Sydney Goodreau/The Independent

It was a display of the raw power of horses.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Brigden Fair brought back the heavy horse pull contest. Horses lined up beside their owners, Oct. 10, before being hooked up to cinder blocks weighing upwards of 2,500 lbs. Each team of horses pulls two loads to determine which is the strongest.

Competitors from as far as Haliburton County and Owen Sound came to Brigden to prove their mettle.

“I’ve been doing this for 46 years,” said Mike Wessell of Minden. “My dad pulled, and my son now pulls, too. He’s been doing it for 15 to 20 years.”

Wessell competed in Brigden years ago and was excited to come back when he heard the fair would be hosting the contest again. This year, he had six horses compete.

“It started back when farmers had teams and they all got one to compete to see who had the best team. Now it’s all gone into competition,” said Wessell.

Wessell and his family compete in roughly 30 pulls a year. He recounts, “We’ve had a good year…This pair (named Mac and Andy) has only been beaten a couple times.”

The horses train with a weighted sleigh and plenty of exercise, “just like a hockey player,” says Wessell.

Dave Binns, the president of the Central Canadian Pullers Association, has a similar training routine for his Belgians. “It’s built into them, ” said Binns. “We train them on lots and lots of miles on a light load to keep their muscles in shape. Then, we may pull a little heavier load once a week to build that extra muscle. But it’s mostly our fitness program.”

Like Wessell, Binns has been competing in pulls since childhood. “Dad started, and we’ve logged all our lives, so we’ve always had the horses. And this was the thing to do on Saturdays and Sundays,” said Binns.

Winning is good, but Binns says that there’s nothing like the feeling of seeing a horse reach its full potential: “I love seeing the horse do what he’s supposed to do. When they pull to their full ability, it makes your day. Especially if they lay down.”

Belgians are only slightly taller than the average man. When they pull properly, they can drop to almost half of their height. “It makes you warm inside when that happens,” said Binns.

Wessell agreed. “I love just getting on the last load and watching them get down and pull. Throwing their real power.”

While any horse can compete, Belgians are the preferred breed because they don’t realize that their load gets heavy during every pull. “Other horse breeds,” according to Binns, “get smart to it.”

And win or lose, Wessell says “We’re glad to be back here.”