Rural Heritage October/November 2025

International Meeting Horse Progress Days 2025

Clement from France, an older man, has two draft horses that he bought and then walked 25 miles to home. He has logged for firewood with his horses for 31 years. George and Luci Gawinowski, formerly from France but now living in Kentucky, were at HPD to demonstrate a piece of draft-powered equipment with a number of additional pieces that could be used to cultivate, plow, disc, weed and harrow. All with one piece of equipment! This was developed by Prommata in France and would be ideal for African countries that are trying to transition from handwork to animal traction and cannot afford multiple pieces of equipment. The Gawinowskis are currently manufacturing the implement under the company name Heritage Manufacturing of Annville, Ky. From Burkina Faso came Kinami and Noelie Sourabje. They are Mennonites. He is a lawyer by trade, and she works for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). They are very interested in how to farm environmentally. Their goal is to improve crops and to transition from handwork to animal traction. Kinami said there are 54 countries in Africa, and the people speak 6,000 languages. Women still carry large jugs of water on their heads. Dale invited people after the meeting to see the new kind of wooden hame for donkeys that Bob Erickson from Wisconsin had invented. Few people use horses for farming in Africa. They’re too expensive. The draft animals of choice are donkeys and oxen. Dale asked Wayne Wengerd to say a few words. Wayne welcomed all the International guests. He never thought that HPD would come to this. He told of a visitor to HPD in Illinois years ago who spent the night in a barn because no one had invited him to their home. What would it be like to do that? It motivated him to start the International Meeting. He said, “We Amish tend to take for granted all the things that we grew up with, but they may be new to foreign visitors.” Addressing the audience, he urged them to talk with these foreign guests, invite them to your home and to church. Seek opportunities to extend hospitality. They are people just like us. They’re not rich. They’re just like us.

by Mary Ann Sherman D ale Stoltzfus hosted the International Meeting of foreign guests at the 2025 Horse Progress Days (HPD). Visitors came from Belgium, Burkina Faso, Canada, France, Germany and Switzerland. He said that Horse Progress Days wanted to recognize the time, money and effort these people from other countries had expended to get here, let the public hear from them and get a chance to meet and talk with them. The idea of an International Meeting started long ago in Indiana in Floyd Bontrager’s kitchen. The idea sprang from hearing other languages spoken on the grounds of HPD. It started out small, just a get together of the international visitors. But then the HPD planners got the idea of opening up the meeting to the public, and it has grown ever since then. Dale asked for volunteers to speak. The first was Jurgen Talfen, a Belgian horseman interested in the Belgian breed. He had been to Starke Pferde, the European equivalent of HPD. He said that he appreciated that the Amish still work with horses, especially Belgians, and don’t just show them. Bruno Vantomme from Belgium, the farmer son of a lawyer, said that all the equipment that they use comes from the United States. There are no draft powered equipment manufacturers in Europe. Reiner Wiesotski is the unofficial ambassador to HPD. He comes to the U.S. several times a year to buy draft-powered equipment to take back to Europe. Every year, he also comes to HPD with his son Linus and a group of guests from Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland. He said he was “blessed to be mostly every year at HPD. It is important to meet new friends and continue relationships.” Klaus from Germany has worked on a big farm all his life. He has 200 ducks and chickens, 10 beef cattle, 10 pigs and two Cold-Blooded horses. This was his third time at HPD. Burt from Germany has three Schwarzwalder, or Black Forest, mares. He has a hobby farm and has purchased an I&J mower, a Lancaster spreader and an Italian tedder.

Rural Heritage

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