Thursday, June 28, 2007 1:14 AM CDT
National Horse Progress Days return to Arcola Amish farm
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
ARCOLA — Willis Schrock can’t afford to horse around.
The Amish farmer is serving as “teamster” for the 14th Annual Draft Horse & Mule Progress Days, which means he must recruit and keep track of the 80 or so draft horses, mules and oxen for this weekend’s national event.
“I get the horses lined out for each (piece of) equipment they want to demonstrate,” Schrock said.
For only the second time in five years, the rural Arcola farm of Vernon J. Yoder will host Horse Progress Days, where vendors of animal-powered farm equipment from all over the country will show off their wares, and the public can get a firsthand look at innovations in this traditional style of farming.
The tilling begins Friday and lasts through Saturday at Yoder’s farm northwest of Arcola. Follow U.S. Route 45 two miles north of Arcola, then travel west on Douglas County Road 400N for about two-and-a-half miles.
For more information, visit www.ruralheritage.com/progress or call Neil M. Hostetler at 543-2217 or Yoder at 268-3444.
“It’s to show people what horse-drawn machinery is available — what new horse-drawn machinery is on the market,” Yoder said.
“It’s just like the Farm Progress Show (in Decatur), except with horse-drawn machinery instead of tractors.”
According to the event’s Web site, Horse Progress Days is the only such trade show in existence. By themselves or in teams of up to a dozen, horses and mules and their owners will demonstrate such techniques as plowing, hay making and planting. They will test equipment including gang plows, haybines, sicklebar mowers and springtooth harrows.
Horse Progress Days seeks “to encourage and promote the combination of animal power and the latest in equipment innovations in an effort to support sustainable small-scale farming and land stewardship — to show draft animal power is possible, practical and affordable,” said the Web site.
The event will also include seminars on topics like “round pen” training and proper hitching of horses.
Yoder last hosted Horse Progress Days in 2002. And it’s not just about the technical aspects of horse-drawn farming, he said.
“It’s a fun event,” said Yoder. “Educational, but a lot of fun.”
Schrock said Horse Progress Days also offers a unique opportunity to see wide varieties of draft horses in action. Featured breeds include Belgians, Percherons, Suffolks, Spotted Drafts, Haflingers, American Creams, Fjords, Morgans and Shires, as well as some Clydesdales. There will even be a few oxen on site.
The event will feature special appearances by several six-horse “hitches,” especially the popular Texas Thunder team from Mount Pleasant, Texas, which will be performing at noon and 5:30 p.m. Friday and noon and 4 p.m. Saturday.
A Clydesdale hitch from Armada, Mich., and a Belgian hitch from Winchester, Ind., will go to work at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
Both Yoder and Schrock said they hope Horse Progress Days also will cultivate relationships between the Amish and others. While most of the spectators are not part of the Amish community, a majority of the horse and mule owners are.
Yoder said it is an honor “to have this many people on your place.”
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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