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A Supplement to the Terrace Review —— Wednesday, August 28, 1991

Show horses that work, too!!

HEAVY HORSE PULL Success in the event requires horses that pull as a team and a handler
who knows how to coordinate them and get the most out of them. Heavy Horse Pull
events will be held at the fall fair 6 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

For most of the year the teams
entered in the Heavy Horse Puli
event at the Skeena Valley Fall
Fair earn their oats doing some-
thing besides thrilling crowds.

Most of them are working horses:

used as draught animals, farm
cultivators and log skidders. —.
During the summer and fall,
however, the teams travel from one
community to another to compete
in a variety events at exhibitions,
rodeos and fall fairs. The Skeena

_ Valley Fall Fair began the local

competition two years ago, and its
been a crowd pleaser.

"It’s certainly interesting for the
spectators,” says event organizer
Leo De Jong. "The horses really
put a lot into it. Some of them
stretch out ‘til they’re nearly flat
on the ground in their determina-
tion to pull.”

What they’re pulling is a weight-
laden sledge called a stoneboat.
The starting weight for the team is
2,000 pounds, and De Jong notes
that the winner is not necessarily
the team that pulls the most weight
— the prize goes to the team that
pulls the heaviest weight in rela-
tion to the weight of the team, a

rule that gives smaller horses an
equal chance, rewarding skill and
condition rather than size and brute
strength.

Horses that compete in the pull
come from a variety of breeds, De
Jong said: Percherons, Belgians,
and mixed breeds that even include
blood from smaller riding horses.

Success in the event requires
horses that pull as a team and a
handler who knows how to

coordinate them and get the most.

out of them. The team has to break
the stoneboat loose from a stand-
ing start and pull it a minimum of

eight feet. As the teams progress
weight is added to the stoneboat in
500 pound increments. Last year’s
Heavy Horse Pull drew six teams,
and De Jong expects more this
year, As of Aug. 16 there were
already six entries.

Most of the teams come from the
agricultural country in the Bulkley
Valley and the Lakes District.

Heavy Horse Pull events will be
held at the fall fair at 6 p.m. Satur-
day and 3 p.m. Sunday.

Celebrate
Christmas 4

early — with the gift of

INTEREST

TERRACE _

UNTIL 1992 OAC
ALL USED CARS & TRUCKS
1985 AND NEWER. PAY NO

INTEREST UNTIL 1992.
Offer expires August 24, 1991

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