There are hicks living in Germany too!

On our way to a local Nature Park to go hiking on Sunday, Georg and I came across a Tractor Pull taking place in a farmer's field. From the highway, all I could see was billowing black smoke. And so Georg asked me, "Do you know what a tractor pull is?". I had always been under the assumption that tractor pulling was essentially hooking up two tractors to each other and them driving in opposite directions to see who has the better engine power. I was very wrong!

A tractor pull is in fact a competition between tractors (grouped into weight categories) who need to pull a sled with weights (changed depending on tractor weight categories) across 90m. Any tractors managing to pull the sled the full length are awarded what is called a "Full Pull", and can then compete again against each other with heavier sled weights.

A tractor pulling the sled...and working very hard to drag it!

No power left (the weight was too heavy) and so the tractor came to a stand-still.

I ended up having a great time for the 4 hours that we were at the tractor pull, watching ordinary and souped-up (bigger, more powerful engines. complex exhaust systems) tractors drag 10-15 tonnes across a field. Sometimes an unsubstantial tractor managed to get a Full Pull, whereas a bigger, newer-looking tractor would only get to the half-way point. Most tractors took the "slow, but steady" approach, starting in a low gear and inching slowly towards the finish line. However, in the "sport/professional" category, the tractors would rev their engines, releasing vast amounts of thick, black smoke from their exhausts systems, let the clutch out, and Z.....O......O......M! Pull fast to start and about half done would slow down to a crawl until their engines couldn't pull the weight any longer.


Wikipedia definitions:

Hick: A person who was raised in a rural area

Tractor Pull: a motorsport competition, popular in America, Europe (invented in the Netherlands) and Australia, which requires modified tractors to pull a heavy sledge (sled) along a 90 metre track, with the winner being the tractor that pulls the sledge farthest.