I attended the National Western Stock show Draft show on friday and I was very surprised to see no Percherons in the pulling contest. I am used to not seeing any Clydes and Shires . Is the Belgian only a new trend or am I just out of the loop ?

Darned if I know, but my father in law always said Clydes were no good, took 8 of them to pull an empty beer wagon! ;-)

Dave,

I can't answer your question but if you head that way next year give me a shout and maybe we can get coffee. My wife and I were there for Sat night's performance. No pull Sat night but lots of shiny wagons and harness.

Todd

rdennis, you made me laugh!

Before the show the folks that put it on did a special segment they called Draft Horse University where they invited folks down to the arena to see the different breeds and types of shoeing and types of harness and what each part of the harness does. I thought they did a great job ... heck I even learned a bunch about show harness , not that my girls will ever see any of that on themselves! People even asked really well thought out questions !

I would say that the belgains are the only ones that are dumb enough to keep hooking like that. (GRINNING)

In all seriousness I have had this same discussion with pullers. Most agree that Belgains are more readily available than the other breeds and usually less money. One puller said that 1 in 5 horse will really pull and only 1 in 15 will get where they love to pull and compete. Many can't handle the failure of not pulling a load. To me pulling is about conditioning the mind of the horse more so than the body.

Pulling is definitely 80% mental and 20% physical.

Also body conformation, you can't expect a 1/4 horse on legs to pull. Lower to the ground a good 1/4 horse would give big teams hell by pound %.

You can't breed for action and pulling ability at the same time

What KM said is right, if that small horse is asked over time to pull, it will pull more for its teamster than you can beleive..

Different areas have different sources. Here you would see more shires and percherons.
I remember a percheron team, wt. 2900 that won it all at Sandpoint. Out pulled the big boys because they had been skidding logs all summer.

Klaus, it made me laugh when he said it too.. one thing I've noticed in the past 40 years since I've paid attention, the draft horses have all gotten "hitcher" looking, longer legs.. one of the reasons I was attracted to the Halflingers, they just looked like smaller, nice sized Belgians… my old original team I got in 1980, were sorrel mares. I bred them both to an old time looking, squatty made chunky Belgian a neighbor had and out of the smaller chunkier mare, I got a perfect mate to her.., only difference in them was the 4 years in age. same movement, same look, same temperament.. I have been attracted by the looks and sounds of Suffolks, from what I have seen and read, but want bays and don't really want to spend what most seem to want for them.. there are very few draft type horses close to me… I like the looks of the Clydes.. even looked into getting one of my mares AI'd with frozen semen to a Gypsy Vanner a friend in Colorado has, but the cost was just more than I was willing to
spend.. sure would like some nice slow moving, not too hot geldings… oh well, I've been looking for the perfect saddle horse for 50 years too and only really come close once and most would hate him...

I will restate my claim that you can have both action/athletic movement and the ability to pull. We have living proof here at RX Acres. Conformation and genetics can prevail.

Amen Dris! I know a puller that found geldings in hitches. A good wheel team could make a pulling team. If all I ever did with a team was close chores a slow dopy team would be fine. On a mower or on a drag the movement gets you up the field.

My mares are out of an imported show stallion an a mare double bred to an imported stallion. If the show ring is getting it right form follows function.

Dennis your father-in-law knew what a pulling team was. His dad and Uncles had horses & Mules that would pull.

KC, yup, that was back when they worked them. He claimed them hay sleds would ruin a nice hard pulling team.. they'd get to hitting it so hard.. Marty Blocker told me that Buck Bucholz told him the secret to keeping a good set good was to use 6 head and load for 4 head…

We had a tuff winter, years ago. I was pitching on to a bobsled, lots of snow. got to where I'd load 5 great big Farmhand bites onto my sled and then pull it to the cows.. man them ol' mares got hard that winter. When you said git up, they would make things pop! they would have tried to pull a house if you had asked them too...