From: rmvale@watnow.uwaterloo.ca (Ruth Vale)
Subject: Re: Pulling contests
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 13:39:09 GMT

woit@qucis.queensu.ca (Denise Woit) writes:
>They are percheron horses. They were used, as apparently most percherons are
>in Newfoundland, to compete in pulling contests. Some believe these contests
>are cruel, because the horse is hitched to heavier and heavier weights, and
>whipped until they're so exhausted that they can't pull anymore. They win 
>based on weight pulled per pound of horse; thus, it is supposed to be a 
>common practice for people to try to starve weight off a horse before a 
>competition (I know this sounds stupid, but that's what they said.) 
>
>   I was very interested to see this description of pulling as a cruel sporti,
>   as literally a fate worse than death.  I've seen a lot of pulling contests
>   in small county fairs in Maine, and for the most part the horses seemed
>   to be treated well -- though they did work hard (but I don't think hard
>   work per se is cruel).  Have any of you seen cruelty at pulling contests,
>   and is it maybe more common in some areas or at some levels of the sport
>   than in others?

Pulling contests are a popular staple for the fall fairs in this area.  In
the three or four years I've been watching regularly, I've never seen
poorly treated equine competitors on this circuit.  As someone said,
whips and profanity are outlawed by the rules.

>   The horses all seemed very excited about pulling.  ...  As the horses
...
>I'll bet that, if you talked to the various drivers, you would find
>that the hyper horses were usually "professionals", used ONLY for
>pulling contests, while the smooth, efficient ones were mostly farming
>or logging horses whose owners did a little pulling for the fun of it.
>(One sees the same things at rodeos or gymkhanas---many horses that do
>nothing but run barrels almost have to be ponied into the starting
>box, whereas the ones that do a mixture of "everyday" things like

It has often been said that once a horse is gamed, it can't really
be used safely for anything else.  The same may apply to any sport
where speed, agility and automatic responses are "programmed" into
a horse.  Having a re-train a puller can be no different than 
re-schooling a horse off the track, or slowing down a gaming horse
during a subsequent change in activity.  

Once those big giants get moving though - they move!  Last year, or
was it the year before?, at Elmira, a team broke the single-tree
hitch and took off down the track.  They were so excited they
ended up leaving the track and the harness broke them apart when
one took off over the embankment through the trees at the end
of the track while the other kept going.  What I found interesting
is that when the owner collected his horses again and everything
got sorted out, the announcer took great pains to repeatedly inform
the audience that the horses were unhurt except for a scrape on
one or two knees (the one that ended up going through the trees
and down the embankment).  Those horses were withdraawn voluntarily
from competition for the day.

In another case, one of the horses caught a back foot on the
load while they were dancing and waiting for the singletree hitch
to drop.  I watched them examine the foot, which was obviously
scraped and bleeding and then they were withdrawn.

I think draft horse owners are as daft about their "babies" as
any other horse owner!

Speaking as a horse owner:

Ruth
(who bought Springtwist on April Fool's Day and has never
regretted it!)

-- 
=============================================================================
  I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am
    not sure you realize that what you understand is not what I meant.
=========================== rmvale@watnow.uwaterloo.ca ======================
From: donnag@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Donna Griffiths)
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 20:35:11 GMT
Subject: Re: Sentimentality at its worst (or best)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA