It’s a long haul to get to the Calgary from Prince George but the trip was well worth it for Diane and Zane Pickering.
They were there to watch the JD Pickering Farm team win the horse pulling world’s richest and most prestigious heavy horse pulling title on Friday (July 11, 2025) at the 113th annual Calgary Stampede, claiming the heavyweight horse middleweight division title.
With teamster and Pickering partner Larry Burton of Columbia, Ky., holding the reins, and stallion Stoney and gelding Shine supplying the horsepower, they pulled 10,500 pounds of weight to win the crown.
“The pull was very intense,” said Zane Pickering. “The ground got rough and soft very quickly. All the teamsters had to use their bag of tricks to keep the stone boat moving on their turn.”
Burton also won the best teamster award and the Pickering team was selected as the class of the class.
Heavy horse pulling is the ultimate test in real horsepower. The sport dates back to pioneer days when farmers would enter their strongest draft horses, usually in teams of two, to find out which horses could pull the heaviest stone boat (a steel sled weighed down with cement blocks) over a 14-foot distance.
Earlier in the week, the Pickering hitch team finished second and was awarded the Church Cup for the top Percheron-bred hitch.
Pickering Farms also posted a fifth-place result in the heavy horse lightweight division. Burton led King and Doc pulling a 9,000-pound weight for 57.5 inches.
The Pickerings moved their Big Six Percheron team to Lloydminster, Alta., for a competition there this weekend, and will be in Vermillion, Alta., next weekend.
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