Even though Gordon Frentz is 82, he’s not opposed to trying new things.
That’s why this year was his first competing in the chore team competition at Canadian Western Agribition as the oldest competitor in the event.
“People find it hard to believe why an 82-year-old man would want to drive 14 hours through a blizzard to get here,” Frentz said with a chuckle.
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“I watched the past couple years of the competitors and thought, ‘I think I can do that.’ ”
Frentz is from Grande Prairie, Alta., and is part of the Peace Draft Horse Club. While he has done many chore team competitions within his club, he has never competed at an event like Agribition.
But for his first large-scale competition, he did better than he expected, finishing third out of 16 teams on Nov. 26.
“I was hoping to make the top eight,” he said.
“I ended up in third, so that’s pretty good.”
Chore team competitions consist of a team of two horses that are guided through a series of objects and tasks, such as being hooked up to a sled and backing into a dock, which is to mimic classic chores that happen on farms and ranches.
Frentz grew up on a farm, and while he never farmed himself, he always had a love for horses. He lived in Grand Cache, Alta., for much of his life, but when he retired to Grande Prairie, he decided to get back into horses by joining the draft club.
“When I moved out of Grande Cache to Grande Prairie, unbeknownst, I moved really close to some wonderful neighbours that were part of the Peace Draft Horse Club. That’s how I got involved.”
The team of horses Frentz used to compete at Agribition consists of two Haflinger horses around the ages of seven and eight years old. Frentz got them when they were two and three, and he broke them and trained them to compete. Compared to well-known draft horses such as Clydesdales,
Haflingers are much smaller, usually around 14 hands high and between 700 and 1,300 pounds.
Horses sometimes have to pull very heavy objects in a chore team competition. In this event, the horses had to pull a sleigh with enough weight on it to mimic a round bale of hay.
“The weight equalled 1,200 pounds, which represents a bale of hay … so the bale of hay was heavier than one of my horses,” Frentz said.
He said being active at his age is important to him, and his passion for working horses is what keeps him in good shape at 82.
Now, with a third-place finish under his belt, Frentz is planning on competing in more chore team competitions in Western Canada, with the hope of returning to Agribition to compete next year.
“I kind of hope to come back next year.… It’s kind of nice to do this. Like I say, I’m enjoying it.”
Here’s the rest of our Agribition coverage
