If you ever happen to be staying at Leahaven over Labor Day weekend, you've got to head over to Ider for Mule Days! The Mule Pull takes place from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and it is the experience of a lifetime!
The first time I ever saw the Mule Pull was Labor Day 2007. Jenny and I had heard about it and decided to see what it was. A friendly man standing near us took it upon himself to answer our questions, like "Why are those men dressed up in orange-striped pants like prisoners?" "Because they are prisoners, and this is part of their prison detail!"
The barred metal framework at the left of the photo is a metal sledge. Concrete blocks are stacked on it by the prisoners to equal the weight a particular team of mules is supposed to pull. Any team that fails to pull its load the minimum distance (28 feet, I think) without stopping is eliminated. Each team that qualifies moves up to a higher weight for the next pull. At the end of the contest, the last team standing is the winner.
A team usually has three handlers: the driver and two helpers. The team is driven to the sledge, then the helpers hold their heads while the driver backs them into place so their harness can be attached to the chain at the bottom of the sledge.
The mules are so eager to pull that they are literally chomping at the bit, prancing, and jumping out of their skins. The helpers have to hold their heads to keep them from pulling before they're hitched to the load and the starter is ready. Sometimes the mules actually lift the helpers off their feet. They're literally rarin' to go!
Once the command to go is given, it's a throat-choking sight to watch these animals hunker down and heave against thousands of pounds of dead weight until by sheer will-power they get it moving, bit by bit, and go charging towards the crowd at the opposite end of the fence. Sometimes it looks like they're going to keep on going right through fence and spectators alike! When they fail to qualify, you can tell they know it, but when they've made a good pull, you can see them bursting with pride.
The weight the teams pull depends on the weight of the animals themselves. I tried calling a number I found online to ask some questions, and I ended up talking to the organizer himself, Mr. Dan Allen, who kindly explained the rules to me. The pull starts with 3000 lbs. Say the smallest team weighs 3200 lbs., and it successfully pulls 3000 lbs. Let's say the next team weighs 3300 lbs. The prisoners add 100 lbs. (2 blocks) to the sledge as a handicap to make up for the difference in weight between the two teams, so that team has to pull 3100 lbs. to avoid elimination. If the next team weighs 3500 lbs., it gets a handicap of 300 lbs. (because it weighs 300 lbs. more than the first team) and has to pull 3300 lbs. to stay in the competition.
Once the first round has finished, it's time for the first team to make its second pull. Each round of the pull adds 300 lbs. to the starting weight. This time the first team will have to pull 3300 lbs., so the prisoners probably have to remove blocks pulled by the last, biggest team to get down to 3300 lbs. You can tell the prisoners end up moving each block many, many times! You've gotta feel kind of sorry for them. The mules get cheers, praise and pride from hauling their loads; all the prisoners get is a day out of jail working their butts off in the hot sun!
Once the Mule Pull is over, it's time for the Horse Pull. Horses and mules compete separately because horses are stronger. My observation is that they also seem to be more tractable, if less excited about pulling.
Here's a photo of the winning mule team in 2008. You can see how high they're holding their heads. What you can't see is that they are prancing with such pride that they're practically prancing in place like the
Lippizaners'
piaffe. The record pulls to beat are 7700 lbs. for a mule team and 10,500 lbs. for a horse team. The prize for the winning horse team is $500 and for the winning mule team, $300. Nobody's ever going to get rich winning a mule pull, especially considering that teams come from all over the US to compete, but it's obvious that you can't put a price on the pride the winners feel.
