This dramatic photo, taken at the Blaine County Fair in 1983, shows the incredible power of a team of horses competing in the horse-pull event. In this event, individual horses or teams compete to see which can drag the most weight over a pre-determined distance. The event has its roots in friendly competitions between farmers with their draft horses, but these days horses are trained specifically for the horse-pull event, and typically are not involved in regular farm work.
Teams take turns pulling a sled with a substantial weight on it, with the traditional distance of the horse-pull being 27 feet and 6 inches. This distance is based on scientific studies done at Iowa State University in the early 1900’s that determined that a horse lost its maximum pulling power after about 27.5 feet. Any team that is able to pull the sled the required distance qualifies for the next round, where more weight is added and each team remaining pulls again. The weights pulled are truly incredible, with some pairs of horses pulling upwards of 4,000 pounds!
This photo was taken at the Carey fairgrounds during the annual Blaine County Fair, which in addition to the horse-pull event in 1983, featured a wide variety of other events such as livestock showing, archery, dog obedience, motorcycling, and an astounding number of judged competitions for best crops, baked goods, quilts, pottery, paintings, flowers, canned goods, and many, many, more!
