My First Ever Horse Pull

I’ve been to many places and done many things in my lifetime, but today was the first time I have ever been to a horse pulling event.  I guess I should say horse pulling contest, because the teams of horses were competing against each other and some of the spectators were betting on which team would pull the most weight.

Since I’ve never been to one of these events before, I really didn’t know much about what was going on and from what I could gather from listening to people around me, the horse pulling contests are different in Florida than in other parts of the country.  When we first approached the stands, we heard an auctioneer and thought we were at a horse auction.  We found out that the spectators and participants were bidding on the up coming team of horses.  The highest bidder contributed that amount of money to the jackpot which was awarded at the end of the competition.

The morning event was for the smaller horses.  We were there in the afternoon for the big guys.  The teams we saw competing weighed around 5,000 pounds and were pulling over 3,000 pounds.  To help the horse grip the dirt, their shoes had prongs on the back.  The handlers would bring a team around and hitch it to a heavy duty truck.  Once hitched, the teams were off.  Sometimes, they didn’t even wait to be hitched and they had to be brought around again.  A complete pull was 20 feet.

I enjoyed seeing the horses; they are such magnificent animals.  But, I wasn’t so thrilled with seeing them strain to pull the load.  I’ve been to tractor pulls and enjoyed those events, but it’s different when its a machine.  We stayed about thirty minutes.  I’d had all of that I wanted.

That was our excitement for today.  Other than that we’ve been doing chores and preparing for colder weather.  Temperatures are forecasted for below freezing tonight.  Looks like we won’t be having 80 degrees for the next several days.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.