FARMINGTON — The fairgrounds will be the scene for horse and ox pulling this weekend.
Maine Draft Horse and Ox Association is holding its spring pull Saturday and Sunday, June 10 and 11. Admission for association members is $10 per day or $15 for both days. Price for the public is $10 per day with children under 12 free.
Events such as this “keeps the art of pulling alive,” Clayton Tibbetts, Chesterville resident and association president said Monday, June 5.
The association will have a food booth selling a variety of hot foods and snacks, Tibbetts noted. Another food booth will sell breakfast items, other foods, iced tea and ice cream, he said.
There will be a 50/50 raffle each day and a few vendors will sell harnesses, collars, pads, lead ropes and other horse equipment. There isn’t as much call for things for cattle, Tibbetts said.
“Horses are the thing, girls like horses too,” he said. “It’s mostly pulling, food and seeing the animals.”
When asked how long Maine Draft Horse and Ox Association had been in existence, Tibbetts said, “A long time, my whole life. My father was in it too.”
Later Tibbetts said the association had been active more than 60 years as members Myron and Sandra Dickey confirmed they have been members for 60 years. Myron had served as president, is now on the board while Sandra is the treasurer, Tibbetts noted.
Six different pulls are scheduled each day, beginning at 9 a.m. The first three on Saturday are for oxen as are the first two Sunday. Later, on each day two horse pulls are separated by an ox pull. The final pull for horses each day is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. A complete schedule can be found on the association’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=571708285067121&set=pb.100066838625245.-2207520000.
“We are losing our agricultural stuff all the time,” Tibbetts stated. “Horses and oxen, they are what we started with.”
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