Hanging with the horses in Slayton
Draft Horse show gives residents a unique chance to see some pretty majestic animals up-closeBy Josh Hebrink
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SLAYTON - It may have seemed intimidating and even a bit scary to walk up to a 2,000-pound Percheron horse and pet one on the nose at the Murray County Classic Draft Horse Show on Saturday, but trainer and groomer Alex Baker assured folks everything would be fine.
"They're like little babies," said Baker as he calmly brushed dirt off of a freshly-polished horse's hoof. "All you have to do is talk in soft voice and they won't mind."
"When you start yelling and getting mean with them, that's when you have something to worry about."
Baker, who works with Wilderness Ridge Farms of Sagola, Mich., was just one of many horse groomers at the Murray County Fairgrounds in Slayton encouraging thousands of spectators to not be afraid of the giant horses, which included Belgians, Percherons and Clydesdales.
But some people were just too skeptical.
"Holy crackers," said Betty Nord of Truman after watching one of the horse groomers position directly behind a Belgian horse to clean its tail. "I'd hate to get kicked by one of those things."
Nord and her husband Chuck, although a bit timid to get too close, said they came to Slayton because they love watching draft horse shows.
"We watched one in Britt, Iowa and it was incredible," said Chuck Nord, who noticed a flier in Mankato advertising for this weekend's events. "It's amazing to see how big the horses are and how beautiful they look during the show."
JoAnn Biren, who helped coordinate the third annual draft horse show in Slayton, said she expected anywhere from 2,000-3,000 people attending over the two-day event.
"It's such an impressive showing," said Biren, who has worked with horses for 38 years. "This is one of only 50 classic shows in the U.S. and Canada and people from all over the tri-state area have come to see it."
More than 14 competitors packed up their gear and posted at the fairgrounds over the weekend in search of winning events in the single cart, obstacle course, unicorn team (hitch of three horses) and classic 6-horse hitch divisions.
The divisions were judged according to driving performance, sharpness of the horses and equipment and also how the horses responded in sync to verbal and manual signals given by the drivers.
"One thing that I love about the show is how well all of the horses respond to commands," said Aletha Gerdes of Fulda. "It's very majestic."
Gerdes and her friend Beverly Jandl of Jasper had only been to a couple draft horse shows in their lifetimes, but like many people that came to Slayton to witness the horses, they too have become hooked.
"The showmanship is amazing and the horses are so beautiful and that's why we keep coming back," Gerdes said.
