A Good Day of Plowing in Chilliwack!

On April 5th, the British Columbia Plowing Championship was held in Chilliwack, B.C. Francis Sache, Mike Strotmann, and Ray Ramey will be continuing on to compete at the Canadian Plowing Championship hosted in Ayton, Ontario during the last week of August. We would like to congratulate the winners and look forward to seeing their skills on display later this summer.

Here is a brief recap of the 103rd annual Chilliwack Plowing Match, written by Jim Sache, one of the board of directors for the Canadian Plowing Organization.

Saturday April 5 th was a great day to hold the 103 rd annual Chilliwack Plowing Match. Two weeks earlier, we had made the decision to postpone it after 5 inches of rain in 2 days and a very unfavorable weather forecast. However, 2 days after our decision, Francis called and said the forecast is looking a little better. Let’s stay with our original plan. Well, a little better turned into a lot better. 3 days before the 5th , the rain stopped and the sun made a few appearances. Saturday turned out to be beautiful, clear skies and 23° and dry fields to plow.

The day started with a pancake breakfast by donation put on by the bowls of hope. It made a lot of money for a very worthwhile cause. The plowing started at 10:30 with 4 teams of horses, 16 competitors in various other classes, including the B.C. championship classes, and 5 entries in the

politician’s class, won this year by the Mayor of Chilliwack, Ken Popove, for his

first time.

Good weather seems to bring out good crowds as people were streaming in all day and the 4 hay wagons hauling people around the site were full all day. This is the 5th year we have been hosted by Greendale acres, the Chilliwack corn maze, and it seems to get better every year. Their main interest is in catering to kids. They have built 2 air cushions for jumping on, a petting zoo and I am sure there are at least 50 other games, rides and entertainments to keep kids occupied so mom and dad can watch the plowing. It looked like organized chaos but everyone was thoroughly enjoying themselves.

All in all, probably the most successful Chilliwack plowing match in recent history.