More Horses at the Fair

I can't resist sharing a few more of my pictures of the heavy draught horse teams at the Fair.  There were three different teams of two each, entered in the Heavy Horse Pull.

 This is the pair in yesterday's post.  If I caught the names correctly, these are Riley and Louie.

 This was ultimately the winning pair, Kevin and Hank.

These are Pat and Dave.  I swear the closer one turned and looked at me as they were going by, getting ready to line up again.

Here are Riley and Louie on their way back from pulling.  Notice how all the weight of pulling is harnessed to the shoulders.
 
Pat and Dave in one of the early pulls.  All these horses were high spirited, and didn't really want to stop even pulling this weight.

And Kevin and Hank in one of the final pulls.  At this point this pair were pulling over 7000 lbs., and using all their strength to do so!

Can't resist a couple more of the cattle either.  Raising heavy horses is a pretty specialized enterprise now; there are far more farms with beef cattle than with horses around the valley.  Raising beef is the backbone of Grey County farms.

And there were quite a few smaller calves too, though by this time of year, they're growing fast.