7 Feb - Antique equipment parade - Pics added

[paintponylvr]

before the Draft Horse Pull being held at the Hunt Horse Complex in Raleigh, NC.

The Southern Farm SHow starts on Wednesday February 5th, at the NC State Fairgrounds. The show will conclude Friday ight, February 7th, with the Antique (NO rubber on any equipment) Farm equipment parade held before the Draft Horse Pull in the Hunt Horse Complex.

Our draft horse club (NC WHMA - North Carolina Working Horse and Mule Association) has been asked to provide some of the equipment and horses for the parade and I had the farmer who allowed our ponies to pull his disk offer to bring a small cultivator that the ponies can pull. It's pretty exciting!! My girl friend and I both plan on taking ponies up and we'll see which/whose pair is better mannered for hitching to a piece of equipment that none of us is familiar with... Mine haven't been working and are out of shape. I have two weeks to get them going - the parade itself is pretty short - one time around the indoor arena.

I don't know that they have a division here for draft ponies and minis to pull. That doesn't matter - we don't do that type of weight pulling. I found that to be beyond my skill level and quite SCARY!! And I don't want my ponies responding that way to pulling weight, either. It's like "body building" for draft horses.

No, we don't have any antique equipment ourselves. Yes, we will get pictures!!

 

[Barefootin]

That sounds like a lot of fun! I love the old equipment.

 

[Renolizzie]

That sounds like so much fun!!!

Tell me there will be photos

 

[Melinda Dean]

Hi Paula, Have you been to any NC plow or drive events lately? I still hope to be able to get to another one sometime. Are they still having drives at Rouses's? I have been doing some single trail driving here at my place. Hope to hitch the mini pair up when the weather is warmer again. Have a great time in Raleigh!

 

[paintponylvr]

Last one I went to was at Spot's (& Sheila Rouse's) in Sept. I missed a couple Plow Days due to new job and things happening here at home in Sept/Oct and a couple were cancelled.

We had the meeting at Spots (S&S Ranch Saloon) and finalized some of the dates and voted in new officers on Saturday. I can send you some info over the weekend. The Feb 7th horse pull is the first "event" (not sponsored by the NCWHMA) and then a bunch in March and April (almost every weekend if I remember right, paperwork in trk). Only months with no activity right now are July and August (HOT)...

The Dixie Draft Horse Sale is the 2nd non-sponsored event that a LOT of the members go to. It's the weekend of March 21-23 - I never get to go to that one as that's my hubby's and 1st daughter's Bdays (23rd)...

Spot and Sheila went to the Draft Horse Sale in PA and brought home a least one pair of black Percheron geldings. They will replace the greys in his 8 & 12 up hitch. I thought I heard someone say he'd gotten 4, but I only confirmed the 2 - he has 4 greys in that hitch. I never realized that they had 30+ employees. Two employees were working the new pair to a forecart and HEAVY farm drag when we arrived for the meeting. WOW. Pretty impressive. NICE, NICE pair... He also had a perch looking pony (maybe a draft x or a welsh cob - around 12.2 or 1/2 the size of the Perch's being driven by his paddock - didn't get to ask) in one of the paddocks up front as you pulled into the farm drive - he was nice - in winter coat w/ blue/black shine and lots of chrome, blaze face and white socks on all four legs. He was showing off at a trot and bouncing around. Snacks turned into a full blown BBQ meal in the Saloon - YUM... They've been working on the church - it has the board style insulation up. That's where the meetings will be held from now on - much larger than the saloon, LOL.

For those who are reading this and don't know what I'm talking about - several of the member's of the NCWHMA have "mini towns" set up on their larger farms. Several do tours. One farm does Christmas Lights and a full, live nativity scene at Christmas over the weekends - I've not yet been to that. Now there is someone down in SC getting ready to start building a town type set up too... As you can see in some of the pics below w/ real horses/wagons & people in them - this is a LARGE LAYOUT, but comfy, friendly and fun to attend events at.

Entrance to the "town" - about 1/2 mile down the farm driveway...

April 2012 - This was the latest edition over the winter of 2011. It was empty here, don't know what it's used for - may have REAL supplies in it for his large number of Percherons...

taken in April 2012 trail drive... At the meeting, this past Saturday, the Sheriff's office now has the steel jail cell complete and even has an "occupant" dressed in early western time frame clothing lounging on the bunk! In the back of the office is a bedroom set up to emulate how a pioneer house may have been set up.

