Rural Heritage October/November 2025

Wound Care, His Saving Grains, the Salve Making and the Candle Making Demonstrations. At the International Meeting, Dale Stoltzfus greeted visitors from Belgium, Burkina Faso, Canada, France, Germany and Switzerland. They spoke about their experience with horses in their native countries. The audience got to talk with them at the end of the meeting and afterwards. The Children’s Area was filled with fun and exciting things for the little ones to enjoy: a huge sandbox perfect for digging, a swing set and a petting zoo with miniature horses, a mama pig with her eight suckling piglets, a goat with her kids and a foal. For the children who wanted to travel, there were two barrel trains pulled by miniature horses. If you wanted something, you could probably find it at this year’s HPD where 178 vendors operated 257 booths, some vendors having more than one booth. Many dealers offered discounts on their equipment so they didn’t have to truck it back home. Each day began with the Pony Express that started right here in Clare. For the 2012 HPD, the planners wanted to do something with the children that would involve horses or ponies. After all, these children are the teamsters of tomorrow. They came up with the idea of a Pony Express — the children would drive their pony carts around the arena to demonstrate their horsemanship. And if the carts were filled with siblings, so much the better. The event was a big hit and became so popular that it’s been on the “Don’t Miss” list every year since 2012. Andrew Raber of Hastings, Mich., owned most of the animals in the petting zoo. When I asked what breed the ponies were that pulled the barrel train, he told me they were miniature horses and that they were registered. Sure enough, the American Miniature Horse Registry, created by the American Shetland Pony Club in the 1970s, registers as many as 10,000 horses each year and hosts an annual national show. Add another breed to the growing list that you can see at HPD. George and Luci Gawinowski, who came from France and now live in Kentucky, traveled to HPD to demonstrate the Kassine. This is an implement developed by a nonprofit organization in France to help transition poor farmers from handwork to animal traction. The implement can be drawn by any draft animal — horse, donkey, mule or oxen, though horses are rarely used in agriculture in developing

countries. By adding various pieces suitable for your farm’s particular needs, the Kassine can be used for all types of tillage and cultivation. As their logo says: “ The Kassine, one man, one animal.” Ingrid and Richard Fountaine came from Oak Ridge,NJ.They have two Percherons,two Haflingers, a Welsh Pony and a Pony of the Americas. He is a farrier, and, when he was a teenager, he used to drive a carriage around Central Park in New York City. Now, in addition to his farrier work, he trailers Central Park carriage horses to the Mennonites in Lancaster, Penn. Ingrid said that each horse gets five weeks off. It’s gratifying to hear that these horses get “vacations.” A tour of the parking lot revealed license plates from 26 states. They came from as far away as California, Texas, Florida, New York and Maine. And there were many, many plates from Ontario. At our motel in Mt. Pleasant, about 30 miles south of Clare, there was a bus from Milverton, Ontario, with 43 passengers, all from the same family. For a Christmas present, Grandma and Grandpa gave the family two days admission to HPD, the motel rooms, the bus trip and the driver. What a gift! I noticed one of the crowd control riders on an unusual horse. When I asked what breed it was, he said it was a Leopard Appaloosa. Add another type of horse to the growing list that you can see at HPD. At the Parade of Breeds, all 43 of the Pony Express participants drove around the arena, followed by Luci and Georges Gawinowski brought their Kassine implement to the event with all its attachments.

October/November 2025

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