Photo supplied by Gordon Frentz.

By Curtis Galbraith

Agriculture

Grande Prairie man enters Agribition competition for first time at age 82, winds up third

Dec 16, 2024 | 6:00 AM

A Grande Prairie man recently received a lot of attention for being the oldest competitor at a competition at Regina’s Canadian Western Agribition.

Gordon Frentz is 82. He wound up finishing third in Agribition’s chore team competition.

“How I came to want to go there is I’ve been watching it on YouTube for the last couple of years and seeing the competitors in action and believing in my mind that I could compete, I decided that if I’m going to do it at this age that I’m at now, I better do it sooner than later or I won’t be around to do it.”

A chore team competition is meant to look like feeding livestock on the farm and hauling cream to the post office in the old days

Frentz says it includes pulling a sleigh to haul 1,200 pounds, equal to the weight of a round bale, then backing up horses, hooking onto a wagon, driving in tight spaces, driving a figure eight to simulate picking up bags of grain, mailing a letter and backing out of an alleyway, and backing up to a dock like at a train station where cream cans would be dropped off.

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Photo supplied by Gordon Frentz.

They do this once in the morning then repeat it going in the opposite direction in the afternoon. The next day included hauling four bales of hay through a figure eight pattern. There is also a timed barrel races with horse pulling a sleigh

Frentz says he hauled his own team of horses, two mares named Joanie and Judy, with him to the Queen City.

“My team is a team of seven-and-eight-year-old Haflingers. We had to have the horses and feed and harness and all that stuff and drive down to Regina.”

“The roads were terrible. It was blizzard conditions. There were a couple hours where there (were no) roads plowed at all.”

Frentz says they had to follow the tracks made by the vehicles that gone ahead of them. He says the snow was a foot deep on either side of the path. The whole trip took 14 hours.

Frentz, a first time entrant at age 82, wound up third. That finish means he has qualified for next year, but he is still making up his mind about going again.

“Well, I would like to. I don’t know if I will for sure or not.”

“Because I finished in the top six, I automatically get an invite into next year, so if I desire to go, I’m able to, if I’m still here.”

There were 16 teams in the competition. Frentz finished third in the first and second rounds, then third again in the final six. He calls that “pretty good for an old guy, first competition.”

Frentz had local guy, Jim Lofstrom, as his helper in the competition. Another local guy, Ron Kimble, came along as company, moral support, and to help with the horses.

Photo supplied by Gordon Frentz.

Photo supplied by Gordon Frentz.