Farmfair competition | Fewer interested in pulling competition
EDMONTON — Ron Sebastian could have stacked another 500 pounds of cement blocks on the stone boat and tried for first place. Instead, he waved his hat, satisfied with second place in the heavy weight division of the heavy horse pulling competition at Farmfair.
Sebastian’s team had already pulled the 11,500 lb. on the stone boat further than Randy Dodge’s winning team, but because Sebastian’s pair of horses weighed more, he needed to pull more weight to win.
“One of my horses is five years old. It was his second pull in his life. He had enough,” said Sebastian of Lumsden, Sask.
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The announcer, Doug Wickham, said Sebastian’s decision to not push the horses was the “honourable thing to do.”
Sebastian’s team weighed 4,265 lb. and Randy Dodge’s team from Oregon weighed 3,670 lb.
Sebastian’s team of middleweight division horses came first at the competition. One of the horses in the middle weigh team was also a young five-year-old.
Matching a young horse with an older experienced horse is Sebastian’s way of teaching the young horse how to pull.
Back home in Lumsden, Sebastian trains his horses by pulling a 1,500-lb. stone boat four and a half miles every day. Twice a week the horses “lug” an 8,500-lb. stone boat to develop the skills of digging deep.
“That’s the hitching power,” he said. “That’s how they learn to drop down and get under the load instead of humping up and getting above the load.”
The love of heavy horses comes naturally for Sebastian, 68, who grew up driving a horse and buggy to school until Grade 11.
“You have to have a love of heavy horses and competition,” said Sebastian, who has won competitions at Farmfair and Calgary Stampede several times. “You can’t just take someone off the street.”
Two weeks earlier, Sebastian was at a large competition in Lansing, Michigan. This weekend he will be competing at Agribition in Regina, and then the team will take the winter off from competition.
“With fewer and fewer people experienced with heavy horses, it’s hard to find people who want to take up the sport of heavy horse pulling,” said Wickham.
This year, there were 15 teams entered in the competition, down from 23 last year.
“It’s a dying sport. A lot of seniors used to compete in the event and they’ve got older. The young guys are not picking up the reins,” he said.
