WALTON - Big horses - draft breeds, including Clydesdales, Percherons, Shires, Belgians and more, will be featured, as usual, at the 135th annual Delaware County Fair.
There is a slight change in exhibits this year, according to superintendent JoAnne Perry, who has led the department for 10 years.
Fair favorite Joe Mulligan and his six-horse team will not be at the fair this year. Mulligan, who annually offered daily demonstrations with his Percherons, died earlier this year.
Mulligan would arrive at the fair on Sunday and leave on Thursday, conducting demonstrations for crowds about what the horses could do, how they behave, how to connect a hitch and harness and more. Before the Covid pandemic, Perry said, Mulligan conducted a drawing to select a fairgoer to ride on his six horse hitch.
The display team has been coming to the fair for over 40 years, Perry said. It is anticipated, Perry said, that a Mulligan family member will exhibit a smaller team in a hitch class, continuing the family tradition.
Perry and her daughter, Lindsay Atkinson, begin planning and organizing the draft horse show and classes in January in order to be ready by August. They are unsure, they said, how many entries there will be this year for a variety of reasons. “The old-timers that had draft horses are getting out of it or dying off and the young people can’t afford it or don’t have interest,” Perry said.
It is costly to own horses of any breed, Perry said, but draft horses in particular, defined by their enormous size sometimes weighing 2,300 pounds, eat a lot - a bale of hay per day, not including grain. Many horse owners also grow and harvest their own hay, and haying season can also impact how many exhibitors there will be at the fair.
Draft breeds are distinguished by their height, measured in “hands” - averaging between 16.2 and 17 hands - short necks, square heads, broad backs and powerful hindquarters.
With the cost of diesel fuel and gasoline this year, Perry said many potential exhibitors are weighing the increased expense of hauling their horses to Walton. Most exhibitors, she said, do not reside in Delaware County and travel via tractor trailer. “Coming over the mountains into Walton is going to cost them,” she said.
When she first took over as department superintendent, following in the footsteps of her husband Don, there were between 75 and 100 exhibitors annually. Now, she said, the department averages between 25 and 30. “There are just not many draft horses around anymore,” she said.
She is hopeful, however, that this year’s fair will be well attended by exhibitors, but most do not preregister so she will not know the number of competitors until the night before or the morning of, Monday’s show.
Halter classes start at 10 a.m. in the horse ring at the back of the fairgrounds. The popular competition will result in a “Supreme” champion award.
Fairgoers can expect to see a six-team hitch of Haflingers, a draft pony breed, Perry said. The team, consisting of three rows of two horses, hitched together, will compete and be judged on the driver’s ability to control all six horses, working from verbal commands according to a judge’s direction.
The driver, in a four-wheeled open wagon, will have to walk, stop and stand, trot, reverse and perform a figure eight through the middle of the show ring. The competition does require skill and training - for both horse and driver.
“If the crowd is whistling or cheering or clapping, it could distract the horses,” Perry said. “The horses have to be able to hear their driver.” Each class - or competition - takes approximately 10 - 15 minutes, Perry said.
Featured this year will be the Jack Mulligan Memorial Award presented to an exhibitor at day’s end.
Exhibitors will also have the chance to display this work breed’s ability under saddle or bareback in the “ride a draft” competition which will conclude this year’s show.
The draft horse show is Monday, Aug. 15, and begins at 10 a.m.
