Terrell Tractor Show - 2012

Last Saturday was a great day.  I went down to Terrell Texas for the North Texas Antique Tractor & Engine Club's show.  I did this last year and had the girls pull a tractor pull sled for the first time.  This year was supposed to be the same, and I was just fine with that, because last year I had a blast.

I woke up, got the girls ready and then hit the road.  I was doing this event solo as my son was busy with some other stuff.  I have to say that I think the girls really enjoy this kind of thing.  They get brushed out good, then shined up with some show shine stuff.  After that their hair looks great, including a flowing mane and tail.  Then they get a dose of some really good fly spray.  They really look sharp.  They are left feeling totally comfortable, without any annoying Bugs.  Pam might even say this is how the good life was had back in California where she came from.

One of the best parts of this event, is the chance to hang out with my pals Mark and Bev McGowan of the Double M Warhorse Ranch in Terrell.  I really enjoy them and count their friendship as a major blessing in my life.  Mark and Bev are friends with the tractor club, and the club wanted to have draft horses at the event.  That is the sign of a great tractor club in my book!  :)

Mark and Bev were set up with 2 of their bay Clydesdale mares that they got from the Budweiser breeding program.  These horses, Baby and Star, are such pretty girls.  Mark and Bev had them set up in a pen made up out of panels that were donated by Tractor Supply.  There was another pen ready and waiting for my Belgians.  We got them moved in, gave them some fresh hay, and they began the lovely job of eating and looking pretty for the crowds of people.

Pam and Rachael living the good life

Here are the Clydesdales.  Aren't they pretty!

The tractor club folks came by, and were very gracious to us for bringing the horses out.  They asked me to head over to the tractor pull at 1:30 PM for a demonstration.  This was the same thing as last year, and I was excited for it.

I got the girls harnessed up, and had company while I did it.  It's really fun to have nice people chatting with me while I do this stuff.  There was a 3 year old who was infatuated with the horses.  She was a cute little girl and she ended up sitting on Pam the whole time I harnessed up Rachael.  She was in heaven, and it was all her momma could do to make her leave.  They were great company to have!

For the pull this year, I did something different.  Last year I ground drove the horses over, and we just hooked the double tree up to the sled and the girls pulled that.  It was a bit of an inconvenience to hook the tree up though, and it took them a bit of time to find someone who had a clevis that would fit the double tree.  I decided that this year I would solve the problem by using my forecart.  I hitched the girls up to the forecart, and then off we went.  Mark sat with me and Bev took the pictures.  Great company!

Mark McGowan and me riding over to the tractor pull

The girls were in great form, and responding perfectly to commands

Here we are, at the pull.  We stopped for a bit while they did some announcing about us.  The girls stood great and looked gorgeous.

Once over at the tractor pull, we did a few demo runs.  I will not use the forecart again.  It was very easy to hook up, but the cart ended up just getting in the way and making the horses not pull together as well as I liked.  Having a pole hooked up had the girls fighting each other a bit when the going got hard (Pam would stop and Rachael would pull, then Rachael would stop right as I got Pam going, and on and on).  So ... if you're gonna pull some weight, don't use a cart, just use a tree, like they do in the big weight pull competitions.

Here I am, moving the girls up in front of the sled.

I backed the girls up to get the forecart in front of the cart

I was smart enough to know that I didn't want to be on the cart when the pull started.

Here we are, ready to go.

We just started.  The girls aren't even pulling hard here.

Here's a shot capturing what I was talking about.  Pam stopped, Rachael kept going, and they kind of had an accordion effect after that.  Not ideal!

Once the pull was over, I headed back to our area.  This is where I had a little fun.  I was standing on the cart, and had a wide open field in front of me.  I ended up trotting the girls and doing some big circles.  It was a lot of fun.  It was almost as if I was in a chariot back in Rome.  The girls did perfect for me.  This was fun!

Here I am, racing in circles.  This was way fun!

As I was pulling up to the trailer, the adorable 3 year old and her mother came back.  I have 2 seats on the forecart, so I asked the little girl if she'd like a ride.  She lit up.  I had her mom sit in the seat, and hold the girl.  We did a nice walk and hopefully made her day.  After that I took another boy for a ride (he was standing there close, watching, just hoping he might get the chance.  How can I say no to that)

Going for a ride.  Bev caught me asking the girls to back up.

We hung out for a bit, and let people ogle over the horses.  Then we walked the horses out into an open field.  Someone in the tractor club had made a giant wagon that was a Radio Flyer wagon replica.  He wanted a photo op with some big horses next to it to add scale, so we walked the horses over for that.  This started a trend of crowds of people walking over and we gave kids rides on the horses.  Since I was solo, I was leading both Rachael and Pam together.  This was a bit rough, so I didn't last long like that.  I put the girls away, and then became the official "kid lifter" to put the kids on the back of the Clydesdales.  We were all smiling, and many kids had their dreams come true. 

This is the giant Radio Flyer wagon.  This thing was HUGE.

This is Baby, one of Mark and Bev's bay Clydesdales

This is Star.  She and Baby are full sisters

Another shot of Baby.  I'm a Belgian man, but I sure can appreciate these pretty horses!

Overall, I love these events.  I love meeting people who are interested in the horses.  I love interacting with the kids who are wide eye'd at the sight of such big horses.  Besides that, this event gave me the chance to spend the afternoon with some of my best friends.  Time like that is rare, and I cherish it.

Thanks Mark and Bev for having me.  Thanks for your friendship, and Bev ... thanks for the pictures in this blog!!!