As the only woman to take part at the highest level of competition at the 2013 International Plowing Match, in Mitchell Ontario, Carrie Davenport is a groundbreaker in every sense of the word.

The 20-year-old university student is a rising star in this rural event that has traditionally been the exclusive domain of middle aged men.

Growing up on the family farm near Owen Sound, Ont., Carrie first learned to plow when she was five years old while riding with her father, Brian Davenport, a competitive plower himself. Whenever Brian competed in plow matches Carrie and the rest of her family would tag along.

"It was definitely a family thing for us all, so it was an outing for everybody and once we did all the local matches and I had gotten to go see my dad plough at the IPM, then I got the opportunity so I wanted to take the chance and start doing it competitively," Carrie told W5.

Within a few years, she was among the best young plowers in Canada. In 2012 she won the Canadian Junior National Plowing Championship in Brandon, Man.

"It was an amazing experience," recalled Carrie.

2013 marked Carrie's first year competing in the senior class alongside her father, and she garnered a lot of attention from other competitors and judges alike.

"It’s unique in that there’s very few young ladies competing and to reach the level of success that she has, it really draws a lot of interest," said IPM judge Wayne Downie.

Competitive plowing is meticulous work. For three hours the participants slowly drive their plows up and down a small parcel of land, 100 metres long by 20 metres wide, trying to create a perfect furrow with each pass. Judges evaluate the calibre of the plowing by assessing the uniformity of the furrows. Maintaining consistently straight lines is vital.

"Plowing competitions go back to the day before herbicides and chemical treatments where you had to use cultivation to provide a proper seed bed. So the idea here is to set it up in a manner that would be easy for horses at one point in time to take light equipment across, level it and plant the crop," said Brian.

By its very nature, plowing is a solitary event, one person, one machine, one furrow at a time. But unlike most of the other competitors, Brian and Carrie collaborate on their approach.

"We talk about different things that could be done with the equipment to make a result that we’re trying to achieve and we’re always experimenting," said Brian.

It's his hope that their father-daughter partnership will breathe new life into a treasured rural tradition.

"We need youth for their enthusiasm, their new ideas to propel us forward into the future and people like seeing young people involved and get a big thrill out of it regardless of their age."