MULE JUMPING AND FOX HUNTING.

MULE JUMPING AND FOX HUNTING. In this article in the Wall Street Journal (July 5), Douglas Belkin describes a mule jumping contest in West Plains, Missouri. he says there are dozens of these contests annually and that the contests are “a tradition that predates the Civil War.” A photograph with the article shows a champion mule jumping over the kind of barrier used in a steeplechase race. What struck me was the statement in the article that the competitions are derived from night raccoon hunts over rough terrain by farmers, who would dismount when they encountered barbed-wire fences. The mules would then jump over the fence. (The mule in the photograph does not have a rider). There are social class differences, but I was reminded of fox hunting.