Goose pulling

Live goose pulling in 19th-century West Virginia, as depicted by Frederic Remington

Goose pulling (also called gander pulling, goose riding, pulling the goose or goose neck tearing[1]) was a blood sport practiced in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, England, and North America from the 17th to the 19th centuries. It originated in the 12th century in Spain and was spread around Europe by the Spanish Third. The sport involved fastening a live goose with a well-greased head to a rope or pole that was stretched across a road. A man riding on horseback at a full gallop would attempt to grab the bird by the neck in order to pull the head off.[2] Sometimes a live hare was substituted.[3]

It is still practiced today, using a dead goose or a dummy goose, in parts of Belgium as part of Shrove Tuesday and in some towns in Germany as part of the Shrove Monday celebrations. When practicing with the dead goose, it is killed prior by a veterinarian.[citation needed] In Grevenbicht in the Netherlands, the use of dead geese was prohibited in 2019, being replaced by artificial geese.[4]

It is referred to as ganstrekken in the Netherlands, gansrijden in Belgium and Gänsereiten in Germany.

  1. ^ Edward Brooke-Hitching. Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling, and Other Forgotten Sports, p.102. Simon and Schuster, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4711-4899-6
  2. ^ "Dutch". Bird, Thomas E. in Encyclopedia of ethnicity and sports in the United States, eds. Kirsch, George B.; Harris, Othello; Nolte, Claire Elaine. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. ISBN 978-0-313-29911-7
  3. ^ Vickers, Anita (2002). The new nation. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-313-31264-9.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Grevenbricht 2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).