Part of the Saloon and the tack shop were destroyed over the winter of 2011 by an electrical fire while they were building. The tack shop had real equipment that he markets for Draft Horses. I forget the number of harness sets and other equipment lost. I didn't take pics of the damaged equipment laid out while we were here... The Tack Shop is now completed and is back open for business!!

Spot and Sheila are very involved with their church and often host church events at their farm. They use their Draft Horse teams, along with the tractors, to do real farm work - not just going to events to "play" like some of us. Their hosted events at their farm are well attended - both the Trail Drives and the Plow Days (sometimes "different" sets of folk attending - with a core of the same going to both). Spot and Sheila are well loved in their community and FUN to be around. Anyone in this area should check out their set up - I'd be happy to give contact info out. They are about 2 hours away from us w/ the trailer and no "pit stops" - right on Hwy 55 in Seven Springs, NC.

 

[paintponylvr]

O yes - membership in the North Carolina Working Horse and Mule Association is only $20/year - probably one of the least expensive memberships these days anywhere!

You will receive the monthly (and sometimes weekly) flyers telling about the various events w/ the contact info from the various farms' events, have a vote and can submit for hosting events. Events don't have to be held at a farm - there are several trail riding areas in our state that allow for such... I'm sure there's more, can't think of anything else at the moment.

Spot and Sheila Rouse are not the only ones that host BIG events at their farms. One of the farms in SC (Gene Driggers) regularly host a benefit ride/drive for the March of Dimes and they will have upwards of 600 attendees at this event over a weekend. Also holds other Trial Ride/Drive events a couple of times a year now. I don't know all the names of the farms/towns. I usually only attend the "local" ones... I can't get to the ones that are 5 hours (or more) driving one way right now... Gene Driggers's place is 3 hour drive one way and that one was tough on me and the ponies that weekend. I went down, drove, and came back - it was actually a 3 day event but I couldn't stay... Several of the events are actually planned for more than one day (primitive camping - some have bathrooms w/ showers/some have outhouses and hoses for water...

)

Some of the Plow Day events are set up with various "Pioneer" vendors and will have dutch oven cook offs over open camp fires, real chuck wagons and black smiths working directly from their wagons. Vicki's granddaughters once participated in a blacksmith event where they heated (over a protected fire) and twisted horse shoes - turning them into hoof picks and hanging hearts. One set up did soap carving and wood cutting (real axes and hard work,

) These are open to visitors and the public - food/products sold is usually split between the assn/vendors and donated to local causes. One of the events I missed last year had an open plowing set up - the public was invited to try their hand at both walking plowing and ridden plowing - actually handling the equipment and horses!! Wished I hadn't missed that one - I'd love to try out both with the big horses (no, I don't have "real" horse farming experience, though my mom's parents lived their entire lives on a farm in Kiron, IA, they used tractors and livestock was pretty much done by the time I was 5 yr old). Corn picking is REAL - you WALK into the field and hand shuck the corn cobs off of the stalks. THEN, the draft horses are driven thru the corn field using a stalk cutter - taking down the stalks, after which the plows enter the field to prepare it for re-planting the corn. Corn picking/planting are done at the fall events - usually in October. I've attended a couple now - the first one in 2010 where I ground drove my pair with the draft horse drag before I got my real farm harness...

Phil Hudson's farm (Newton Grove, NC) hosts an event in the fall that includes a set up with antique tractors and other working farm equipment. They usually give a case of yams to every family that attends (a lot of cases of yams!!). Again, his event is one that I've never had the chance to attend - Vicki's family has attended twice in 4 years and she's split the case of yams with us (they were awesome). His event also has a tractor pulling a "train" made out of 55 gallon drums for the kids and pony rides in a corral for those who've never ridden with different size ponies. His farm has Hafflingers, Belgians, Gypsy Vanners, Fresians and grade ponies/minis. They use the Belgians and Hafflingers for farm work right next to the tractors - his is another large working farm with a lot of employess. The Fresians are registered and "tested" to the studbook standards and in 2013 he sent 8 to the Fresian Horse Nationals - some doing very, very well for their farm.

