With the 104th Calgary Stampede in full swing, days prior to the kick off one group had a remarkable trek planned – The Big Hitch.
In 1925 Slim Moorehouse drove a hitch of 36 Percheron Horses pulling 10 grain wagons loaded with 1477 bushels of wheat through the Calgary Stampede Parade. “It is our intention to honour a man who was a great horseman and a world record holder. The hitch, horses and wagons, was 350 feet in length and he was the only driver”, said a rep with the Big Hitch.
Starting on June 29, 2016, the group began a trek that saw them driving a replica of this hitch, 36 horses and 10 wagons, from Gleichen to Chestermere and then through the Calgary Stampede Parade – but that didn’t go as planned.
On July 8th, just two days before parade day, the team was delayed in Lyalta but they did head East along Township Road 244 to the intersection of Range Road 270 by about 2:30pm that afternoon.
At that point, they unhitched all the horses and loaded them into two semi tractor-trailers. They hauled the horses to an un-determined location for the night and then packed them up again the next night and hauled them to Fort Calgary so they would be ready to ride in the Calgary Stampede Parade Friday morning.
There were 20 horses pulling 5 wagons in the parade, as this is the longest team they could use and still be able to make the turns on the parade route.
