For those who don’t know, Coon Jumping is a weird sport in which people jump mules and donkeys from a stand-still. It comes from the days of using mules to hunt racoons. The rider would put a blanket over a barbed-wire fence and then ask the mule to jump the fence. Coon Jumping is pretty popular at mule and donkey shows.
Nilla has previously demonstrated her ability to jump things from a complete standstill – even when I don’t want her to. The other night I was bored and so I started asking her to go over progressively higher jumps. She started by literally stepping over a 2′ jump. So I walked her over to the oxer which was also at 2′ and she stepped over that too. I really wish I’d gotten a video of that, it was hilarious.
I removed the oxer element and raised the jump a bit. Every time she went over, she got a treat. And she was pretty okay with that arrangement.
I kept raising it until I ran out of treats and we ended around 3’3″ because those standards only go that high.
She was so good and seemed to be enjoying it. I actually had a hard time getting her to stand still long enough for me to walk around the standards most of the time. I don’t have any plans to take up coon jumping with her, but it’s a fun side activity when I’m lacking ambition.
Sooooo… what do you do with a racoon once you’ve hunted it down?!
I imagine you make coats out of them? I have no idea. I think it’s a southern thing…
you make a hat of course!! like davey crocket 😛
oooh. I feel like I need one of these hats for my next coon jumping excursion. Actually… I think I own one. I need to see if I gave it to Goodwill.
Matching hats for you and Nilla for your next coon jumping video!!
Omg look at her she is loving it!!!! I love that tail haha!!!! Also coon jumping is kinda maybe my favorite weird super niche horse sport lol
It might be the most niche of horse sports.
your blog teaches me so much!! What an interesting sport.
It is a weird sport, but some people are really into it.
So neat! I discovered that my new donkey can jump like this the hard way when she jumped a fence as her old owners were trying to catch her, haha. It’s so neat to see how they can do this!
It’s certainly a power they can wield for evil as well as good.
And just another thing that convinces me Bobby really is a short eared mule. 😉 She looks like she’s having fun!
You should do coon jumping with Bobby. The internet would love it.
omg these gifs are so cute. i love the last one where you do a little hop when she jumps.
she’s quite good at that!! and she looks really happy about it too. i guess as long as its not dressage….
i worked at a couple places that had mules. we put the chronic paddock jumpers in a round pen bc they couldn’t really get enough oomph to get out. …. the mules dgaf about that and just went where they want.
Mules DGAF about much. Rules are for horses as far as they’re concerned.
I need to teach my mooles to do this!
OMG, please do. It would be so cute to see the little mini mules coon jumping!
That’s so cool! She is having no issues with the height at all. It’s funny all of the shenanigans they will put up with for a simple treat. Ha!
She will do a lot for a treat
I’ve never heard of coon jumping, and I’m so glad you can share these things. From what I know of coon jumping, she looks to be a talented coon jumper!
You learn something new everyday, right?
That is so awesome! How neat. She clearly was having fun with it. It looked so easy for her!
The highest one was a big difficult. She actually shuffled around a bit before jumping it. The lower ones she didn’t even hesitate.
Ok that’s completely adorable. But now all I can think about is if I taught Paddy to do that, he’d just leap over the fence whenever he wanted and run rampant. I hope that Nilla doesn’t translate her new-found jumping talent into escaping!
I know! I kinda had the same thought – like should I be encouraging this? Probably not…
bahaha that’s great. I feel like a lot of horses would be inspired to show their inner mule and coon jump if there were a cookie on the opposite side of the fence waiting on them. 😉
She was all about those treats
You put a smile on my face today! Thank you for sharing your adorable mule. I wish I could get my 17 hand thoroughbred to jump like that…
I dunno. It’s not a fun looking jump to ride. I’m pretty sure I’d fall off.
Love coon jumping! I’ve seen a mule jump close to 4′ at a mule & donkey show.
I’ve seen videos of them jumping much higher. I don’t know that Nilla could do 4′
Very cool! I’m glad you captured that on video 🙂
I kept interrupting my husband’s ride like just one more video…
I love this! Good mule.
She is a good mule.
I’ve seen a video of this before. How cool!
The videos are cool. Some of those mules can really jump.
This is awesome and hilarious, all at the same time! Go Nilla!
I was laughing the whole time.
I love it! Looks like she enjoys it!
She certainly enjoyed the treats. I think she just thought it was another one of the weird things I ask her to do.
I love her little *swish swish* while she thinks it through. Such a cooperative mule when there are cookies involved! I’d say she likes jumping juuuust fine.
She’s like a wind up toy. She has to pump the tail it to get going.
I had no idea this was a thing! Nilla’s so awesome!
Thanks. She certainly thinks she’s awesome.
I didn’t even know this was a thing!! So cool.
It’s pretty fun.
I didnt even know this was a thing but man she got hops!!
she does love to hop.
I knew that mules and donkeys were crazy good at jumping from a standstill, but I didn’t realize this was a sport! How neat! I love her big expressive ears, what a happy mule.
Nilla has no excuse to not jump anything now! I wonder if this will give her more motivation under saddle?
She’s already motivated under saddle. She loves to jump.