Randy Melton describes himself as a muleskinner, a teamster who drives mules. He explained that the term “muleskinner” came about because in the old days when someone was outsmarted they got skinned.
“I spend my whole day outsmarting mules so that’s why I’m a muleskinner,” Melton said. “They don't say cursing like a muleskinner for no reason because most of what we yell at our mules is not printable.”
Randy and his wife Alesha have been hauling their mules to parades and events in Wyoming, including reenacting a shootout in South Pass City this past month for Gold Rush Days.
Jesus even rode one of their mules in a scene in the movie “The Chosen.”
The Big Screen
Melton said their mules’ film career started with a commercial for Coors, and it was almost by accident. The Meltons were hired to provide horses, but the actors couldn't ride at all.
“The director pointed at me and told me to go to wardrobe,” Randy Melton said. “So, I went to wardrobe and filled out a contract that I didn't even know what it was. When I got back, I was in the commercial.”
After that, the animal coordinator who hired the Meltons just kept hiring them for more movies. That was about 15 years ago, and you can still catch glimpses of Melton and his teams in various films.
“When you're watching a movie and you see a wagon go by in the background or something like that, that's what I do,” he said. “We do horse stunts, driving wagons on fire, wagon chases, and stunt doubling for the actors.”
Melton's latest movie was “Horizon” with Kevin Costner. He also worked on the "Killer of the Flower Moon," a couple horror movies and “The Last of Us,” an American post-apocalyptic drama television series. Parts of that series were filmed in Yellowstone National Park and the Tetons.
“I just provided horses and did background riding and safety riding,” Melton said. “I really am not on camera that much.”
Randy Melton became an actor by accident. He had brought his horses to the set for a Coors commercial and ended up acting in it. This has led to numerous roles as the "man on the horse" or in the wagon pulled by his mules. (Alesha and Randy Melton) 
Randy and Alesha Melton run an outfitting business, specializing in mules as their pack animal of choice, in Utah, just 40 miles from the border of Wyoming. They have spent several weeks attending parades in Thermopolis and shootouts in South Pass, Wyoming, and will soon be getting ready for the fall hunting season. (Alesha and Randy Melton) 
Alesha's great-grandfather Charles Smith first came to this country from Illinois as a young man in the late 1800s and ended up in Brownsville when the likes of such as Tom Horn chased him into Utah from Wyoming. She is now the fifth-generation muleskinner in her family. (Alesha Melton) 
andy Melton was born to be a muleskinner. He was leading a team as a toddler and was a muleskinner for the Army. As a civilian, he is an outfitter and works for the movies. He claims that mules are smarter, stronger and healthier than horses and that people are starting "to catch on" to their greatness. (Alesha and Randy Melton) 
Alesha Melton is a fifth-generation muleskinner and still has the mules her grandpa raised when she was a teenager. She has taken over the family outfitting business and when not in the backcountry, chances are she is on a movie set or in a parade with her mules. (Alesha and Randy Melton) 
Randy and Alesha Melton run an outfitting business, specializing in mules as their pack animal of choice, in Utah, just 40 miles from the border of Wyoming. They have spent several weeks attending parades in Thermopolis and shootouts in South Pass, Wyoming, and will soon be getting ready for the fall hunting season. (Alesha and Randy Melton)
Family History of Muleskinners
Alesha is a fifth-generation muleskinner and it was her grandfather who started the outfitting business nearly 50 years ago that the couple operate today.
“When my great grandpa first came to this country from Illinois as a young man in the late 1800s, he ended up in Brownsville,” Alesha said. “He was in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado and was there when Tom Horn was around.”
All the rustling and outlawry chased her ancestors into Utah, about 40 miles from the Wyoming border. The Meltons now live in Myton, Utah.
Alesha still has two of the mules her grandfather raised for packing: Poncho, 31, and Kay, 36. They are her favorites. While Kay is retired, Poncho is still working.
“They were born when I was still in high school and we raised them,” Alesha said. “I grew up in the outfitting world and have been raising mules all my life.”
As with their movie roles, outfitting was not a family intention. Her grandpa was cowboying for a living and everybody kept asking him where the big mule deer and big elk were. It got so he started charging them for taking them out, and that morphed into an outfitting business.
Melton also grew up with mules, although his experience was a bit different from that of Alesha’s.
“My grandpa and his brothers were in east Tennessee, farming with mules,” Melton said. “We put up loose hay the old-fashioned way with teams of mules until I turned 15.”
The first time Melton remembers ever driving a mule, he said he was probably 3 or 4 years old.
“I was too little to throw hay in the trailer, so I got to drive the team,” Melton said.
Melton’s last job in the Army, before he transitioned into civilian life as an outfitter, even involved mules. He was the muleskinner for the first cavalry division, horse detachment, in Fort Hood, Texas.
Defending the Mule
Melton said mules are becoming more popular because more folks are recognizing their abilities for packing in the backcountry and trail riding.
“When I was a kid, mules were not as popular with a lot of people because they're just not as sexy as a horse,” Melton said. “But now a lot of people are catching on that the mule is more sure-footed, stronger and smarter.
The mule is also selling for more, Melton said. He said that in a recent Cody horse sale, the highest selling horse sold for $50,000. The same day, in another sale in Utah, the highest selling mule sold for $100,000.
To get a mule, Melton said, you breed a jack (male donkey) with a mare. If you breed a jenny with a horse, you get a Henney, which resembles a horse more than the donkey and is less desirable.
“Mules have all the hybrid vigor of both the donkey and the horse,” Melton said. “They have higher intelligence, more endurance, and better bone structure."
He said they also don't get sick as easily, survive on less feed and are not as much maintenance as a horse. Melton also said vet bills aren't as high.
Mules also have a lot more personality than a horse because their brain is split like humans, Melton explained. A horse reacts to his environment and then forgets about it but a mule actually reasons and processes information.
“Mules are they're not really stubborn,” Melton said. “They're just independent thinkers.”
Melton says mules are all about good training. Every time you put your hands on your mule, you either make it better or worse. That's because of their intelligence and that they are paying attention to everything, and learning.
His mules each have their own quirky personality, and he said it is hard to pick a favorite. For the stagecoach he brought to South Pass and the Trail Blazers Days in Thermopolis, Melton used Kit and Kat for the wheel team. Mandy and Myrtle were his leaders on the stagecoach.
For his freight wagon, he has a set of blond mules named Willie and Tina and pairs them with their Belgian drafts. They are not dainty mules; each weighs about two tons. They were bred from a Mammoth Jack and a Percheron mare.
Because mules can get expensive, the Meltons breed their own herd. They have “babies on the ground” born this year all the way up to their 36-year-olds.
When not starring in movies or parading around in events, the Meltons are using their mules to pack into the backcountry.
They both agree they were born to be muleskinners.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
