the paper listed events for the 2 weeks of the fair in rapid city. hidden among all the events i found a horse pull. when i called to confirm time, the ticket person, said, "What? We have a draft horse show?" but she found it. i was so excited because i used to go to the horse pull at the boulder county fair and the big pull at the end of the national western stock show.well, it really wasn't a pull, it was a demonstration put on by a club. it consisted of 2 farm teams of draft horses, not the heavy weights you see at the nws, plus a team of mules and a team of shetland ponies (the old breed, not the jazzed up breed that looks like miniature hackneys).
the big teams shared the hookup, but the shetlands had their own. they were the best. the little dark chestnut really put all his muscle into it. you didn't need to ask him twice to go for it. the pulled the sled which was about a thousand pounds plus another hundred.
it was easy to see the other teams were really ambivalent about the whole thing. if it was a real contest the horses take off the minute they hear the joining of the metal.
so after sitting in the sun without my hat which i left in the car and without my sunglasses which i left at home, i went home. it was really hot.
1 comment:
that's too bad that they didn't have an actual pull. it is probably more of an eastern dakota activity since draft horses are more for farming than ranching. at least the belgians looked like a nice team.
Post a Comment