A Haflinger Pull is 7 p.m. Saturday at the Licking Rodeo Arena.
Admission is $5 for ages 12 and over; 11 and under are free. It is a first for the community, organizers said.
A Haflinger Pull is a pony pull, similar to the draft horse pull Licking holds in the fall, but features Haflinger ponies, which were developed in Austria and Italy in the late 1800s, along side when they began breeding the famous Lipizaner breed.
Haflingers are always chestnut in color, ranging from light gold to a rich golden chestnut or liver shade. The mane and tale are flaxen or white. These ponies are well-muscled with an elegant appearance. Their average height is between 13.2 to 15 hands high (54 to 60 inches). They have been used for light draft and harness work and endurance riding.
Haflingers were first imported to the United States from Austria in 1958.
Horse pulling is a sport in which the athletes are a team of horses. It’s like a weight lifting and endurance competition with horses as they compete to pull heavy loads farther than the other teams.
During the competition, a team must be able to pull their own weight combined with cinder block weights on a sled a set distance. The sled must move far enough to dislodge a white anchor attached to the sled by a 15-foot chain. A set additional amount of weight will be added to the sled each time the team pulls, and they have three tries to pull that weight, with the longest pull being the one that counts.
Some people may think horses pulling weighted loads are being harmed, but the horses used in these competitions were bred for strength and ability to pull heavy loads short distances similar to what is used in these competitions, and it does not raise their heart rate and blood volume much.