Freedom Festival Horse Pull
I took my family to the local horse pull event hosted during the Freedom Festival in a nearby town. I have been to tractor and truck pulls before but never a horse pull so I was pretty excited to see what it was like. If you're a city person you probably won't like this post because it doesn't get much more redneck than this.
About The Sport
Horse pulling came about when farmers wanted to compete to see who's horse could pull the most weight. This came about when horses were widely used on a farm for work. Today it has become a sport where there are rules in place to protect the horses and not allow any abuse or mistreatment of them and guidelines for how far to pull and what equipment should be used. The goal of a horse pull or any pull in general is to pull a cart/sled loaded with weight a specific distance. Once every team of horses attempts to pull the sled more weight is added and the horses try the new higher weight. This goes on until a full length pull cannot be completed and the furthest distance wins, or in the case of last night the winning team completed the final weight and all other teams could not pull that weight the full distance. Perhaps the winners could have done even more weight but they had already completed a full pull the rest of the teams could not and the competition ended. The distance they used last night was 23.5 feet.
Action shots
Here are some pictures of a few pairs of horses I took last night.
This team is getting coming up to the sled to make their attempt
As soon as they hear the the hook latching in they are trained to take off immediately with a huge thrust.
and off they go!
Hooking in
There is a little danger involved for the people handling the horses if you haven't noticed. The heaviest team weighed a combined weight of 5500lbs, that's more that's more than 1 1/3 tons each! It didn't look easy to manage these enormous animals especially if they were being a bit stubborn. Below are some shots of getting them set up for a pull:
The guy with the reins has to walk them around and get them lined up in front of the sled, keep in mind these horses are trained to explode with their energy to take off with the weight.
Once their rear end swings around they get real antsy and ready to go and that's where the danger is. There are usually one or two guys holding the evener bar (long bar that attaches to the sled), and a guy for latching the hook to the sled. You can see them getting everything in place and as soon as the horses hear the metal clank of the latch they lurch full force.
Sometimes the hooker isn't fast enough and doesn't get it connected before the horses decide to take off. Think of them like a compressed spring triggered by a latch. When this happens the guy with the rains has a tough time keeping the horses from running forward. You can barely see him in a grey/tan shirt. This happened several time during the event but no harm done, they just have to circle the horses around and try again.
This was the winning team with a full 23.5 foot pull of 11,000! It was quite spectacular
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wa! so funny photo, The event is so Significant
Indeed
It has been sometime since I have been to horse pull, they had them for awhile up north were we used to live. Down her in KY just Truck & Tractor Pulls, mud bogs.....
that's a good time too though! There are quite a bit of Amish around where I live and they do a lot of horse pulling apparently.
Just saw the line up for the county fair, and they have horse and mule pulls this year! life is good....
Cool! If you go, post up some pictures.
Unfortunately it poured rain yesterday, I believed they canceled. I have dubbed the first two weeks in July in Southern KY Monsoon season, we already have 4"+ of rain in the last 7 days.....
wow that is a lot, It has been missing us lately but we are probably 3 or 4 hours north of you though. At least rain is better for growing than drought.
It must be a great Festivals. You must be enjoying horse ridings and Races
Thank you for your comment @indiantraveller. We did have a good time and will be going back tomorrow.
Love it, although a small part of me is still concerned that the horses might be expected to do too much in the excitement.
It can't be captured in pictures but you could tell the horses enjoyed it. They got very excited to pull and weren't over worked. All the owners exercised respect for the animals. One team did not make a final attempt because he didn't want to injure the horses.
Fair play. The wife and I went to Malta last year and as with most places, they had horse and carriage rides. I went along the line quizzing the drivers before we picked one. There's no way I'm giving money to someone who abuses animals.
agreed, they shouldn't be worked too long or too hard. My beliefs may not be popular but I'm not barbaric. I feel that horses were made to help us work but that does not constitute mis-treatment. I think they should be treated humanely and taken well care of.
I'm glad to hear this as I was also worried about the horses ultimate comfort - but its great if the horses show that they love it and brings them joy. I am glad that the people who own the horses show respect to all of that to ensure they stay safe and happy! Very interesting - thank you for sharing - looks like it would have been a lot of fun!
Thank you for commenting and your concern for the animals. It was a lot of fun, I'm not sure if I like this or tractor pulls more. There's something majestic about these huge horses accomplishing so much, it's quite beautiful.
i love the horse...
Aren't they beautiful?
they are....
In Germany a cars engine is still measured in "horse power"
same here although I don't think it is very accurate to a real horses power.