Like good teammates, Fred and Jack are always there for each other.
They train together for four or five hours each day. They live in the same barn on their farm in Pineview, fight for the same hay and water in their stalls, and are roommates on the road.
And if something unexpected occurs during a competition, they'll work together to succeed.
That's exactly what happened in the horse pulling heavyweight class on the final day of competition at the Calgary Stampede Sunday.
Using their raw, natural horsepower, Fred and Jack pulled a loaded metal sled weighing 10,500 pounds over an arena infield to finish third overall out of eight teams from Canada and the U.S. at the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.
Not bad for a draft horse team of Belgian heavy horses that has only trained together as team for four months.
What's even more astounding is one of Jack's shoes came off his rear hoof during an earlier round, which affected their traction during the pulls on the dirt floor. And they still pulled off a ribbon-worthy performance in the final.
"It's unreal and quite unexpected," said Fred and Jack's Prince George owner Zane Pickering. "The competition was excellent. Fred and Jack will be there next year and they'll be top contenders for the next five or six years. This was only their fifth pull together and they were pulling with some of the heavyweights and top players in Canada. I figure we'll do better next year."
Randy Dodge and his heavyweight team from Albany, Ore., won their seventh title Sunday.
Pickering's other team of seven- and eight-year-old Belgians - Tony and Andy - finished fifth in the heavyweight class after pulling 8,000 pounds.
During the Stampede, Fred and Jack were sponsored by Draft Horse Town, the organization that oversees the agriculture events. It used Fred and Jack as part of its promotions and caught the eye of a lot of people.
"They're country gentlemen, they're just such a fine pair of athletes," said Pickering, who owns Falcon Contracting in Prince George. "Their size is major - they're four to six inches taller than most teams."
Fred and Jack's third-place pull of 10,500 pounds, was 2,000 pounds more than what they pulled to win the heavyweight division heavy horse pull at Pioneer Days in McBride last month.
Fred (eight years old) Jack (seven), each weigh close to 2,200 pounds and stand 20 hands high (six-foot-eight) from the ground to the withers (top of the shoulder blades) and their powerful chests are 40 inches wide (twice that of a saddle horse).
Pickering said during the Stampede Fred and Jack had separate stalls due to some damage in one of them which might have affected their performance.
"They train together all the time and we keep them together in the same barn," said Pickering. "Separating them worked against us."
Fred and Jack will return home this week and compete in heavy horse pulls in Dawson Creek, the B.C. Northern Exhibition in Prince George Aug. 7-10 and the Armstrong Exhibition and Stampede Aug. 27-31.
Besides his two pairs of Belgian teams, Pickering's Clydesdale teams also shone on the Stampede stage in the hitched wagon team events.
Triple-A Majestic Phillip won Supreme Champion and Sir Evergreen Patrick finished second. In the four-up hitch, the team placed sixth overall.
Another horse, Sir Vance, finished second overall in the lady's cart.
At the Alberta 2014 Draft Horse Classic in Olds, Alta., at the end of June, Prince Phillip won the Supreme Championship. The win earned him the right to compete at the top Canadian Grand Championship for 2014 this fall.
