MULE CROSSING: Lucky Three Ranch

By Meredith Hodges

It was a cold October morning in 1979 as we hurriedly bathed the last 12 animals to be sold at Windy Valley Ranch’s dispersal sale. After seven years of quality mule production and training, the mainstay of my life was about to come to a close. A hard sell, I had grown to love these longeared animals and could not imagine a life without them. I begged my mother to let me have at least one mule and the 18-year-old Quarter Horse gelding I had used as my ponying horse to take with me when I moved to Colorado to attend Colorado State University vet school and start building my own ranch. But, she told me all the animals had to go through the sale.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I watched my friends being sold one at a time. I could only hope that they would all go to good homes. As the killer bid $450 for my old gelding, my heart stopped. He may have been 18, but I knew there was still a lot of good years left in that old horse! And, he loved the mules! As the monies were tallied, I stood in the office, stunned by the events of the day – Windy Valley Ranch would be no more. Without a change in expression, my mother looked up at me and said, “O.K… I will give you the old gelding, one pregnant mare, and the pony for Dena. They didn’t really bring enough in the sale anyway, but you’ll have to wait to ship them until the foal is born.” I was ecstatic! It was at that moment I decided that the legacy of the Windy Valley Ranch would never die as long as I was alive to carry on and I eagerly relayed this information to my mother.

Mom had come with us for the final real estate check on our newly acquired property in Colorado. A meager ten acres with a few out buildings, it was verging on resembling a large dump with 100 head of sheep roaming about. There was no grass or fences to speak of, but the sheep manure was plentiful! It was three feet deep over the entire two-acre barn area. In fact, it was so deep that the horses couldn’t even get in under the sheds! Yet when Gary, my mother, and I stood in the drive and surveyed the property one last time before returning to California, all I could see was what could be. “It’s got possibilities,” I said enthusiastically. My mother scowled, then grinned and said, “Yeah, it’s got possibilities all right.”

Gary and I decided to marry before moving to Colorado and one of our friends wanted to make us a sign for our ranch as a wedding gift, so we had to come up with a name. We felt so lucky to be moving to colorful and inspiring Colorado to begin a whole new life together: Gary, Dena and I. When we asked my mother for some suggestions, she came up with the Lucky Three Ranch. It couldn’t have been a more appropriate name and so it came to be! We moved in June of 1980 and a week later, Lucky Three Sundowner was born. The week after that all our animals—three horses, one pony, and one mule—were shipped to their new home in Colorado.

Though my trust fund provided enough to cover basic living costs, it could by no means provide us with an excess to spend, so the first two years we spent digging our way out of the sheep manure and garbage with nothing but shovels! We built fences and sheds out of discarded lumber and made do as best we could. Each day I set aside one hour to spend with the first mule that was ever totally mine!

It was Lucky Three Sundowner who inspired the direction our ranch would take. That first year, he won all his halter classes and gave us more pleasure than had any animal in my life. We decided to try to save and buy a jack eventually so we could revive the quality and standards of the Windy Valley mules. It was on my birthday in 1981 that my mother presented me with the papers on the last donkey born at Windy Valley, Little Jack Horner. After showing Sundowner at Bishop Mule Days, we high-tailed it up to Healdsburg to pick up Little Jack Horner and take him back to Colorado with us. We were just outside of Sparks, Nevada, on our way home when we heard frantic honking behind us. We pulled over and were greeted by a rather large, burly, smiling gentleman who asked, “You got a Windy Valley jack in that trailer?” No one can ever say that Ernie Fanning doesn’t know his Longears! We introduced ourselves and sat there along the highway talking mules for about a half an hour. Afterwards, we were again on our way with our trailer full of hopes and dreams.

Eight years later, the dreams were fulfilled several times over with each new direction we took with our mules. Little Jack Horner proved his value by producing some of the finest mules in the world. Every one claimed a place at Halter and the older ones took their respective places in performance. Lucky Three Sundowner won well over twenty titles to his credit, including National Western Grand Champion Model Mule in 1983 and Bishop Mule Days World Champion Bridle Reined Mule in 1984. Later, he was the first mule to make it to Fourth Level Dressage.

Lucky Three Mae Bea C.T., a molly by Colorado Poncho and out of our Appaloosa mare, Sam’s Nickey (bred before Little Jack Horner was old enough to breed), was foaled in 1982 and had over 40 titles to her credit, including National Western Stock Show Drive & Ride Champion in 1986, Single Hitch Champion in 1987 and 1988 and Bishop Mule Days Reserve World Champion Drive & Ride and Single Hitch Mule in 1986 and 1987. Mae Bea C.T. had won numerous titles in Halter, English & Western Pleasure, Trail, Reining, and Dressage in her short career. She is the first mule I ever trained without any interference from anyone. In my opinion, she was the best mule I ever produced of the 30 or better that I had trained before. Still, there were many more Little Jack Horner offspring to come! Bea’s crowing glory was to beat 56 horses in Combined Training in 1993 at the Novice Level. Given the right start in a carefully planned training program, our mules provided us with the additional finances we needed to expand to the breeding and training operation that we had for twenty years, but it is more than just this for which we stand.

