| "Ready to Rumble" at the Royal! | | Heavy Horse Show a Crowd Favorite at 102nd Royal Manitoba Winter Fair | | 4/14/2009 | | | The 102nd edition of the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, held in Brandon, Manitoba from March 30-April 4, 2009, experienced a "Royal Wrap" and another successful year.
Crowds came out in full force to take pleasure in the ever-growing line-up of entertainment and shows. With a total of 119,100 visitors, there were great crowds at events throughout each day.
Karen Oliver, the Provincial Exhibition`s General Manager, said that "With all the talk of recession, I was concerned it would impact attendance negatively." She went on to add, "I think people love the fair and they`re pretty committed to attending and supporting it - it`s just what they need to get through this negative time."
Heavy Horse classes are always the crowd favourites at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair Horse Shows. Spectacular Percheron, Clydesdale and Belgian hitches were definitely "ready to rumble", and caused the entire arena to shake when these "gentle giants" thundered down the ramp into the show ring. In all, ten draft horse families exhibited 104 entries in 20 driving classes, judged by Erin Freitag of New Carlisle, Indiana.
Equine ranchers find the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair provides an excellent venue to advertise their breeding programs and market their young show prospects to draft horse enthusiasts and fellow hitch owners from all over North America. Many of the horses in equine ranchers` hitches were bred and raised at home, and were being demonstrated for potential buyers. Four Manitoba equine ranching families exhibited draft horses at this year`s Fair: Tom & Darlene Lane of Creekside Belgians of Birtle, Jim & Darlene Lane of Lone Oak Percherons of Birtle; Lyle & Kathy Brown of Brown`s Percherons of Lenore; and Keith & Shelley Conrad, Meadowlark Percherons of St. Alphonse.
Lone Oak Percherons, owned by Jim Lane of Birtle, Manitoba, who has been an equine rancher since 1984, won the Eight Horse Hitch Championship Classic. Lane`s hitch consisted of six geldings and two mares, who are full sisters.
Lane said, "The two mares, Lone Oak Caitland, is four-years-old, and Lone Oak Kali is five. They are our point team of the hitch, and this was their first time to be shown at the Winter Fair. They won the Team of Purebred Mares to Wagon class this year. Lone Oak Caitland was the NAERIC Draft Horse Classic Futurity Champion as a two-year-old in 2007."
"Our lead team consisted of two geldings, Lone Oak Jaime and Jet, who are five and seven years old. Our swing team was a pair of four-year-old geldings, Lone Oak Jasper and Lone Oak Tommy, and our wheel team was another pair of geldings, Lone Oak Kirby and King, who are six and seven. We are quite proud of the fact that six of our eight hitch horses are home grown. Winning the Eight Horse Hitch Championship was the highlight of the Fair for us, although we were also pleased with earning second place in the Four and Six Horse Hitch Championship classes."
"We placed first in the Light Draft Team in Harness to Wagon class 1B, the Four Horse Team to Wagon class 10A, and the Six Horse Tandem Team to Wagon class class 12C. The fact that we didn`t have any three-year-olds in our hitches this year was a factor in our success."
Creekside Belgians, owned by Tom Lane of Birtle, Manitoba, who has been an equine rancher since 1985, won the Four Horse Hitch Championship Classic. Lane said, "Our hitch consisted of all geldings. Our lead team was Peecos Dirk, who is a five-year-old, and Bar RB Baxter, who is four. Our wheel team was Franway Billy, a four-year-old and Creekside Phantom, who is five. We used Baxter as our lead horse, and Dirk and Ted to win our Unicorn Hitch class 7A and then our daughter Rae-ann (15), drove Baxter and Dirk to win the Special Boys & Girls Showmanship Team class. We were very pleased with our family`s results at this year`s show. We brought seven geldings in total; three of them were home grown. I`d have to say the highlight for us was winning the Four Horse Hitch championship - our horses were very steady that night and they stayed consistent throughout the class."
The Clydesdale breed was well represented by Delgaty/Coyote Creek Clydesdales. Allan Betteridge of Minnedosa, MB drove their team for a win in the Light Draft Team in Harness to Wagon class 1A, and Brad Delgaty of Brandon, MB drove their hitch to win the Six Horse Tandem Team to Wagon class 12A.
Nick Den Brok of Rocky Bar Belgians, Esterhazy, SK won the prestigious BMO Six Horse Team Championship Classic. This class is traditionally the grand finale on Saturday night and is truly the "Royal Wrap" event of the Fair.
The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair is coordinated annually by the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, a nonprofit agricultural society. It takes hundreds of volunteers each year to make the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair even possible. Many volunteers, exhibitors, and visitors have been known to enjoy the Winter Fair experience so much that they spend their spring break/vacation time at the Fair. The spectacular draft horse hitches have contributed greatly to the program each year, and will be "ready to rumble" again, in 2010.
Photos by Sandy Black
Top photo: Lone Oak Percheron`s Champion Eight Horse Hitch
Middle photo: Creek Side Belgian`s Champion Four Horse Hitch
Bottom photo: Delgaty Coyote Creek Clydesdale`s Champion Light Horse Draft in Harness to Wagon Class 1A Team
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