Once a necessity, modern chuckwagon races are ‘Plum Crazy’

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Chuckwagon races at the Humboldt County Fair are wild western fun that also give us a glimpse of a lost lifestyle.

Imagine 32 thoroughbred horses, 16 riders and four wagons, each turning in figure eights around two barrels set in an infield and then racing onto the half mile track with all the horses at a dead run. Why, it’s “Plum Crazy.”

That was the appropriate phrase on one team’s wagon, but it seems to fit all the wild and western chuck wagon races at the Humboldt County Fair.

It works like this. Four chuckwagons line up with four horses hitched in tandem fashion. One person will drive the wagon with four accompanying outriders. One outrider is in front by the lead team, holding them until the gun sounds beginning the race.

The other three outriders are in the rear. Once the gun sounds, one tosses the tent poles, connected to a flap on the back of the wagon, into the wagon. Another tosses the camp stove into the wagon. The third outrider holds the horses for himself while the two rear outriders mount and ride.

The three rear outriders must stay at the rear of the wagon, within 150 feet at all times, until the race is over.

These crazy races are based on actual races chuckwagon crews ran out of necessity back in the days when cattle were driven across the country. According to the program, “To get to the next camp in time for the cowboys’ next meal, to beat another outfit to a camping spot or to outrun unfriendly Indians caused the chuckwagon crews to race across the western ranges.”

These races are not only crazy but dangerous. Two ambulances stood by on the infield and fortunately were not needed. One lead horse reared up too early, and the second time it reared up it actually broke the harness, making it impossible for the driver to control the team, which ended up pulling the wagon down the track in the wrong direction.

Many cowboy hats had to be retrieved from the track after every race. They quickly fell off riders’ heads as they raced down the track in pursuit of their chuckwagons. Amazingly, no wagon wheels touched, but they sure came close when four wagons would barrel onto the track at almost the same time, trying to maneuver to the best spot.

Many times the outriders had difficulty mounting their horses, and their wagons were long gone before they raced down the track.  Sometimes unsecured tent poles were flopping dangerously around the track, and sometimes a horse would try to complete the race without its rider.

These races are definitely an event where TiVo would be helpful because it’s impossible to keep track of everything that’s happening all over the track, and it’s over within a matter of seconds.  However, the show does continue a bit after the teams cross the finish line as it take some distance for the drivers to get their teams slowed down to a normal pace.

As exciting and fast as the races are, the team who crosses the finish line first may not be the winner. There’s a long list of penalties, and in some races it takes the judges quite some time to add up the multiple penalties of the various teams.

For example, if a wagon knocks over a barrel, a five-second penalty for each barrel. A wagon missing a barrel costs 10 penalty seconds. If an outrider is more than 150 feet behind the finish line when the lead team crosses the finish line, that’s two seconds, and more than one rider finishing beside the wagon costs two seconds for each rider.

All the penalties, the chaos and the speed help explain why there are eight judges on site observing and tallying scores.

There are both men’s and women’s teams of chuckwagon racers, with slightly different rules for each and a three-person team versus five-person. Women’s wagons are driven by two-horse teams and men’s by four.

To fill out the grandstand performance, the crowd was also treated to one-pony and two-pony chariot races, outrider races and other specialty events, but it’s clearly the chuckwagon races that the crowd is there to see.

There were eight chuckwagon teams in the Humboldt County Fair races. All were members of Chuckwagon Racers of Iowa-Minnesota Inc. Visit their website for more information and to see their schedule of races. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

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