Meyer’s Belgians making a return to Farm Technology Days
It takes a special kind of crazy to sit in the driver’s seat of a carriage drawn by 10 Belgian horses with nothing more than eight bits of leather reins to maintain control of them. But that is exactly where Kris Meyer and his son Ty will be every day during Farm Technology Days, returning to their home town to showcase their unique pyramid hitch for the thousands that will come by the Equine Area of the event.
This will be the second time the Meyer family will exhibit their 10-horse team at Farm Technology Days held in Clark County. Though they have done numerous other shows since they first appeared at the 2005 event hosted at Malm’s Rolling Acres, Kris said there is something special about returning home for a show.
“We have done 15 Farm Tech Days since 2005,” he said. “A lot of people follow us on Facebook and they often leave comments on when we go to shows and saying they want to see us. Now they can see us in person. It means a little more for us.”
For years, the Meyer family has specialized in the pyramid hitch, a unique pulling layout where no horse is directly in front of another. Kris said the adoption of this hitch came from his father, Randy, who had seen the hitch first displayed at the Marshfield Fair in the late 1990s and it has since become a part of the Meyer family’s legacy.
“”My grandpa started the horses,” he said. “Alfred, he farmed with horses and he pulled with horses. Then my dad Randy pulled and he is the one who started the pyramid. My son Ty is the third generation to drive the pyramid. The first time we hooked up the pyramid was back in either 1997 or 1996,” he said. “Dad first did it at the Marshfield Fair. There had been this guy who used to do it (the pyramid hitch) years ago and wanted to try it in a circus parade in Milwaukee. He didn’t get to have it in because they said a pyramid hitch was never used in the circus. But more crazy people took up the idea and decided they would do it. Everyone in it is a little crazy, people will often say you would be crazy to do that and we say, ‘well it helps.’” The amount of ‘crazies’ as Kris would call them have dwindled over the years, leaving the Meyer family as one of the only ones left in the country using the pyramid hitch. Compared to other hitching styles, he said the 10-horse pyramid hitch is different from the others due mainly to the lack of a central bar connecting the horses and the amount of reins needed to control them.
“None of the horses are directly in line with each other,” he said. “You can’t have a pole run all the way through. You have to change things up that way. Other than the horses being offset, there’s four lines in each hand. The back four are driven by the pinkie, the next three are on the ring finger, the next two are on the middle finger and the lead is on the index finger.”
While Belgian horses are well known as docile, gentle giants, Kris said maintaining control can be a difficult task due to the amount of animals involved.
“There is quite a bit of difference on the lines,” he said. “On the front line you may have to pull in three feet in order for them to do something. After a while, you can lose the feeling in your hands. They can pull pretty hard.”
That strength is something Kris works with the horses to maintain when they are not out at competitions and shows. To prepare them for the expected workload of hauling a carriage, he said the Belgians are taken out every other day to pull weighted sleds.
“Right now we have 11 to 16 horses that we can use,” he said. “All of them here are geldings and they were broke already when we got them. The biggest thing is getting them exercise to strengthen their muscles and getting them into shape. We hook them up to a cart and they pull a boat of about 1,000 lbs. for about a mile every other day.”
The schedule changes up when the Meyers attend events with their Belgian horses. At shows like Farm Technology Days, Kris said the family works together to get the 10 horses ready for pulling, making sure that the horses look nice and are securely harnessed to the carriage.
“It depends on how much help we have, but it can take two hours,” he said. “All the manes and tails get brushed and braided, a couple people do the harnessing and cleaning up. We have to make sure they are washed beforehand. Once we start hooking them up together it takes just 20 to 30 minutes. We seem to get faster each time.”
During Farm Technology Days, the Meyer family will be in the Equine Area each day to show off their 10-horse pyramid hitch. They will be there with the hitch twice each day, starting at around 10:30 and 2 p.m. each day for their separate showings. They will also be doing smaller hitches during the day as part of events in the Equine Area, and Kris said he is hopeful that people will come by to see just what the Belgian horse is like.
“Just get ready to see the horses up close and see what they are all about,” he said. “Seeing 10 horses together like that, we might be the only ones doing it right now in the country. The horses are a big draw, people are astounded by them. They really are gentle giants.”
Kris and his son Ty drive their team of Belgians on a 10-horse pyramid hitch at a recent event. The pair will be demonstrating the hitch and other areas of showmanship every day of Farm Technology Days from July 12-14 in the Equine Area. This will be the second time the family will make an appearance at Farm Technology Days in Clark County with their horses, having last appeared at the show held at Malm’s Rolling Acres back in 2005.
CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO
The team patiently awaits instructions from Kris as the drivers take a short break in their drive. The pyramid hitch used by the Meyer family is a unique one in the United States, as in this style of hitch, no horse is directly in front of another. The family being one of the last known users of the style in the country.
