre farm in the Ozarks hills between Pineville and Powell for 45 years. Son, Harold and his wife, and grandsons Kilby and Tyler with their wives and sons, live nearby. The youngest of the second generation, Seth, is now 17, and spends a lot of his time with his champion coon dog.
“On Father’s Day, we took four generations on the mules,” Lawanda said, showing a photograph of great-grandsons Cash, 2, and Becklyn, 11 months, on the back of Missy beside their fathers, grandfather and great-grandfather. “My dad always had mules.
The elder Shockleys will be busy on their 50th wedding anniversary with a mule jump, trail ride and coon dog contest on Saturday, Oct. 19, in Powell, Mo.
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.”
Don Shockley, his son, Harold Shockley, and grandsons Tyler and Seth with Missy, the buckskin mule, they have all won prizes on.
Don and Harold Shockley with their mules, coon dogs and raccoon pelts from a hunt more than 20 years ago.
Don and Lawanda Shockley have enjoy mules and coon dogs for their 50 years of marriage.
Mule Jump, Pages 24 on 10/09/2013