Novice Pullers Take First Place in Draft Horse Competition

Nostrils flare and the dirt flies as Casey Harriman drives Rusty and Jay to a first place finish at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg on Jan. 7. Below, friends and family members of Casey Harriman traveled to the Pennsylvania Farm show in Harrisburg to help and cheer him on to a first-place finish on Jan. 7. Among them were (from left) Ben Stubbs, Emmitt Wagner, Cathy Harriman, Kyle Hartman, Rowdy Harriman, Clarence Stackhouse, Peyton Harriman holding Jacie Harriman, Casey Harriman, Cooper Gray, and Julie Harris.

Story by Rick Hiduk / Top photo courtesy of the PA Dept. of Agriculture

(originally published in the Sullivan Review)

While no stranger to the Pennsylvania Farm Show and horse pulling, Casey Harriman of Sonestown found himself in new territory on Jan. 7 when he and team of horses he’d taken to Harrisburg garnered a first-place finish. Prior to the competition, Harriman more or less considered the event a practice round for pulling competitions to come.

They are both pretty young, green horses,” he explained a few hours before he hitched them up and walked them from their stalls in the Farm Show Complex to the New Holland Arena. “They’ve been pulling some, but we’ve never pulled them together.”

Harriman’s previous best finish at the Farm Show was in 2022 with Buck and Buzz, a pair of heavy-weight draft horses that tipped the scales at more than 5,100 pounds combined. They took third at that year’s Farm Show and continued to score big at events in Florida, Kentucky and other states.

This year, Harriman, took Rusty and Jay with him. Considered light-weights at a combined 3,640 pounds, the boys pulled Harriman and an 8,450-pound sled 22 feet and two inches for the win.

On his Nordmont Farm, Harriman and his family members are currently working daily with six horses, exercising each pair several hours per day, pulling a wagon customized with breaks and chains to simulate the resistance of the competition sleds. Though he had not committed to the Farm Show with the event just a week away, he made up his mind to make trip in the final days leading up to the event.

Well, these two were just ready to go for the Farm Show,” Harriman related. “The other four just aren’t ready for this competition yet.” No one told Rusty and Jay that “green” meant inexperienced. Apparently, they just thought that green meant “Go!”

By their very name, draft horses are meant to work. They are gentle giants, but they know when to pour on the steam and get the job done. Harriman comes from a family of loggers. His Father, Jeff Harriman, and grandfather, Sylvan Harriman, had Casey skidding logs with draft horses when he was just eight years old. Jeff and Sylvan also entered pulling contests, and Jeff was an integral member of Team Harriman until he passed away in 2023.

In addition to his mother, Cathy, and his children Rowdy, Peyton and Jacie, Casey was accompanied to Harrisburg this year by long-time friends Clarence “Pickels” Stackhouse and Julie Harris, as well as Cooper Gray, Kyle Hartman, Emmitt Wagner, and Ben Stubbs. Casey’s fiancee, Emma Byler, had just returned to her teaching job from the holiday break and was unable to attend.

Casey continues to due logging locally, buying, selling and cutting hard and soft woods. And his horses still work when they are needed. “We use them in logging some. It depends on what the landowner wants,” said Casey. “It’s a little slower, but it’s a lot of fun.”

The Harrimans aren’t getting much of a break from pulling competitions as the new season begins, and neither are Rusty and Jay, but they are taking a break from the cold. On Jan. 23, two teams of light-weights are headed with the Harrimans to Florida, where they’ve done well over the past few years They will pull in the Florida circuit for about three weeks before filling their schedule with pulls up and down the east coast through summer.

Photo by Rick Hiduk

Casey Harriman of Sonestown with light-weight draft horse, Rusty, prior to taking first place in a pulling competition at the Pennsylvania Farm Show on Jan. 7.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *