So far as anyone knows, the 46-horse agricultural hitch of Percherons, demonstrated near Mundare, Alta., at the end of May, was a world record.
Note the careful construction of the previous sentence, because the Producer received a number of letters, clippings and calls since it ran photos of the hitch in the June 5 issue. Turns out there is quite a bit of interest in heavy horses and hitches among subscribers.
Three sharp-eyed Ontario readers directed us to the world-record 50-horse hitch organized by Willard McWilliams of Navan, Ont. (And if the name sounds familiar, it’s because Willard and his son, Wyatt, organized the Hay West campaign last year.)
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
In 1995 and again in 1998, as told on the website www.50horsehitch.com, the elder McWilliams hooked up 50 Clydesdales, using an estimated 2,400 feet of leather, and pulled a wagon in the annual Navan Fair. It was 168.8 feet from front to back.
Records are pretty specific, however, and Neil Dimmock likely knew all about the McWilliams hitch when he researched the Alberta record attempt. Neil’s mother, Joan, says she and her son are fairly certain that the 46 Percherons in an agricultural hitch does constitute a record specifically for that breed and that type of hitch.
In fact, she says Neil chose to hitch 46 Percherons because he read about a 44-horse Percheron hitch that pulled a combine in Washington state.
“We’d be happy to stand corrected if anybody says anything,” Joan said on the phone last week. “Anyway, it’s not the glory of breaking a world record. It was to call attention to the draft horse and its contribution to agriculture.”
Joan said Neil has done 18, 26 and 36-horse hitches right there on the farm near Mundare, and he had no trouble finding enough horses for the record attempt among his friends and fellow members of the draft horse agricultural society.
Guinness, of world record book fame, apparently does not recognize agricultural hitches as a category. However, website searches for horse-related records do turn up some amazing statistics. The longest horse-drawn procession comprised 68 carriages that measured 3,018 feet, end to end, and appeared in Denmark in 1986.
The largest horse on record is a Shire called Samson, who stood seven feet, two inches tall. The aptly-named horse was also heaviest on record at 3,360 pounds.
The smallest pony on record, Little Pumpkin, was 14 inches tall and weighed 20 lb.
