Beautiful videography ... can see every hair and muscle on the horses!

Gotta love all the armchair animal enthusiasts who're down here thinking that anything other than a horse sitting in a pasture whiling it's life away is abuse and dont understand that this is a CONTEST for horses who are BRED and TRAINED for this and are very obviously enjoying this. I respect your opinion, but make sure that it is informed and intelligent before trying to tell people who definitely know more about this that it's wrong because you FEEL that way.

Anyone who understands the nature of horses notes the apparent difference in temperament between the heavy and light breeds. This is likely the result of how and frequency that the draft types are used.

There is more to a team than the ability to pull. The traditional working teams of yesteryear that were employed in a variety of ways under varying conditions had to be tractable for the sake of both efficiency and safety. Thankfully, the draft breeds tend to be more tractable than their saddle counterparts.

I can imagine it's pretty risky being one of the people setting the hitch?

I don't like the blinders or the bearing rein there, you can see it's hurting the horses mouth and that man shouldn't be pulling back with all his weight on a sensitive mouth

I love the pulling horses big body🐎🐎🐎🐯

Love these horses

How much on average are a team of these horses

I have friend who i use to hang around all he had was horses and they would go just hearing the load hook can always tell the teem who do lot of work

I don't know anything about this sport. I have a clydesdale and he is very strong. Why do the horses wear the strangest shoes? Are they for grip?

Whats the name of this horses?

💜💜💜💜

That's too much to ask of a fine animal . I'd never enter my horse in such a contest.

The palimino at 2:00 looks like he has a harness sore on his right hip.

Gorgeous

very good to see gaints in pulling...love the video much

FIRST pull is 8 minutes in, prior to that is elevator music and horse brushing

I hope the owners of these horses read the comments here and learn what they are doing wrong.

What breed of horses is this? :) Italian Draft Horse maybe?

wow, horsepower!

Their gorgious im thinking of geting team ive never had horses so doing alot of reaserch for next few year first dont want to abuse anamals

Is it just me or did you see the horse that is bleeding

I asked what breed are

The size of these horse handlers I think they should be in harness, then the horses can have a rest !!!

What horse race is it

I so love horse pulling.

Nice

Craig, may I suggest that you chunk this video up into a shorter story with a narrative? Introduce the teams and their owners and why they compete, explain about the weights they are pulling ( which looked to be 3 or 4 tonnes) and who was the eventual winner.

Never seen horses treated like Kings & Queens, but these beautiful animals sure are!

What I think I look like in the gym.

Did no body else notice the horse nose bleeding? That should've been checked out. And I think it's ridiculous to use bearing reins in a pulling competition. Not only does it hurt the horse, they can't pull as efficiently.

isso gue sao parelhas de cavalo

I always find amateur drivers interesting to watch. I assume the venue didn't have experts on hand to assist these clearly inexperienced teams.

People who bitch about this are so far removed from food production they have no idea why people do this and just see it as abuse. When i was young we had tractors but some jobs in winter were still done with horses.

It looks to me like most of these horses are Belgians or Belgian crosses. I don't think pulling contests are abusive, but like most things we do with horses, there are things here that are done because they are traditional and probably need to be changed. Like the overcheck rein. Really not needed with a horse pulling a heavy load. Did nobody read Black Beauty? The other thing is training. These horses can be trained to respond better to their driver, they should not be dragging their driver around and him pulling with all his weight to get them to slow down. They do enjoy their jobs and they are bred to do this kind of work, but they are horses and need to be treated with care and consideration. They remind me of human powerlifters! I wonder if any of them can do this work without shoes?

jouny jouny yes papa

God I feel sorry for these horses..wouldn't wanna be them

so many docked tails and purely for the convenience of the owner. It's cruel and that's why docking is illegal in other countries.

those poor horses! and what the hell is up with the bearing rein? they cant pull without their head and its uncomfortable to be pulled on the mouth like that Im sure. and when a horse is nervous, don't yell at him like your on drugs. and Im sure the useless blinders aren't helping at all. and honestly, ti just don't see the point of pulling contests. why work your horse making him sweat under the yolk like there's no tomorrow for no reason. has anyone else noticed the sweat dripping from underneath the collar? its just tearing up their body even more probable shortening his life span. ever wonder why dressage horses retire so fast and racehorses die early? because they're worked way too much and it wears out their body and usually at a young age when their bones haven completely formed. these are just idiots who don't know how to handle a horse.

I so love draft horses, just huge incredible animals. All of the horses there were beautiful, however, I personally don't like weight pulls. Once I saw a video of a team of Clydesdales pulling and one of the horses collapsed and died on the spot. Suffered a heart attack from too much weight. Personally, I see these type of competitions as abuse. The same with rodeos, show jumping, and horse racing. All of these activities are detrimental to the animals but stupid humans don't care. All they care about is winning cash, stupid ribbons, or trophies. I'm all about what's better for the animals. Just my personal opinion.

'L

anyone who thinks this is ok clearly can't feel emotions.

I think this could be called animal abuse because it make the horses force there self

I love the way they are traned

CRUEL TREATMENT

Horrible choice of music

Bad video for me. The same thing, horses have lika a nose whats bleeding and hurting! Thats sad to watch what are you doing with *little* cute HORSES

Sad all the know back up and run.

I hate to see owners yank on the halter rope. Shit dude learn how to treat your horses