Just a horse Crazy Couple

The Danny Ellsworth Memorial Horse Pull

Most people are crazy about something; it is just a matter of figuring out the thing that you seem nuts about. In my case, it is horses, anything about horses. With this in mind Nancy and I found us sitting in the rain watching draft horses pull huge amounts of weight. It was not a planned event, mind you, but rather one of those serendipitous things you run across in life if you are looking.

It started innocently enough with a drive to Tignish to see if the Co-Op store was open so we could look for a desk for Nancy. Well, it was Sunday, and since Tignish is predominantly Catholic, the stores in town were all closed up tight. As we drove through town, we noticed that there were hand-lettered signs indicating a horse pull was taking place in town. We followed the signs and wound our way back past the park, and onto someone’s farm where we found the event. It was the first annual Danny Ellsworth Memorial Horse Pull. It seems Mr. Ellsworth was mad about horse pulls and so after his death, the Island Horse Pullers Association decided to have an event in his honor.

Now, for those of you that have never been to a horse pull (as we ourselves had not been prior to today), it is a fairly simple process. The goal is to pull a specific weight for a distance of 72 inches (6 feet). You have two attempts at each weight, and during each attempt you can pull once (i.e. the horses can pull forward once, but once they step back, the pull is complete). To mark the distance to be pulled, a six foot chain is fixed to the back of the sled with a pin that holds down a spring loaded flag on one end and a stake on the other. The judge drives the stack into the ground, and once the sled has moved past the length of the chain, the pin comes out and the flag pops up indicating the completion of the pull. The teamster who is driving the horses has to keep them straight so that they do not get disqualified for leaving the track, and the hitcher has to make sure that the metal hitch gets properly placed on the sled at the start of the pull.

It all sounds easy enough, but as we sat there watching, it became apparent that it was not as easy as it appeared. The horses are all very excited about getting to pull, and as the driver is trying to position them near the sled so the hitcher can attach them to the sled, these horses are getting more and more worked up. Some of the teamsters were able to calm their horses and allow things to proceed with ease and grace, others seemed like one step short of total chaos. Once attached, the driver sounded off and the horses start to pull for all they are worth. Mind you, some of these horses were pulling two to three times their combined weight. It was impressive!

Even more impressive was the fact that each of these horses was turned out neatly, well cared for, and excited about the job at hand. The drivers seemed to have the best interest of the horses at heart as several bowed out of competition if their horses had seemed to struggle with a particular weight class. As we arrived, the weight being pulled was 5200 pounds (20 cement blocks at 200 pounds each on a sled that weighed 1200 pounds), and the winning horse from the mid-weight class pulled 8000 pounds 68.5 inches and the team of horses weighed in at 3190 pounds.

We watched, enthralled, for a full two hours until the event was complete. It was magnificent to see these horses at work, and for a couple of horse crazy people, it was a little slice of heaven. To see all of the photos, click on the scrolling photos to the right.