OK, have to run! Frozen water tanks are calling (before work) - it's a "warm" 17* here (not the norm for us here in NC)... Have 200' of hose in my kitchen to keep it from freezing! Again, family not happy with this circumstance... gotta love livestock! Good thing hubby was overseas when we raised our first Shetland/mini foal in the kitchen like an orphan - he'd have croaked having a horse in the house!

 

[Melinda Dean]

Thanks for catching me up! I have thought about asking Spot if he , or one of his team drivers, would be interested in an all expenses paid day trip to the coast, with an hour or two of lesson time helping me get everything just right for my mini draft pair and surrey. Do you think they will be in Raleigh for the Parade?

 

[paintponylvr]

I believe that one of Spot's teams is listed. There are only going to be 12 teams in the parade and when I called to get "ours" listed (Vicki and I aren't sure whose ponies we will be using) - we were the 10th. Now I can't seem to get ahold of JT... He's the one going to bring the "small" cultivator (hope it's actually small enough - he wasn't positive) for the ponies to pull. So... not sure what's next and this darn weather has us completely "crippled" (figure you are too???).

I may finally get to look at the stalk cutter this weekend and may purchase it and take it with us in case we need to use it?? The weather is not being conducive to any of this, IMO and I'm more than a little worried. I can't easily get to my trailer at the moment and the rain that's on it's way on Sunday and Monday will make matters sooo much worse. Can't Mamma Nature get things reversed for a LITTLE WHILE???

The ponies aren't appreciating the ICE - the babies were playing yesterday in the snow. WOW it went from 1* to 24*s today in 2 1/2 hours (it's now above freezing at 10:30am, thank goodness!). Took our daughter almost 3 hours to make the drive home from work this morning after all the roads froze last night. She didn't believe her dad and I that the secondary roads hadn't been cleared yet... and made a bad choice on a "short cut" and couldn't get turned around to get to a main road/Hwy... She and the friend that were car-pooling didn't slide off road and DID make it to their home's.

So, so glad we didn't lose power with this storm. One of the things hubby and I are looking at investing in is a generator... don't think the ponies would specifically like to be put into a "round" to turn a crank for power,

 

[paintponylvr]

WEEEELLLLLL -

in another post (winter project - http://www.miniaturehorsetalk.com/index.php?showtopic=135002&page=4), I had detailed a stalk cutter that I purchased and that Vicki and her family are helping (doing most of the work right now) refurbish. They got it far enough along to actually hook and display in the Antique Parade we were invited to participate in at the Southern National Draft Horse Pull held last night in Raleigh, NC at the Hunt Horse Complex (the finale for the Farm Festival Expo held during the week at the Fairgrounds).

Here are a couple of pics of Vicki's pony pair pulling the stalk cutter... It is heavy and we will be putting a 4 abreast team to it as soon as we get the 4 horse neck yoke for it and a 4 horse evener - both in pony sizes. We may be able to weight the back of the cutter to lower the tongue weight, but not sure.

O, and this is not the pair's 2nd hitch but the 2nd time the stalk cutter has been hitched up (to this pair) since we purchased it.

and some of the other pieces of equipment in the parade -

and this last photo shows part of the crowd up in the stands (photo taken after we returned from unhitching the ponies and putting them up for a bit. This is the light draft mules that competed in the "Pull".). I walked around the full arena with Vicki - pretty much at Eclipse's head (black pony mare) as the pair was pretty "excited" and a little "hot". Several times, I touched Eclipse and just said "easy, girl" and she'd take a deep breathe and start to relax. BUT when they finished announcing the little write up on each piece of equipment (we were last in the "parade") - EVERYONE started clapping. All 8 pony hooves went straight up off of the ground and I reached up and helped bring them back to earth. Kreature just started whinnying - like he was calling out for his buddies but Eclipse ... well, we ducked out of the arena instead of doing a 2nd trip around as some of the equipment did... but several others did, too, LOL. Ours weren't the only ones that weren't used to having the clapping and cheering going on.

So we've got some more work to do on the stalk cutter, but it will be used at a couple of functions this fall... We will have to put together a couple of separate hitches of 4 abreast ponies. Currently have 6 working as pairs and a couple of smaller mini sized ponies working single that are ready to hitch as a regular pair.