We just got back from a weeks vacation in Florida. The first vacation in over 20 years with my wife. We had a great time and were able to go to the State Fair pull and the one at Dade City. The Yoders and McClellans really do a great job of organizing and conducting those contests. They are to be commended for their professionalism and contribution to the sport of horsepulling. The contests were very good and very competitive. I was particulary impressed with the way Yoder& Hatfield,Brown Brothers and The Carolina Connection horses handled and pulled.

Winter of 2008-09

We have had a traditional Indiana winter here in central Indiana-snow & cold. Back in Jnauary I took Rex ( the dark sorrel) down to Florida so Oscar could work him. He needed the work and it just was not happening with all the ice and snow we were having. Besides I have the utmost trust and confidence in Oscar. Right now I've got Louie and Rick and mostly they eat, sleep, play in the snow and listen to the radio.

The demonstration pull of the horses selling in the Davies County sale had 21 teams show what they had. I thought that it was a good pull. I saw some pretty good horses with the potential of being top pullers. It will be interesting to see the outcome of the sale. 9500 is a pretty good load the way the ground was pulling even with that short rod on the sled.

Loss of Doc

We had to put Doc down this morning. He is the lighter sorrel in my picture. He was fine last night but would not eat this morning. I gave him 25 cc of Banamine at 7:30 and at 8:00 a.m. he was down and in a cold sweat. I called the Vet and walked him until they came. Diagnosis was a twisted gut. After a couple of hours and doing everything we could he was in too much pain to let it go on. He died at 11:30. He was 6 years old an weighed about 2400 at the time. He had been feeling good and walking better than he had for 2 years. I hated to loose him.

We had another really good contest at the Indiana State Fair last Saturday. The crowd seems to get bigger each year and I hear from people outside of pulling that they are hearing that it is the big event. Next year the fair will be 5 days longer and the Horse Pulls will go back to Farmers Day which will probably be on a Wednesday. Hopefully that will let more teams participate since we won't be competing with all the other contests in Michigan and Ohio. There will be new director for the pulls next year and hopefully he will be "horse pull friendly".

Thanks to everyone who came to our pull at Frankfort, In on July 14, 2008. I hope everyone had a good time. We had a heck of good pull with 16 teams on hand. I hope to continue with this pull next year and to add more money to the purse. Even though this is the highest paying heavyweight pull in Indiana it still should pay more. I cannot understand why horsepullers are still willing to pay the ever increasing expenses associated with pulling and put on the quality exhibition that they do for so little prize money. In my opionion we all should be demanding much bigger purses from event sponsors. I for one believe that they can and will pay more. I also believe that as long as pullers are willing to pull for basically nothing that the event sponsors will let them. No other sport provides as much family friendly entertainment for so many for so little.

Greetings! Thanks to Oscar Ethington and Bill McClellan for hosting me during my recent 10 days in Florida. I met a lot of nice people and saw some great horses during my stay. While I was away one of my horses got a bad hoof abcess but the vet thinks he'll be okay with time. Looks like another year lost.
Indiana pullers reviewed our Official rules on March 1, 2008 and nothing was changed except to keep the driver behind the horses tailhead while pulling. Watch for second edition of the Official Indiana Rulebook soon. The key to protecting the integrity of the sport is to have established, written rules and then make sure that the officials are qualified, impartial and are capable of making the necessary calls.