The U.S. Draft Horse Plowing Contest for 2011 was back to being held over the Labor Day weekend. This is the 7th year in a row that the event was hosted at Carriage Hill Farm in Huber Heights. Ohio. Carriage Hill is a living history recreation of an 1880's farm and is part of the Five Rivers Metroparks system for Dayton Ohio and surrounding communities. Although it was quite hot on Saturday, the day was dry and beautiful. The competitors were joined by horse owners from the local area for a day of practice and camaraderie. There were also a few competitors who joined in a log skidding and obstacle course competition late in the afternoon. As always, there was a group pot luck dinner for the competitors and their families on Saturday evening with Brent Bolton of Dutchmasters Catering from Rio Rancho, New Mexico cooking meat and deserts using old time dutch ovens. Brent and his helper worked all day in a super hot environment to provide everyone with some really great food!
The actual plowing competition was scheduled to be held on Sunday in order to allow everyone to use the Monday holiday for travel. Overnight on Saturday, there was a total of about 4 inches of rain as quite a few thunderstorms rolled through the area. Conditions on Sunday were very different from Saturday with the skies overcast and on and off drizzle all day long. However, as one contestant said, "I drove 22 hours and I plan to plow regardless of the conditions." Needless to say, the ground was very wet and some of the plots were unusable due to standing water so those contestants were moved to other plots. This was just the opposite of the conditions that had prevailed in 2009 and 2010 when the area was in the midst of a drought. While both the competitors and organizers were all disappointed by the situation, I did not hear anyone complaining. These were conditions that few had ever faced before, but in the spirit of competition, they all went ahead and gave it their best shot anyway. Other than the weather which is uncontrollable, everything else was first class. Both Jim Butcher, who came back out of retirement again to coordinate this event, and Carriage Hill Farm are to be commended for all of their efforts to make the event a success.
Click the links below to see photos from this event!
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