CHAMPIONS OF THE HEART

This is a tribute page to our long eared friends who have gone on to greener pastures

but will forever be in our hearts and fondly remembered by those who loved them.

July 29, 2010

Back in 1997, Chris French and Kelli (Livengood) French met at the Hopkins Tractor Pull. From there Chris fell in love with mules, even though at first he was real skeptical.

In May 1998, Kelli's father, Jim Livengood, gave Chris a nice yearling mule named Skipper for high school graduation. Skipper was the first mule Chris ever owned and trained. Skipper was pretty easy to train. We used to joke that he was just born broke to ride.

Chris rode him everywhere and wasn't afraid to ask him to do anything. Not only did Skipper do everything willingly, he always gave 100%. The first time Chris ever threw a rope off of Skipper they won the Steer Doctoring at the IDMS show in Dennison, IA. He, as the only mule, won Reserve Champion his first time to compete at an Extreme Cowboy Race out of 19 horses. He was just an exceptional mule in every aspect.
 

Chris proposed to Kelli by making her ride blindfolded and double with him on Skipper. Chris and Kelli got married on their mules Skipper and Sapphire and rode out double on Skipper. Skipper was a really big part of their lives.

Skipper took hundreds of people on trail rides, many of which had no idea how to ride. Chris and Kelli have a mule training business and all the clients would ride Skipper and watch Chris train their mule and then switch half way through the ride.

In the past couple of years Skipper was the best mule to many kids that visit and ride for the first time in their lives. Chris and Kelli's nephew and niece, Cody (age 7) and Jacquelyn (age 5) Cline have enjoyed showing and riding Skipper and Sapphire. The kids come to visit and go out and catch the mules and ride until they're told the mules are tired and need to go to bed which is well after dark.
Skipper died at age 13 doing what he loved to do, trail riding.

Kelli thought just before he started losing his balance what a nice ride he was.

The vet said he died of an aortic aneurysm. He went pretty quickly and didn't have to suffer.

Skipper had a special place in many hearts and will be greatly missed. Skipper started out as a gift from Kelli's father and remains one of the best they'll ever receive.
 

Kelli Livengood French

Dr. Betty Robinson and Dr. Ruth

June 16, 2010

Betty Robinson, former NASMA Director and Historian, lost her good friend on Monday.  Dr. Ruth, Betty's mule companion for twenty years, lost her battle with stomach cancer and was humanely euthanized. 

Betty's shares this tribute to Ruth.

I bought Ruth from Dave McMahen when she was ten. She and I enjoyed a wonderful twenty years together. Ruth was my first mule and I bought her after my friend Dave dared me to ride one of his on a Competitive Trail Ride. I was assigned to ride drag and had a fantastic experience. If you have never ridden a mule you can’t understand the difference between riding a mule and a horse. From that day forward I knew I wanted a mule and I pestered Dave until he sold me Dr. Ruth.
 

Prior to coming to me Ruth had already had three years experience in Competitive Trail Riding. She had won everything an individual could win except the Presidents Cup. She was ridden by a Texan, Renee Stevens and was one of the first mules to ever compete against horses at a CTR. The two racked up their share of trophies. When I bought Ruth I was pretty much through with competition and ready for some quiet every day trail riding.
 

Ruth taught me every “good” thing I ever learned about a mule. She knew I was a novice mule owner and had a great amount of patience with me. She was both reliable and loyal. Ruth was my friend of all friends. We could ride through the mountains, not even on a trail, and know exactly what the other one was thinking. She was a joker and loved to tease with me. She would tease the other mules too, by locking them out of the feed lot or locking them in the barn. When she knew I was ready to ride she would hide in a patch of cedars in the pasture where she thought I couldn’t see her. But she was always ready to go when the trailer rolled out.
 

Ruth loved apples and PB&J sandwiches. Back in the ‘90s Ruth was my mentor while I wrote both my first two books: Horse Trails in Arkansas and Horse Trails in Oklahoma . We camped out by ourselves many nights in strange country. We did a good job looking out for each other. She would wake me up if “anything”, even a strange dog, came near our camp. I would put her in the trailer whenever we had to camp in a storm. I always hauled more good hay and grain than she could eat. We would be dead tired driving home from a weekend of chasing trails in Oklahoma and still take time out to share peanut butter cookies and gator-aide at the rest areas.
Ruth was a willing partner and went anywhere I asked unless my suggestion was so totally dangerous she thought we were both going to get hurt. She only seriously refused me once. That’s a darn good average since I often asked her to do some pretty stupid things.

 
She lived to by thirty years of age which by most mule standards is young. But she was fighting stomach cancer and had been for over a year. I couldn’t be selfish enough to make her suffer any longer. To the very last day whenever I put a saddle on her she would get a bow in her back and try to make me think she was going to throw me over the fence. The mule never bucked in her whole life but she sure tried to make you think she would.

If you’re a rider and have never ridden a good mule, you haven’t lived yet. The really good ones don’t come along as often as some folks might think. Dr. Ruth was one of the best. The last thing I told her before I gave her a good bye kiss was, “Okay, so you are going on before me, it hurts but I’ll get by. Just remember, one day I’ll come looking for you and I expect you to be waiting at the gate.”

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