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By Collections Curator Ruth Bitner
November 2004
Jumbo and Barney on the dynamometer at the Regina Exhibition
- WDM Archives, 7-B-32
Back in the 1920s, horses were as commonplace on farms as
tractors are today. In 1924, Saskatchewan had a horse population
of over one million, more than any other province in Canada.
Horses powered farm machinery and pulled all kinds of buggies
and wagons. During the 1920s, however, the small internal
combustion engine tractor began to gain a foothold on prairie
farms.
But the Horse Association of America (HAA) discouraged the
change. The HAA published testimonials extolling the benefits of
horses: “ ...we think the tractor is an expensive and
unnecessary piece of equipment and...the ownership of a tractor
outfit hurts the farmer’s credit with our institutions.” Another
writer declared, “I do not believe that any man operating his
farm with tractors can feel the same toward his farm and his
home as can the man who owns and takes pride in and loves a good
draft horse.”
To prove the horse’s value, the HAA encouraged horse-pulling
competitions in the United States and Canada. Special equipment
was needed to measure the drawbar pull of competing teams.
University of Saskatchewan professor Evan Hardy went to Iowa to
study a machine invented there. He returned to Saskatoon and
with the support of the HAA, designed and built a dynamometer,
as the machines were called, in 1924.
Hardy’s dynamometer was designed to create a constant load for
the horses. The machine was built on a three-ton Reo truck
chassis. Concrete weights on the back of the truck were
connected by a cable to the horse hitch. The size of the load
was determined by adjusting the combination of weights, just
like in a modern exercise machine. A pump system, driven from
the transmission, pumped water from a barrel on the truck
discharging it back into the same barrel through a shut-off
valve. As the horses pulled, lifting the weights, a lever opened
the valve allowing the water to flow. The pump turned and the
truck rolled forward, keeping a constant pull on the cable.
During competition, a team had to pull the entire machine a
distance of 27.5 feet.
Horse pulls attracted big crowds at Saskatchewan fairs in 1924,
1925 and 1926. The competitions were also popular in
neighbouring provinces and south of the border. But the matches
in August, 1924 at the Regina Exhibition were the most exciting.
The Nor’-West Farmer reported that Barney and Jumbo, a team of
Belgians owned by the Gibbs Brothers of Lumsden, broke the world
record pulling the dynamometer’s 3100 pound weights for the
required distance. This was equivalent, stated The Nor’-West
Farmer, to pulling a 3100 pound steer out of a 27.5 foot well or
starting a load of 16.4 tons on asphalt pavement. Barney and
Jumbo had snatched the title away from another Saskatchewan
team, a pair of Percherons owned by contractor R.B. McLeod of
Saskatoon, who had earned the world record a few days earlier at
the Saskatoon Exhibition.
The new world record at the Regina Exhibition called for a
showdown between the two teams. Exhibition officials offered
$1000 to the winner of a match between Lumsden’s Belgians and
Saskatoon’s Percherons. McLeod hastily shipped his team by rail
to Regina for the big event. The grandstand was jammed with
spectators. The first heat of the competition ended in a
draw–both teams pulled 3000 pounds for the full distance.
Another hundred pounds were added. The McLeod team faltered at
18.5 feet, but the Gibbs Brothers pair could not muster the
horsepower to make it even that far. McLeod’s Percherons claimed
the $1000 prize money, but the Gibbs Brothers’ Belgians held on
to the world record because of their outstanding performance the
night before.
The winning teams are long gone, as are their owners, and
tractors have taken the place of horses on prairie farms, but
Evan Hardy’s ingenious dynamometer survives. It is part of the
Saskatchewan Western Development Museum collection housed in the
WDM Curatorial Centre, the Museum’s administration centre and
storage facility in Saskatoon.
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