Štraparijada, the name of the event for which there is no translation

When in the tavern, after hard work in the forests, where with the help of their horses they dragged the logs to the road where machinery (tractor or truck) could pick them up, the Štrapari meet for a drink, there is an argument...
Who was more successful, who pulled more logs out of the forest, whose horse is stronger, more durable...

And how to resolve the dispute than to organize a tournament to determine who is better - like in the old days when noble knights met in duels...
As if it wasn't enough for them to pull heavy logs out of inaccessible forests all summer long , these guys are embarking on another tough venture where they will put their horses to the test...

And so from the bet, a summer local festival was born that gathers fans of these games from the country and the region.

Štraparijada

And what are the propositions of this competition?
Horses are measured before the start of the competition in order to determine which category they belong to.

The light category is reserved for horses that are lighter than 600 kg. The middle category is horses up to 1100kg and the most interesting, heavy category, with horses heavier than 1100kg.
On a pre-prepared track of 100 meters, singles or pairs of horses pull logs that are sometimes larger/heavier than 3m³

A single horse (or a pair of horses) should cover these 100m in less than 5 minutes. The owner of the horse is with him, but no encouragement of the animal is allowed except with words (no pulling the horse by the reins, whipping...).

I witnessed a Štraparijada last September, when summer was spending its last days and when the temperature was pleasant to stay in the glades of Mount Goč, close to the Vrnjačka Spa.
Mountain houses, forest, glades, ideal location for an excursion.

and Štraparijada...
The scene of this event was made up of a large number of people in the audience

a lot of horses that were waiting for their turn in the competition in the shade next to their trailers

as well as one unfortunate bull who ended up on the spit

This type of competition is held in the entire region of the Western Balkans, where there are a lot of forests and where horses are still used to pull logs out of the forests.

From a tavern bet, an event was born that spread to many glades and mountains of the Balkans, which today has great touristic importance.

Is there a local event in your area worth mentioning on the topic given to us by @ecency-star?
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