Horse pulling is a draft horse competition where horses in harness, usually one or two animals, pull a stone-boat or weighted sled and the winner is the team or animal that can pull the most weight for a short distance.
There are different weight classes and strict rules to avoid animal cruelty. The Belgian horse is the breed most frequently seen, but other draft breeds are also used. There are also competitions for ponies, where they pull significant weight relative to their size, but usually for shorter distances than full-sized horses.
Related sports are tractor pulling and Canine Weight pulling. However, horses pull less weight than tractors, but much more than dogs.
Read more about Horse Pulling: History, History of The Dynamometer, Competitions, Rules and Regulations
Famous quotes containing the words horse and/or pulling:
“The hardiest skeptic who has seen a horse broken, a pointer trained, or has visited a menagerie or the exhibition of the Industrious Fleas, will not deny the validity of education. “A boy,” says Plato, “is the most vicious of all beasts;” and in the same spirit the old English poet Gascoigne says, “A boy is better unborn than untaught.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“When the masculine mystique is pulling boys and men out into the world to growl manly noises at one another, the only power with a stronger pull on the male psyche is maternally induced guilt. The guilt is quite necessary for our moral development, but it is often uncomfortable.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)