COMMUNITY

PHOTOS: Horses, tractors compete at Sublimity Harvest Festival

A weekend-long celebration of machinery and farming in Sublimity this weekend brought the region’s best ATV haulers, draft horses and monster trucks to cheering crowds.

The festival started in 1973 as a friendly tractor pull competition between local farmers and has since grown to an event drawing people from around the west.

Competitors as young as four years old were seen at the ATV Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11 (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
A young competitor drags a weighted sledge in the ATV Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11 (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
Randy Dodge holds his two champion Belgian horses while he waits to hook up for the Horse Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. Randy has been training and showing pulling horses for 45 years, and recently took first place at the Oregon State Fair and the Calvary Stampede. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
Randy Dodge and his Belgian horses compete during the Horse Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. They won first prize. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
A competitor prepares to be hitched up to a weighted sledge in the ATV Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11 (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
A competitor drags a weighted sledge in the ATV Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11 (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
Don Lee and his Percheron horses compete during the heavyweight class of the Horse Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
Jerry Lee and his Percheron horses compete during the heavyweight class of the Horse Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. They were pulling almost 6,500 pounds. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
Randy Dodge gives guidance to a handler during the Horse Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
Flamethrowing was definitely on the menu at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
One of the monster trucks at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
Randy Dodge gives guidance to a handler during the Horse Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
Pete and Kate, Percheron horses, compete during the heavyweight class of the Horse Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
One of the tractor contestants in the Tractor Pull competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
Tim Bielenberg’s Percheron horses give a spirited pull during the heavyweight class of the Horse Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
A team of Percheron horses takes a break to get their picture taken in between heats at the Horse Pulling Competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
The crowd was enthusiastic at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
One of the tractor contestants in the Tractor Pull competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)
A competitor pulling other tractors at the Tractor Pull competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter
One of the tractor contestants in the Tractor Pull competition at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in Sublimity Sunday, Sept. 11. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter)

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Laura Tesler has lived in Salem, Oregon for 20 years and is originally from Flint, MI. Laura has been an underwater photographer for 15 years, and is an avid scuba diver. Topside, she has been taking photographs since age 12, and currently works on assignment for the Salem Reporter, and full time purchasing land for fish and wildlife habitat in the Willamette Valley. Laura attended Oregon State University, and has traveled extensively all over the world and the United States.