Draft Horses Are The Mane Event Thousands Check Out Competitions, Breeds At Draft Horse Show

The harnesses were in place, the cart gleaming, the horse’s mane braided and combed.

“Wait - where’s your non-skid thing?” said Lawrence McGibbon.

He trotted into the barn and came back, unfolding a square of plastic mesh. Wearing top hat, gloves and wool cape, the woman driving the cart primly stood up as McGibbon slid the square under her bottom.

“There,” he said. The cart lurched toward the show ring.

Such little details mattered a lot Sunday, the final day of the 19th annual North Idaho Draft Horse International Show.

The show draws about 7,000 people a year to show and see draft mules and the largest horse breeds, including Clydesdales, Percherons, Shires, Suffolks and Belgians.

“It’s as big a crowd as we’ve ever had,” said McGibbon, the show committee chairman. There were slightly fewer horses than last year’s record 300, he said, but a few more mules. Competitors came from as far away as Minnesota, Texas and Quebec.

“This is probably the largest draft horse show in western North America,” McGibbon said. He strained up to reach a leather tie near his Clydesdale’s mane. McGibbon is 6 feet 2 inches tall.

“We love it,” said Marcella Franchelli, a Harrison rancher who came as a spectator. “The horses are just huge, and they’re so gentle for their size.”

The horses pulled carts and wagons through the show ring. Despite their size, the horses trotted through the crowd fast enough to make one older woman look concerned for her brown poodle.

The final event was heavy pulling, with the teams dragging a steel sled loaded down with weights.

People also came to shop. Artists, booksellers - even a real estate agent - pitched horse-oriented offerings.

Like a ancient used-car lot, dozens of old carts, wagons and sleds awaited buyers near the entrance.

“These are Cadillacs; can you see the C on back?” said one pitchman, before being waved away by laughing passers-by.

Ten-year-old Greta Weber leaned into a pen holding a solitary colt being raffled off.

“Come here,” she called, petting the colt’s forehead.

She turned to her mother.

“If I win, I’m going to take care of him so much he’ll be the best horse in all of Sandpoint,” she vowed.

Her mother, who seemed skeptical, bought two raffle tickets anyway.

Many of the horses do their only work at shows. But some are working horses, pulling plows and logs. Some of the horses pull feed sleds on cattle ranches during the winter.

“They get through the drifts, and you don’t have to worry about starting up that tractor,” said Charla Wilder, a Percheron breeder from Custer, Wash.

The horses aren’t cheap. Working horses start about $2,000; breeders and show horses can cost up to $10,000. As for the gear, well, a fancy harness set for a six-horse team can cost $30,000.

Like many horse owners, McGibbon keeps the expensive horse collars and bridles in boxes the size of large trunks. With their size and their carpet lining, the harness boxes are disconcertingly reminiscent of coffins.

“They keep saying that when I go, that’s what they’re going to bury me in,” McGibbon laughed.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)