John M. Hahn started helping his father work horses as soon as he could sit in a saddle or ride behind a wagon. He is the patriarch of the family today and his love of horses grew into his sons love as well. Out of high school in the ‘80s he started pulling horses like his dad was doing with the Percheron teams. Horse pulling is a draft horse competition where horses in harness, usually one or two animals, pull a stone-boat or weighted sled and the winner is the team or animal that can pull the most weight for a short distance. There are different weight classes and strict rules to avoid animal cruelty. John remembers his first team of horses were a gelding team named Ray and Stormy. He laughs thinking of the way the horses names came about, like when his dad sold Ray and added a 4 year old gelding to the team. It was at a sale barn and the gilding knocked his owner, Barney, down. The horse was said to have been overfed and naughty. So John H. grabbed the horse and helped the owner calm him down and ended up leaving with the horse and that's how "Barney" became part of John M's team. After a lot of work to break him, Barney was the best pulling horse he can remember having. John had a couple other teams throughout the years but ended up slowing down competing at horse pulls when his kids became so busy with sports of their own.
Here is a photo of John at a horse pull August 11, 1985 at the Rapid City Central States Fair Horse Pull with his team Ray and Stormy (not shown behind the white horse). John took home the teamster award and 5th place that day.
John getting Stormy and Barney ready for their competition with his son Jake a part of it all. Some of Jake's earliest memories came from sitting on the back of the Percheron's.
John at Lisco, NE September 1989 where he won second place for the competition.
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