- [Host] There's some history and sport
and a little bit of fun all rolled into
one big night on every first Friday of February
at the Hunt Horse Complex in Raleigh.
It's called the...
- Southern National Draft Horse Pull
and World Championship Coon Mule Jump.
- [Host] Oh yeah, I forgot to mention
that bit about the jumping mules
and their world championship.
Is this serious business for some folks?
- It's extremely serious business for folks.
Being the world's champion jumping mule
or southern national champion pulling horse
carries a lot of weight in the horse world.
- [Host] Almost as much weight as the horses
will carry.
Some team owners like Odell Coley in Statesville,
ran multiple teams to competition.
And when they're back home, they train hard, together,
in the corral, with the horses.
- You know, the horses are my therapy.
That's what keeps me sane everyday,
that's what gets me going through life,
going to the barn, working the horses.
You know, there are some cash value prizes
to all the pulls we go to but they hardly
pay for the feed so, it's just more
of the excitement about it.
The horses learn that when you get on the trailer
and you come to town, that they're going
to do a job.
- [Host] These are no ordinary horses.
They are bred to be strong and trained
like Olympians.
- [Odell] As far as daily exercise,
we have a sled that weighs roughly around a ton
and we put 'em on that and we work 'em,
generally three to four miles a day,
every week or so, every other week, we'll
put 'em on a heavier load and stretch their muscles out
and then go back to the exercise load.
- [Host] You sound like a football coach.
Do you ride the sled around behind--
- I do. - On the animal all day?
- Well, I don't yell at 'em, they just,
they love to pull it.
We work 'em in the hayfield some
and rake hay with 'em and bale hay with 'em,
so they have more than just one job.
- [Host] On game night, that preparation
can produce incredible performances.
Lightweights, two horses totalling less than
3400 pounds will successfully pull a four ton sled
26 1/2 feet.
Heavyweights totalling body weight of more than
3400 pounds, they can drag five tons.
And I had to ask, is it safe?
- I just had the state veterinarian walk away,
she's here checking all these animals
that are coming in and checking their heath status
and their care.
We're extremely concerned about the well-being
and the care of these animals.
- [Host] And if you've never been around mules
and seen them jump, you might wonder what the owners
had to do to get these sweet animals
to do this kind of thing.
Mules don't like tto jump automatically, do they?
- Yes, they do.
Mules, one of the real challenges of keeping
a mule is keeping them in the pen
because a lot of these mules will jump
five foot just to go visit the neighbors.
[applause]
- You cannot make a mule do nothing.
You have got to learn to coach
and persuade him.
- [Host] Or her.
Most folks know Herman Cox by his nickname, Black Bart.
He's kind of famous around here because of
his mule, Penny.
She's won many, many world championships
and she's just a teenager.
Mules can live into their 40's.
So Black Bart still has some persuading to do
in the years to come.
Some folks cannot convince their mules
to do this kind of thing.
In fact, some mules convince their owners,
they will jump, but it's only a trick to take
a dirt bath.
On this night, Bart and Penny struck a deal
once again, Penny the mule is the world champion
once more, it's official.
- It's open to the world, we invited
every mule to come and jump and we got
six of the best.
So it's considered the world championship.
- [Host] And it only happens right here
on the first Friday every year at
the Hunt Horse Complex at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.
- [Deborah] The Southern National Draft
Horse Pull is the concluding event
of the Souther Farm Show and it's Friday,
February 2nd at the Governor James B. Hunt
Horse Complex at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds
in Raleigh.
For more information go to...
Southernshows.com/sfs.