We began as a family of three enthusiastic people, loving and living Longears and that part hasn’t changed. Good hired help is next to impossible to find, so we built up our ranch so that it would be relatively easy to care for it ourselves. In 1984, we added 70 more acres and a hay business to our operation—still managed entirely by our small family and a few friends on occasion. Experience and dedication to Longears caused us to cover a wide spectrum of training with our mules, ranging from Western to English and finally to Dressage and Combined Training. Little Jack Horner became the Sire-Supreme of mules that naturally possessed the athletic ability and conformation to accomplish a wide variety of interests. This further exhibited the true versatility of quality mules. In 1984, we bought a 14.2 HH jennet at the Segelke Dispersal sale in Denver in hopes of developing a Mammoth donkey jack with the refined characteristics of the Large Standard and Standard donkeys.

We had two jennets by Little Jack Horner who reflect success in this experiment: Lucky Three Pantera, a 15HH jennet and Lucky Three Serendipity, a 14HH jennet. The future provided us with more quality donkeys, particularly our three refined jacks, two Large Standard jacks and one Mammoth jack.

Our ranch was built out of love, respect and loyalty to Longears. We always enjoyed sharing our stories and experiences with others and encourage this good feeling in the industry. We have learned so much over the years and wish to share this success with others. Out of this desire for sharing grew the Colorado Donkey & Mule Society that operated out of our ranch for more than two years. It wasn’t long ago that we were knocking on the doors of horse shows everywhere, begging for acceptance. When we formed the Colorado Donkey and Mule Society, we had horse people knocking on the doors of our learning clinics! At the same time, we had nearly six times the number of Longears shows in Colorado that we had before!

Acceptance by the United States Dressage Federation in 1986 was the most inspiring influence we encountered in our 15 years with Longears. A tradition in equestrian arts, the United States Dressage Federation literally lives by its motto, “A Circle of Friends.” They aided us in putting our mules to the test and allowed us to test their capabilities at numerous schooling shows. We also discovered that Dressage Training (as tradition already has it) only enhances an animal’s performance. It is for this reason that we always start our young mules this way, though each individual may be suited for something different. It was our U.S.D.F. instructor, Melinda Weatherford, who inspired Gary, Dena, and I to go one step farther into Combined Training. The mule’s natural jumping ability lent itself beautifully to this avenue of training—besides, it’s just a lot of fun for both mules and riders! Our daughter, Dena, worked diligently to try to become a United States Equestrian Team rider. She said if she finally made the Olympic team, she hoped they would allow her to exhibit her three-day event mule, Lucky Three Nuggett at the Olympics. Although they never did have this opportunity, it looks like Longears will continue to prosper through a third generation in this family with my granddaughters as they love Longears, too!

I have been writing “MULE CROSSING,” a column that appeared in numerous mule and horse publications throughout the U.S. and Europe for many years. This has been my way of sharing all our wonderful experiences with Longears with others.

Our Longears have given us many memorable moments in our lives, most of them pleasurable and it is my desire to share this knowledge with others that keeps me going. Lucky Three Ranch only produced three to four mules per year because that is all we could handle for training. Our mules proved their quality and value many times over in the show ring.

We had wonderful news from some of our L.T.R. mule owners: Lucky Three Desiree, 1988 Florida State Fair Grand Champion Model Mule at 2 1/2 years old; Lucky Three Stardust, 4th at Halter and 2nd in Green Pleasure at the 1988 Virginia State Fair, then two 1sts and a 2nd in performance and a 4th at Halter at the North Carolina State Fair at four years old! It did my heart good to hear all our clients raving about their fine offspring by Little Jack Horner and the ultimate is when they come and beat us in a show as did Donna Groh’s “L.J.’s Hanna!” Lucky Three Ranch was born of love and friendship, grew with quality and ability, and will continue to prosper with the sharing of all these good things combined!

To learn more about Meredith Hodges and her comprehensive all-breed equine training program, visit LuckyThreeRanch.com, MEREDITH HODGES PUBLIC FIGURE Facebook page, or call 1-800-816-7566. Check out her children’s website at JasperTheMule.com. Also, find Meredith on Pinterest, Instagram, MeWe, YouTube and Twitter.

Covered in TRAINING MULES & DONKEY: A LOGICAL APPROACH TO TRAINING, TRAINING WITHOUT RESISTANCE and EQUUS REVISITED at www.luckythreeranchstore.com.

© 1991, 1998, 2016, 2024 Lucky Three Ranch, Inc. All Rights Reserved.