Draft Horse and Mule Show inaugurates Coeur d'Alene
LOREN BENOIT/Press Mike Nagel raises his leather cowboy hat into the air at the finish line of the log skid course at Friday’s Idaho State Draft Horse and Mule Show at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds.
John Overmyer, left, of Davenport, Wash. and Gary Uhrith, of Clarkston, guide their Persian mules through a course at Friday’s Idaho State Draft Horse and Mule Show at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Branden Moore, of Potlatch, guides his Belgian horses through a logsled serpentine course at Friday’s Idaho State Draft Horse and Mule Show at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Spectators watch a competitor and his horses weave through cones during the logskid competition at Friday's Idaho State Draft Horse and Mule Show at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
With two wooden logs beneath his feet and dust kicking in his wake, Mike Nagel raised his brown leather cowboy hat into the air and gave the Friday crowd a cheer as a pair of mighty draft horses — blond manes flowing behind — carried him around the dirt track of the Kootenai County Fairgrounds.
Nagel, as well as the association for which he presides, is riding his horses down new territory. This weekend marks the first year the North Idaho Draft Horse and Mule Association’s annual show officially moved to Coeur d’Alene.
“I’ve been doing this since 1980,” Bonnie Shields, the Bonner County horse lover also known as the Tennessee Mule Artist said by the fenceline next to the grandstands in Coeur d’Alene. “We up in Sandpoint are sad that we had to move it, but we understand that it had to go.”
Shields cited malaise among some locals for the event’s decline, as corralling volunteers became more difficult. This year’s move gives the annual event a boost in terms of interest and new participants.
“It’s a whole new ballgame down here,” vendor Gabe Gabel of Sagle said. “I have high hopes about [Coeur d’Alene]. So far we have a lot of traffic down here.”
The Draft Horse and Mule Show brings in competitors and enthusiasts from around the Northwest, as well as local interest as powerful as the horses themselves.
“This is really cool,” Robert Jay of Coeur d’Alene said as he and his friends wandered through the fairgrounds. “I’ve been riding before; it’s quite exciting. It must take quite a lot of practice to do this. It must take them quite a while.”
Friday morning’s events included Nagel and other participants in the Log Skidding category, as well as Four Up Driving, Hitch Teams, Senior Teams, Farm Team Driving, the Men’s Cart-Mule competition and the cherished Unicort division, which features a team of beloved Belgian horses.
In the Four Up Driving competition, drivers and their teams tried to maneuver horses and mules around the track before backing them into a quadrant of four cones without tipping the orange cones over. Chuck Ouillett of Cranbrook, Canada, who used to compete in the yearly Sandpoint event, said those maneuvers require a real bond between drivers and horses.
“That big one there is about 16 hands,” he said. “He’s a big one. They have so much power, so it really says something about the driver that they can get the horse into such a small space with that kind of accuracy.”
Friday night’s events included Tandem Horse entries, Six Up Driving-Mule competitions, the 16-and-and-older Barrel Race, the Four Up Conformation-Horse competition, the Four Abreast-Mule competition, The Matched Mares riding, Ladies Team Driving and Ladies Street Cart.
Julia Bak, originally from Istanbul, Turkey, but currently living in Coeur d’Alene, made a point to schedule the Draft Horse and Mule Show into her weekend plans.
“I love it,” she said from the grandstands. “I tell you, to train a horse to do this? It takes years. I used to ride thoroughbreds. It takes years to train for this.”
Warren Cooley, who made previous Sandpoint events a habit, is sponsoring Saturday’s Antique and Unique category, which will honor veterans in attendance. He said this year’s Coeur d’Alene venue required adaptation on his part.
“This venue is different,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for 25 years up in Sandpoint, so this is new to us.”
Carolyn Hayes works with Anderson Shires, a popular competitor ran by her late father, Mel Anderson. She said people who come out to the fairgrounds this weekend will be in for a treat.
“Draft horses,” she said, “are really gentle giants. For us, it’s fun getting out here with the Nagels and the [family of] Shaffers and showing these horses. And moving down to Coeur d’Alene for this event has been wonderful.”
The event runs through Sunday. Today’s morning events begin at 10 a.m. with the Eight Up Conformation/Driving-Mule competition, the Six-Horse Hitch Classic Series, Cooley’s Antique and Unique show, a Pee Wee Driving division for ages 5 to 7 and a 14-18 Junior Driving category, a Ladies Street Cart Team Driving and a Log Skidding-Mule jackpot event.
Events this evening start at 6 p.m. with an Eight Up Conformation/Driving competition, a Junior Team Driving/Special Needs 14-18 event, Junior Cart Driving, Ladies Team Conformation, an Amateur Four Driving Finals, a Hitch Team-Mule event, and Six Up Driving.
Sunday’s show starts at 9 a.m. with a Junior Horse Braiding, a pair of Junior Showmanship competitions, a Ladies CCart competition, Four Up Conformations for both horse and mule, Six Up Conformation for mules and the Six-Horse Hitch Classic. Sunday will also feature raffle drawings and the Pioneer Award presentation.
“I love these kinds of things,” said Stacy Brittain, who moved to Coeur d’Alene in January. “These draft horses are just beautiful. I’m definitely coming Saturday … The size and strength of these horses is just so remarkable, and just the skill it takes to drive them is incredible.”
“I think I love it,” Brittain said, “because I’ve been a wannabe cowgirl all my life. I get to feel like a cowgirl all over again.”