For Zane and Diane Pickering, the four-day haul on winter roads from Prince George to Denver was well worth the time and effort.
They brought with them on their trip to Colorado their star equine athletes – Blondie, Tonto, Stoney, Shine, Doc and Dennis – and they all left a heavy impression at the 2025 National Western Stock Show.
In teams of two they dug in their hooves and did Prince George proud at the three-day competition, winning two of the three heavy horse pull events and finishing third in the other.
Heavy horse pulling is the ultimate test in real horsepower. The sport dates back to pioneer days when farmers would enter their strongest draft horses, usually in teams of two, to find out which horses could pull the heaviest stone boat (a steel sled weighed down with cement blocks) over a 14-foot distance.
Blondie and Tonto, whose combined weight of 4,500 pounds made them the lightest of the heavyweight class, were harnessed together against seven other teams, some of which weighed as much as 5,500 lbs, and despite their inexperience they defeated them all, pulling 15,700 lbs to win the championship.
Stoney, the prized stallion of Zane and Diane Pickering Farms, teamed up with Shine in the middleweight class and pulled 13,800 lbs, more than any of the other seven teams representing several northern U.S. states, the American hotbed of heavy horse pulling.
Doc and Dennis competed on the final day and pulled 11,800 lbs to finish third in the lightweight class. They were the lightest of the light that day in the Denver arena, weighing a combined 3,300 lbs.
“That was way beyond expectations,” said Zane Pickering. “The heavyweight team were green, that was their first pull. We just exercise them, they’d never been in a competition and they were up against seven seasoned teams. Every team was heavier than us, some of them were up to 5,500-plus pounds and that’s like having an extra horse.
“We probably could have pulled another load, had we had to, and we were pleased to see that.”
Draft horses were the working animals of Canadian farms in the early decades of the 1900s. The heavy horse breeds – Clydesdales, Shires, Belgians and Percherons – were essential to grain and dairy farmers for their ability to move heavy loads and plough fields. In the years before tractors and other motorized farm machines became mainstream, most farms needed a stable of at least 10 heavy horses to work the fields.
The heavy horse pull started out as a way for farmers to settle bets as to who had the strongest team and it grew to become a staple competition at fairs like the B.C. Northern Exhibition in Prince George, Falkland Stampede, Royal Manitoba Winter Fair and Calgary Stampede.
Pickering has been entering heavy horse pulls since 2012 and utilizes Belgians to do the hauling in competitions. He also enters Percherons as hitch horses to pull wagons in stock shows.
“They live a great life, they get the best of food and nicely-kept barns and such,” said Pickering, who owns and operates Falcon Contracting in Prince George.
“Those horses, I’ve heard people say you’re pulling them too hard and it’s bad for the horse but they’re athletes and they want to do that. When it’s time to put their collar on to hook them in the morning they put their head down to receive their collar and they want to do that. They’re not herd horses, they’re there for a purpose.”
Pickering will be back at the Calgary Stampede in July and also plans to enter shows in Kentucky and Indiana.
