Real horsepower

Have you ever had the opportunity to sit in the front row on the edge of an arena at a draft horse show and feel the earth shudder beneath you and the wind whip your face as a hitch of six gleaming Percherons whisks by? There's no other feeling quite like it. It gets in your blood, makes you sit on the edge of your seat and lean forward so you won't miss a thing.

The World Percheron Congress was held in Des Moines, Iowa a couple weeks ago at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and we got to go to the last three nights. What a sight! Over 800 Percherons were there. Blacks. Dapples. Grays. Large hitches and small. The fairgrounds were alive with horses being led and driven from one class to another. The barns were teeming with horses from all over: Iowa, Ohio, Maine, and California to name a few, and even several places in Canada.

There was so much to take in! We found seats in the Jacobsen Exhibition Center and hunkered down for a great show each night.

Three nights in a row the 16 six-horse hitches of mares and 17 six-horse hitches of geldings competed - and the last night the overall winner of each was announced.

The crowd grew larger each night and filled the arena. When a crowd-favorite hitch would pass by each section, the applause would swell and the people would come to their feet. It felt like watching a well-orchestrated wave in slow motion.

Even Iowa Public Television was there. This was too large an event not to miss! Be sure to watch IPTV Nov. 28 and Nov. 30 when highlights from the show will be broadcast. But - just because I like you, you can read all about it here first :)

During the day, other competitions were held from halter to the field competitions. The field competition champions were awarded Saturday night while the arena was being set up for the feed race. 

In the feed race, teams of Percherons pulled breaking sleds through a course and the driver and helper had to pick up a stack of straw bales one spot and place them in pairs onto other spots all the while racing against another team and the clock.

When it was all said and done, this pair took a moment to rest and created quite the sight.

Seeing 17 hitches all in the arena at the same time was incredible. 102 horses in all.

A special costume class lightened the moment between the six-horse hitch classes and the eight-horse hitch class. "Lady Gaga" ended up winning. We were rooting for the Grim Reaper - a really incredible entry with a team of black Percherons pulling a hearse from the 1800s on loan from Living History Farms. The group was reenacting the funeral procession of a famous horse thief. Accompanying the Grim Reaper on the hearse were the thief's mother and widow. Walking behind were the priest and two nuns.

The last class of the night was well worth the wait - the eight-horse hitches! This was our favorite part of the whole week.

We're hoping the World Percheron Congress with come back to Des Moines again in a few years. Seeing Percherons of this calibre so close to home was incredible. We can't wait to see it again! In the meantime, Jamie says he'd really like to get a team of Percherons. We're still discussing whether blacks or dapples. I say dapples. Jamie wants blacks. As we were walking to the car after the last night, Jamie suggested perhaps we get both. I just smiled. We'll have to see.