Draft Pulling in the SCA

Proposal by Master Gerald:

Noting how much weight is required for “wheels” I would suggest a stone boat version. A stone boat is a type of sledge with wide runners designed to be pulled on dirt or grass. I can even document a horse pulled version of a stone boat. Such a device requires a lot more effort to pull but still loads up proportionally, thus it requires much less weight to be put on it and most importantly transported to events.

I like the idea of basing the game on how many times its own weight the dog pulls because if there are not large numbers of dogs playing the pull game they can still be fairly compared with each other... dogs to begin pulling a load of 1/2 their weight

I would go for a longer track- say fifty or one hundred feet and requiring the dogs to pull every round. This makes the competition more closely represent what a real working dog might have to do...

[Plus] more endurance requires a healthy and appropriately fed animal minimizing the benefit of starving a dog before a competition [to game a weight-based system]...

What we need to actually do this:

Space to do it Stone boats A stack of bricks Harness to fit the dogs pulling (This normally be responsibility of the dog owners. I can lone what I have to those it will fit) Scales to weigh in the dogs. Stopwatch a couple of whistles

I can supply the stone boat, bricks, and harness that fit the dogs I have now. I will make a quick and sleazy stone boat for smaller dogs so we can have a competition for all who wish to participate (my current one is pretty heavy and would be too big for small dogs). I can teach how to make the harness I can teach how to train your dog for weight pull I am willing to see about what it would cost to buy a scales. If this catches on I will build period versions of the stone boats.

We would also need chairs and table for a “list table”

Ropes and flags to mark off the tracks and whatever site permissions the autocrats require.