The Percherons, Belgians and Clydesdales of the Virden Draft Horse Show made a return visit to the outdoor arena on the fairgrounds from July 31 to Aug. 2.
Prior to the first class, a moment of silence was observed in memory of Vern Anderson and Ross Joseph, both avid horsemen from the area who passed away since the event last took place in 2019.
Exhibitors included Wallace Clydesdales of Dauphin, Silver Oak Percherons from Virden, Northern Grit (Percherons) of Kola, and Johnson Belgians, a Unity, Saskatchewan entry.
“Since there isn’t many shows, we thought we’d hook the four (horse hitch) and the six twice with two different judges,” said Draft Horse Show Committee Vice-Chair Grant Gee. “In a normal year, some (exhibitors) can go to as many as 10 different shows in a summer. It’s just nice for them to see two different judges and get another opinion.”
Jim Lane of Birtle, who breeds registered Percherons and regularly shows them in Virden, officiated on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, Charlsea Fiske of Middleton, Nova Scotia took over.
“It’s a different outlook, really,” Lane said of the transition from exhibitor to judge. “In the hitches, we’re looking for everything to be uniform…no mistakes…nice headsets…good movement. I’ve done a fair bit (of judging). Not too much local, but we’re always showing (horses) up here. This year, this is the only show in Manitoba so a lot of us didn’t get ready. Some of these guys, they were out west so it worked well. They got in a couple of shows. It was nice that Virden put on a show to get something going after COVID.”
Lane said the pandemic has adversely impacted the ability to stage a horse show and put on a summer fair in general.
“It affected it badly,” he said. “All the ag societies couldn’t do anything last year or this year. Probably some of them will never get started back up. You lose your volunteers. We’ll know in another year. I thought we were going to be good this year, but it didn’t happen. The summer fairs are a good place to get the young ones going.”
Prior to coming to Virden, Zeph Lariviere and Ava Ruthven of Johnson Belgians had a stellar week at the Calgary Stampede, winning Best In Show and World Champion in the Heavy Horse Six-Horse Hitch Competition.
“We came in the final night with some young horses and they came together and drove really nice for us,” Lariviere said. “We moved a bunch of horses around in different positions here (in Virden). We wanted to try a new horse in the lead so we used him up there quite a bit. You don’t know what the judge sees or what he doesn’t see.”
Lariviere has made the annual trek to the Virden Draft Horse Show for several years. However, it is the first time he has captured such a high placing, winning all but three of the show’s 13 classes. He puts in regular effort to hone his craft.
“We keep our horses going year-round,” he said. “Usually, there’s something driving every day. My wife and kids help me quite a bit at home to get them ready for the show. That’s (getting to the show) supposed to be the fun part. Usually, we give ourselves a couple hours to get ready for the day to go in the classes.”
There’s also the travelling, until COVID-19 applied the brakes for months on end.
“We used to travel quite a bit, go down to the (United) States two or three times a year for a month or two at a time, but with COVID we haven’t gone,” he said. “I think our next outing down south is going to be in January. There are two shows at that time. Most people around here generally don’t travel too far, other than the Manitoba shows.”
“They’ve done really well and have some really good horses,” Gee said of Johnson Belgians. “He (Lariviere) is a full-time farrier and trainer. They’ll quite often go down and do a U.S. run too and place pretty well. So, it makes for tough competition but the guys did a good job to keep up. They couldn’t beat him by much but they certainly looked good out there with him.”
What made the Johnson Belgians come out on top?
“In the six, it’s his front four horses,” Gee said. “Those are as good as you’ll see anywhere in North America. They’re just young, athletic and well-trained.”
With COVID still prevalent throughout the planning process, Gee was pleased with the show, as were its exhibitors.
“A few guys got ready,” Gee said. “We (show committee) told them earlier on that anybody who got ready we’d guarantee them a place to drive horses. We were hoping for more but certainly understand why they didn’t (come). It was a pretty laid-back show. There was no hustling around trying to get things organized. It wasn’t a big, tight schedule like we usually have. We didn’t advertise it, just in case our crowd got too big. It was nice to have a few of the older folks from Virden. I know they really enjoy watching draft horses.”
Gee is hopeful that the committee can return to its regular format for the 2022 Virden Draft Horse Show. “We hope we’re back to normal with everything. We’ve had wonderful sponsors over the years from Virden. That’s why we could put on such a good show.”
One notable absence, however, will be the announcer. Ivan Strain, who resides in Boissevain, has been behind the microphone at Virden’s horse shows for the past several decades. After announcing that this would be his last year, he received a warm round of applause from those in attendance.
