Fun Pull

[Gabe Ayers]

Every year we try to attend a little agricultural fair in an neighboring county.
It is a loose event that has a horse pull that presents a great training opportunity for young horses that have never had such an experience. The contest is quite different than the normal county fair pulls in several ways.

This Newport, Va. fair has a nice sod that is actually the out field on a softball diamond and gives a good grip for horses, even flat shod ones or barefoot. The little sled is on runners and they only load 350 pounds at a time and only pull 16 feet instead of the standard 27-1/2. So this is a good place to take new horses to have a positive experience in a crowd fair atmosphere for the first time off the farm or out of the woods so to speak. We have been going for nearly twenty years now and every new team we are bringing along toward a peak capacity in their pulling power always starts at Newport. There are often several wagon train teams and some farm horses that haven’t had any experiences pulling a dead weight from a stand still, so our new horses are not the only ones new to the experience.

This year there were only a half dozen pair there and five of them were from our group of friends. Each pair was new to the experience in one way or another, some being new combination’s of horses and some having never been in this setting before. This setting allows many repeated hookings with successively heavier loads so lots of repeat efforts are provided that are not to hard, but a little harder each time. The horses learn from this experience.

When the load starts to get serious, say over 5000 pounds the new horses are asked to pull hard but good horsemen are encouraged by the old man (me) to drop out after a good honest successful effort as a great positive reinforcement training situation. This year one of the teams was a fellow that has trained with us and just returned from Iraq. His team had only been worked for a couple of weeks on the sled but understood what was being asked and performed perfectly. As the load got to 6000 and they successfully pulled it Eddy (from Maine) and he dropped out and voluntarily didn’t go back, wanting to have his horses succeed at doing what was asked in this new setting and effort. The crowd always cheers when a contest drops out and is satisfied with the honest effort given willingly by their team. This year the last three teams were some of out guys. The Chad Miano team and the Blaine and Brenton Chaffin teams all crossed 7000 pounds after serious effort by each. When it came time for another load all three declined to hook again and the crowd went wild. The public loves an honest effort with the horses behaving sensibly and controlled yet making a powerful display in the process.

The collection of horsemen that would do this instead of compete to the end was a wonderful experience for an old horseman to watch. I was so proud of all their horses and them. The crowd was pleased too.

The place is not well lighted so we didn’t get any photos of the later loads, but attached is Eddies team on one of the early loads. Horse pullers can be gentle men and the experience can be fun. We of course all use our logging company names so the advertising opportunity is great too since there are usually several hundred spectators, many of them owning forest land.

[Donn Hewes]

That looked and sounded like a lot of fun, and great for the horses and teamsters. I have never been to a plowing match like that but I know I would enjoy it. I have been getting my younger horses to plow a little sod and it is kind of like a plowing match with out the crowds. Donn

[Gabe Ayers]

Don,

It is not a plowing match, but a pulling contest. I have never been to a plowing match either.

[Donn Hewes]

This is why I don’t let myself post anything after too many hours in the hot sun. Yes, I think the pulling contest sounded like a lot of fun – and good for horses. Donn

[TBigLug]

I love a good pull. Sounds like that one was exceptionally exciting!

[Anonymous]

It looks like alot of fun to watch! 🙂

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