Sunday September 6, 2009
Tractor pulling, also known as power pulling, is a competition using tractors to pull a heavy sled along a ‘track’ and is very popular in rural areas. Usually the sled offers progressively greater resistance as it is pulled. It can be a great spectacle, and although the vehicle produces a great deal of noise and smoke and throws dirt everywhere, it doesn’t actually travel very far. There are many different classes, from ‘factory’ tractors to custom built vehicles with multiple engines.
It is said that around the 1850s when farming machines were pulled by horse, farmers would boast about the strength of their horses. They would claim that their horse could tow large loads, such as a fully loaded hay cart or wagon. Farmers would challenge one another to contests to prove who had the strongest horse. A barn door was removed and laid flat on the ground, the horse was then hitched to it and the farmer ushered the horse to drag the barn door along the ground. One by one, people jumped on the door until the horse could no longer drag it; the horse pulling the most people the greatest distance was judged the strongest. This event, draft horse pulling, is still carried out today with specially bred horses trained to have high strength and low stamina. Instead of people, fixed weights on sleds are dragged as far as possible..
It wasn’t until 1929 that motorized vehicles were put to use in the first events at Bowling Green, Missouri and Vaughansville, Ohio.