Trailblazer
Slim Morehouse
On November 22, 1922, Slim Morehouse hitched 30 horses to eight grain wagons and delivered 1100 bushels of wheat to the elevators in Vulcan, Alberta. This legendary “big hitch” teamster had set out to prove he could deliver more grain faster than the long established “bull” teams of Fort Benton’s I.G. Baker Company.
After the 30 horse hitch, Morehouse tried it with 30 mules. It worked but he needed five outriders to help hitch, keep the mules pulling evenly and set the brakes when the headed down the steep hills, and release them at the bottom. They did this without out ever getting off their horses.
When it was obvious that trucks were taking over the freighting business Slim sold his mules and spent the winter of 1923 searching the countryside for as many black 1600 pound Percherons as he could find. By the summer of 1925 with six outriders, Slim drove the matched hitch of 36 draft horses in the Calgary Stampede Parade. Back then there was a parade every morning for a week, and throngs of onlookers watched as Slim proudly drove the world’s biggest hitch down 7 and 8th Avenue, a fitting final tribute to the great hitches of the prairies.
10 years later Slim was driving a one horse milk wagon through the streets of Calgary. A few years after that, he retired to Creston, B.C.
To this day Slim Morehouse holds the record for the largest hitch of horses ever entered in the Calgary Stampede parade.
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