PIERMONT — Dalton Thayer can't remember a time when he wasn't around horses. Big horses. Horses 19 hands tall and weighing a ton. Beasts of burden bred to pull large loads.

“They have a picture of me on one when I was a year old,” said Thayer, now 17, as he worked Monday to get his two Belgians, Chocolate Bob and Mike, under harness at his barn in the Piermont hills just below Mount Moosilauke. The nearby stone wall on the property of his parents, Peter and Michele Thayer, marks the boundary between Piermont and Pike, a section of Haverhill.

He works the draft horses most days, having them pull large loads in preparation for the competition at summer fairs that will keep him traveling most weekends throughout the warm weather.

But this week, the junior at Rivendell Academy in Orford is preparing for a horse pull in which neither he nor his horses will take part as contestants.

Before they can graduate, Rivendell students must complete either a career internship or an “Upper House Project.” That's an effort designed for them to employ the critical thinking, communication skills, use of technology and interdisciplinary abilities they've developed.

In his written statement for the project proposal, Thayer said, “I have chosen to do an Upper House Project and put together a horse pull to benefit the North Haverhill Fair Association for improvements to their livestock pulling area.

And so the horse pulling competition he's been busy organizing is set to take place Sunday at the North Haverhill Fairgrounds. Thayer's goal is to raise $1,750 for expenses and prize money, and he said Monday he's getting close.

“I had $1,500 as of yesterday,” he said, some of it coming in the form of contributions from local merchants. Still, the effort hasn't been easy.

Buying ribbons, trophies, getting insurance, having a food booth on the grounds, arranging for portable toilets and trash collection, advertising, attracting participants, finding helpers to work the ring, bringing in announcers, scorekeepers, ticket sellers … the list goes on, Thayer discovered.

But hours from now, he now expects the pulling in two classes, over 3,450 pounds, and under that weight, to take place as scheduled. All gate receipts from the $5 per person admission — as well as money raised in 50-50 raffles — will go to the fair association for improvements to the livestock area, or however fair administrators see fit, he said.

The competition starts at 11 a.m.

Follow-up Article:

HAVERHILL — A Rivendell Academy junior from Piermont said he exceeded his fundraising goal Sunday when he ran a horse pulling competition at the North Haverhill Fairgrounds. The event attracted more than 230 spectators, and 14 teams of draft horses and handlers from throughout the region.

The school project was designed to raise money for the North Haverhill Fair Association.

“I raised over $1,300,” Dalton Thayer, 17, said Sunday night. “I was hoping for $500 to $1,000.”

Nine pair of large workhorses competed in the under 3,450-pound weight class, pulling a sled weighted with stone for distance. Sean Kelly of Milan in New Hampshire's North Country was the winner of that competition, according to Thayer.

Peter Hanafan of Massachusetts and his horses took the prize in the heavier weight class, he said. The events ran from 11 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m.

Before they can graduate, Rivendell students must complete either a career internship or an “Upper House Project.” That's an effort designed for them to employ the critical thinking, communication skills, use of technology and interdisciplinary abilities they've developed.

It's also meant for students to make a connection to their community and collaborate with others outside the classroom.

In his written statement for the project proposal, Thayer said, “I have chosen to do an Upper House Project and put together a horse pull to benefit the North Haverhill Fair Association for improvements to their livestock pulling area,” or he said, whatever use fair association administrators deem most useful.

Thayer usually enters his own team of Belgians in pulls throughout the summer, but instead left them home Sunday as he oversaw events at the fairgrounds, and helped set stone on the sled, using his grandfather's tractor.