Heavy horses coming to town

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This article was published 15/07/2023 (795 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hundreds of heavy horses will fill the Keystone Centre next week for the 2023 World Clydesdale Show, where spectators can watch five days of the draft horses in various competitions.

“The local crowd in Brandon, they always seem to really enjoy the heavy horses at the Winter Fair, and these are full days of that,” Charity Thevenot, secretary of the World Clydesdale Show, told the Sun.

The show, which runs from July 19-23, features the draft horses in hitching classes and costume classes to jumping and dressage competitions.

Next week will be the first time Brandon will be hosting the show — in fact, it will be the first time the show has come to Western Canada. It was last held in Scotland, and Wisconsin and Ontario in previous years. Thevenot said that it was a dream of her and her sister, show co-chair Britney Martin, to have the event in Manitoba. The sisters got the support of the Manitoba Clydesdale Club as well as the Clydesdale Horse Association of Canada, and a committee was formed to begin the planning for hosting the show.

Thevenot breeds Clydesdales at Boulder Bluff Clydesdales, a horse farm in Strathclair. She said that the farm has their horses in many classes, from halter classes to the six-horse hitch class. Thevenot said that the competition helps to show off the versatility of the Clydesdale breed, with new riding classes that demonstrate how the horses can do more than just pull a cart.

“Clydesdales are becoming a more popular riding horse,” Thevenot said, adding that the breed is a good option for people who want a family horse or a horse to ride for pleasure. She said that Clydesdales are quick learners that are easy to handle.

“Clydesdales have for a long time been called gentle giants,” she said.

Spectators can look forward to the gentle giants competing in costume classes to dressage and barrel racing next week. The show will also host vendors as well as activities for kids, including inviting kids down to the area to ride stick horses in between classes. While kids show off their riding skills, donations will be collected for the Westman Dreams for Kids Foundation.

Meanwhile, another international competition will simultaneously run alongside the Clydesdale Show next week — the World Heavy Horseshoeing Championship. The event which also previously took place in Scotland when the Clydesdale Show was hosted there in 2022, will join the show in Brandon.

The competition is a fast-paced, timed event, where teams of farriers get a chance to show off their craft and get judges’ feedback on their skills.

Spectators will see sparks fly during the live horseshoeing competition, which requires teams to create horseshoes using metal and fire and fit them to the horse’s feet to meet the judges’ standard.

“Part of the test is to do really good work, but in a time limit,” Jonathan Greene, an organizer of the Championship and a former competitor in the 2022 competition in Scotland, told the Sun. Greene has been a farrier in the Winnipeg area for more than 30 years.

He said that most teams competing this year are from North America, but that the judges are from Scotland and the U.S. While Greene is busy helping run the event, he won’t be competing this year, but his son and son-in-law will be competing against each other.

“That’ll be a fun little competition there — a friendly rivalry between the brother in laws,” he said.

Many of the horses for the competition will be Clydesdales in keeping with the week’s theme, but some other draft horses will be used as it was important to find the quietest horses to use, given the chaos of a competition, Greene said.

Greene said spectators can enjoy the fast-paced nature of the competition as well as the sparks and fire that are part of the live shoeing event.

Jared McKenzie, the director of marketing and ticketing for the Keystone Centre, said that the centre will be hosting 350 to 400 horses next week. He said that while the Keystone has had experience hosting large-scale horse shows, he said that heavy horses are always the most popular of any horse show that the facility hosts.

“Everybody loves heavy horses,” he said.

Tickets to the show can be purchased online or at the door. Kids 15 and under are free. Admission is free to everyone on July 19.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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