Published: September 24, 2009 06:50 am      

Seiling event features draft horses

This Saturday, Larry Daugherty will “show people what draft horses can do.”

Daugherty, who lives in the Seiling area, has owned draft horses for 20 years and has been showing them off through an annual Draft Horse and Mule Field Day for approximately 17 of those years.

He said he likes draft horses because while they are “big” animals, “they’re calm, usually pretty easy to work with and a lot of fun.”

During this year’s Draft Horse and Mule Field Day, Daugherty’s six draft horses will show off their talents through a variety of activities designed to demonstrate the important role that horses played in the lives of the pioneers who settled this area.

“We’ll give wagon rides, plow and disc, do a log pull and mow hay,” Daugherty said, noting “we use all the old horse-drawn machinery.”

Visitors to the field day will also experience pioneer life through a variety of other activities such as grinding corn and watching blacksmithing and rope making demonstrations, he said.

They can even get a taste of old-fashioned food by enjoying a chuck wagon breakfast, Daugherty said.

Then for lunch, he said visitors can enjoy tasting recipes prepared for the Dutch Oven Cook-off. For desert, they can sample entries in the homemade ice cream contest, he said.

While most of the field day activities are free, there is a charge for the meals, Daugherty said. The breakfast is by donation only and the proceeds will go to help support the old Seiling Flour Mill, he said. Then a small fee will be charged to taste the cooking contest entries, the money from which will be used as prize money for the winning cooks, he said.

Besides his basic enjoyment of draft horses, Daugherty said he sponsors the annual Field Day because it provides a sort of living history.

“All of our ancestors at one time or another came here in a covered wagon or on horseback,” he said.

“Kids need to know what went on before TV and cell phones,” Daugherty said. “So they can see how much civilization has improved in the last 100 years.”

The Daugherty Draft Horse and Mule Field Day will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Flying ‘W’ Arena, which is located a quarter of a mile east of Seiling on Indian Road.

In addition to just coming out and enjoying Saturday’s activities, Daugherty said area citizens are invited to participate in the Dutch oven cooking contest and the homemade ice cream contest.

“It’s not too late,” he said, noting that interested persons can “just show up” to participate.

But for more information about the contests, contact Tandy Armstrong at (580) 922-4988.

Daugherty noted that the Field Day continues to be a popular event.

“We had 350 people come the year before last,” he said. “Last year, it rained all day but we still had 150 and some in the rain.”