There has always been something about mules that has drawn Les Clancy to the animal.
Les grew up on the 1,200-acre Boys Town Ranch in St. James, Mo., where is stepfather was the manager. The farm had about 300 head of cows, and about 150 head of horses and mules. While he grew up around both horses and mules, the mules have generally been his equine of choice.
“It’s kind of like a biker rally,” he explained. “If you go over here, you are going to have your Harley guys and if you go over here, you are going to have your Goldwing guys. It takes a different kind of person to ride a mule; it takes patience and you have to understand a mule. I have a couple of good horses and a horse is going to be more athletic, but a mule is more steadfast, more steady, hardier. People are used to the old big-headed, sway-backed, big chug-a-lug mules, but today they are breeding some of the best Tennessee Walkers and Quarter horses with really awesome jacks, getting top-of-the-line mules.”
Les recalls a mule from his youth named Tracker. He, his stepfather Charlie Glenn, and Tracker traveled to various jumping contests, and Charlie eventually started a mule show in St. James in the mid-1980s.
“He was about half rank and he’d jump just about every fence,” Les said of Tracker. “We called him Tracker because you never knew where he was going to leave his tracks.
“I just had a vision that I was going to have a jumping mule and train mules.”
Les joined the U.S. Army in December 1989, serving 10 years. He was given the opportunity to transfer to the Missouri National Guard, which landed him back in the Ozarks, specifically in Springfield, Mo., for the remainder of his more than 25-year military career.
Back in the Ozarks, Les once began raising mules and cattle. He founded Ozark Mule Days and has teamed up with PFI in Springfield, Mo., for its annual Magnificent Mule Jump.
Les leases a Christian County, Mo., Century Farm established in 1863 by Capt. George Washington Taylor.
“It’s ironic because he raised mules (for the U.S. Army) for the Civil War right here on this farm,” Les said. “Here I am, 150 years later and not even family, I’m military and I have mules.”
While Les, who retired as a 1st sergeant, doesn’t breed mules, he does train them for himself and others. He proudly tells the story of training a 16.1 hand mule (5 feet, 5 inches at the shoulder) to lay down in order for a rider to climb aboard.
While there are nearly a dozen well-trained mules on the Clancy farm, two mules, Cool Hand Luke and Sadie, are “celebrities.”
Luke, a well-respected coon jump mule that will work cattle, trail, carry panniers, pull a wagon and anything else Les asks of him, has received an honorary rank of corporal in the Missouri National Guard.
“I’ll never be able to replace him,” Les said of his 19-year-old mule. “He does it all. I trust that mule so much that I have taken him and my old high-wheeled wagon, went to the senior citizen’s home, picked up some folks, brought across town to get ice cream. He’s jumped over home plate at a Springfield Cardinal’s game, been in elementary schools and I rode him down the hall and up on the stage of James River Church. He is just unreal.”
Luke got his honorary rank following a special appearance with the National Guard’s highest-ranking officer.
A couple of years ago, the Guard was planning an award called the Proclamation of the Missouri Mule, and Guard leadership turned to Les for a little help.
“A friend of mine called and told me about the award and wanted to know if I had a good picture that could be used to engrave the mule into the award,” Les said.
The photo selected is one of Luke and Les presenting the colors at an event. A silhouette of the mule and rider with the U.S. flag was engraved into the award, which was presented to Missouri native Gen. Frank Grass, the chief of the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.
Being natural showmen, Luke and Les were on hand to present the award to Grass, but walking a large mule through Tan-Tar-A Resort at Lake Ozark, Mo., caused more than a few heads to turn.
“He’s all saddled up and I’m in my dress blues and we just walked in the door,” Les recalled. “The crowd gasped. There wasn’t a path, so we walked through tables and he was a gentleman; he’s that good. The best part is that we walk up there and they hand me the mic, and I told the general that I wanted to do this in style with Luke. (Grass) is up on the stage and I’m looking up at him, so I jump up on the stage. I’ve got Luke by the reins and I hear everyone gasp. It was too late, Luke was already in position and jumped all the way up on the stage. He stood up there on that stage and the general asked if I meant for him to do that, and I said, ‘Well, honestly no.’”
In 2015, Grass signed a National Guard Association proclamation promoting Cool Hand Luke to corporal in the Missouri Army National Guard “for representing and upholding the finest qualities of not only our state animal, but the mascot of the United States Army.
“With my military career, I talk to a lot of kids about drugs, making good choices and my mule shows are draped in red, white and blue,” Les said. “I guess they looked into all that I do and what I do with Luke.”
While honored that his four-legged buddy was going to receive a rank, Les had only one request; that Luke not outrank him.
Luke’s barn mate, Sadie, also has a few fans and is considered a contender to set a world record in coon jumping. The 8-year-old, who Les calls his wife Susan’s “princess,” has cleared a 69 ½-inches and, like Luke, has beaten some of the coon jumping world’s champions. The record is 72 inches.
Les admits that he bought Sadie when she was a year and a half old with the intention to train and sell her, but he soon discovered her talents.
“We were working cattle one day and I had her tied to a 5 ½-foot tall panel, saddled and all,” Les recalled. “We didn’t know she was scared of cattle and when we ran the cattle in, instantly she was standing on the other side looking at me. That started her adventure in jumping.”
He added that Sadie and Luke, as well as Gus, Dude and Grasshopper, are family mules and will never be sold.
Les and Sadie have won various jumping events, including the annual Pea Ridge, Ark., Mule Jump, the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo in Texas and the Missouri State Fair.
In June, Sadie and Luke came in first and second, respectively, at the PFI event, but their day wasn’t done. After the Springfield event, Les and his mules traveled to West Plains, Mo., for yet another jump. Les said he could tell Luke and Sadie were ready to perform.
“We set the new record with both of them,” Les said. “They both cleared 69 ½ inches and we could have went higher, but that is as high as the jump would go. The crowd was really into it and it was a phenomenal night. They were just on it.”
While Les enjoys the competition, he said there is more to the mule jumps that ribbons or prizes.
“It’s just fun,” he said. “It’s all about fun. At my mule shows, the rules are written in pencil and I have the eraser. I think it’s all about kids, kids that are 5 or 55.”
