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:
“I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 15:1.
“As for conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that. Let not your right hand know what your left hand does in that line of business. It will prove a failure.... It is a greater strain than any soul can long endure. When you get God to pulling one way, and the devil the other, each having his feet well braced,—to say nothing of the conscience sawing transversely,—almost any timber will give way.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)