Rural Heritage August/September 2025

Ralph Rice

could be better than hosting ecents that attract new members and encourage more gatherings where teamsters meet with their teams? We feature a number of these events in this issue. ° ° ° ° H orse Progress Days always takes place right around the time we should be starting to put the Aug/Sep issue to bed. This year's event was in Clare, Mich., July 4–5. The Clare event is my favorite of the six rotating locations. It’s the smallest, both in terms of attendance and square miles, giving those of us there better access to the equipment demonstrations. The bigger events, like those held in Ohio and Pennsylvania, have a lot more vendor booths that offer products and services mostly unrelated to farming and homesteading. There were many new implements with innovative features. We're showing some of those in this issue. We'll also have an RFD-TV episode where Ralph RIce takes us on a tour of some of them. Of course, the October/November issue will have a complete roundup of the equipment and many articles about the workshops and seminars by our own intrepid Mary Ann Sherman. ° ° ° ° W e’ve been on the road a lot lately, with a lot more trips coming up. After spending four days backpacking with my nephew, Boyd, in Wisconsin, I'll be heading to the Wisconsin State Fair to talk about my my mom and dad,

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W e’ve been to a number of farm team contests over the past couple of months where teamsters compete with another in a variety of timed, skilled events simulating work done on the farm: skidding logs; feeding livestock; stopping and opening gates; cultivating; parallel parking; backing to a dock, etc. The Iowa Farm Team Challenge holds a number of events throughout the summer where contestants accumulate points and a high point prize is awarded at the end. So far this year, they've held events at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Iowa Falls, Manning and New Virginia — all in Iowa. Most of the teams at these events are well broke, having performed daily chores and fieldwork for years at home. Once they arrive at a contest, however, the slow and deliberate walk they usually use on the farm gives way to a more energetic pace in the competition. Crowds enjoy watching the teams compete and the contestants take the competition seriously while maintaining good-natured rivalries. From everything the teamsters tell me, the teams are not adversely affected by exercise. Detractors might consider the competition to be reckless, risking injury and causing bad habits with their horses. Perhaps. But one thing I am sure of, is the events bring young people to the table. When most of us are lamenting the shrinking of draft horse clubs, what

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