City slicker takes a turn at the reins of draft horses
I can confidently say I’m not cut out to be a sheep herder or a draft horse carriage driver. I gave them a go, but my expertise lies elsewhere.
But that’s the beauty of the Calgary Stampede — you get to try things no city slicker would ever do normally.
Under the guidance of Tom Christensen, Calgary Stampede Draft Horse town volunteer and farmer, I took horses Lulu and Leroy for a ride next to the Grandstand.
A draft horse, sometimes called a cart horse, is a large animal bred to do tasks like plowing or farm labour.
“To get them to go, it’s a little different from a saddle horse where you drive on a light line or a loose line. A draft horse should pull into the dip, so your lines will be quite snug,” said Christensen. “When you go to move, you pick up their heads and let them know you are going to move and give a word command.”
It sounded simple enough. With a leather strap in each hand, I learned how to guide the gentle giants left and right. Not bad for a first timer.
Christensen compares carriage steering to manoeuvring a soapbox car.
“You wanna go left? Pull your left string. You wanna go right? Pull the right string.”
Despite the simplicity of steering, it took a lot more strength than I would have imagined to pull the leather reins hard enough to get the horses’ attention. Not to mention, you had to remember to tighten one side and loosen the other when turning in either direction.
Just as I was getting the hang of it, it was off to the sheep pens to try my luck in the shepherd challenge.
The competition is usually for kids between ages nine and 15. The record time is under two minutes.
What I had to do was lead Spice the lamb around a series of obstacles. I had to get Spice water, feed him, correctly identify an imitation sheep skin, pack wool into a bag as if I had just sheered a sheep, check Spice’s ear tag and match it to a livestock manifesto, bring him through a liner, pose for a photo and then walk my new friend around hay, through a pasture and to its handler.
Being 22 years old, I thought I would smash the record.
Not even close. I rounded the corner and handed off Spice in just under three minutes.