It’s the simple things in life, that means the most, to ordinary people. Although a weightpull harness isn’t a simple thing, this image connects three lives through love.
For those that doesn’t know what weightpull is, it’s a sport for dogs where they pull a cart loaded with weight. It’s a short distance and the dogs are trained for a long time before competing.
With regards to those that consider weightpull to be animal cruelty, this post isn’t about the sport but the harness!
The story is, that in 2015 a Dogue de Bordeaux, named Chesto, won DM +51 class using this harness, to pull 1.550 kgs over a distance of 5 meters. The harness is tailored to fit perfectly and thereby ensuring that the dog isn’t hurt by it.
After that, Chesto retired and has just celebrated his 7th birthday. Not using the harness anymore, it is now used at Fun4Dogs, see A cold Christmas shoot ... During an event there, Nathia that owns Chesto, came by with her 1 year old son, Michas. I have seen the harness plenty of times and maybe that sparked my original idea: Michas sitting in the harness like a toddlers swing. But then the writing, Chesto, wouldn’t be visible. So we ended up sitting Michas, wearing the harness, on a bench and see if he would play along.
He soon realised that he had our attention and a few minutes later I had 41 good images. Later that day I picked the best of them, 14 images in total, and asked Nathia to choose from them. She responded “Impossible” .. but managed to pick those she wanted.
In short, that harness is now an emotional link, between a boy and a dog, with the same mother
This one is one of my favorites .. can’t find the words, but it’s his pose 🙂
Martin Werge - Stories 