Belgian Team Thrills Fairgoers

I recollect the story about an entry in our Bulkley Valley Fall Fair Draft Horse Show.

They have the Heavy Horses pulling championships in which the teams compete by pulling a stoneboat load weighted down. The winner pulls the most weight.

After having been eliminated, removing the horses from the arena,and loading them into truck, then watching the rest of the pull.

The last team up was large Belgians belonging to a couple that became friends after breeding my appaloosa mare for me previously. They came up north with mighty big team and were about to win the pull.

When they were digging in, a ring snapped which gets hooked to the doubletree. It was a weak link in this setup and it broke. The team had been pulling their precious hearts out for their owner, Leo, and they just took off running and could not stop.

The fairgrounds went quiet, then we started all screaming as the team came right towards myself. My heart really began to pound as they approached a short fence around the arena consisting of 4x4 posts on which a 1x4 was nailed across the top.

Well that huge team went thought the 1x4 like a toothpick splintering all around me.
They were rising up as they went through it, and we all scattered. I just managed to get clear as did a mum with her carriage. We were lucky to slide out of the way in time, it was very close.

The team then ran a long distance until they ended up jumping on top of a Ford Bronco. One horse front legs through the windshield, while the other at a 45' angle on the roof. A few of us started running to try to catch them and as we almost got near, the horses both backed off the Bronco, then started to run down the lanes in between the horse barns.

All along we can hear the Captain from the Salvation Army yelling to "save the children", as the team went heading towards the midway. By then I had almost caught up to them again, when 2 big guys came, one was our local farrier, the other a big grain farmer from Alberta those fellas saved the day.

For me especially, when they were safe. I was glad I didn't have to catch them. What to do with two hyper horses?

As I knew the owner, I approached him as he was cooling their legs off in the river. They only had slight cuts. We were all relieved.

To clear the air, I chuckled, "Hey Leo, you let them get away, eh? We all smiled. But I found from this experience, that my 2 percheron mares who were loaded on the truck and witnessed the whole runaway event, had a rough time after that incident. They became more nervous at home on the farm and were not the same quiet type as before. And they were more skittish when in the forest, from this weekend of going
downtown and fooling around at the Fall Fair.

Yours truly, Stusha Messier