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Draft horses gee and haw at Champoeg |
Oregon Draft Horse Breeders Association holds its
annual exhibition and competition Saturday |
By Amanda
Newman, Newberg Graphic intern
E-mail Amanda at
anewman@eaglenewspapers.com
|
A
dozen two-horse teams, driven by men and women dressed in period
clothing, plow a country field. Nearby, a group of blacksmiths ply
their trade, shaping metal at hot forges.
While this scene would have been common a hundred years ago, it
actually took place last weekend at the Oregon Draft Horse Breeders
Association’s 41st annual draft horse plowing exhibition and
competition.
The event, hosted by the Friends of Historic Champoeg, took place
in Champoeg State Heritage Area Saturday and Sunday and featured the
Fort Vancouver Blacksmiths.
Competitors were
judged on how well the ground was turned, how straight and even the
furrow was, and the amount of grass and weeds in the furrow,
according to Joe Brown, president of the Oregon Draft Horse Breeders
Association.
Brown, who “grew up plowing, got away from it and (has been) back
in it for 12 years,” cited history as the main reason for the
event’s importance.
“This is where we came from,” Brown said. “We’re getting more
urbanized all the time, and ... it’s important for people to know
where their (food) products come from. You go back 70 years and
everybody was doing it with horses, and I think it is important to
remember.”
“We try to get everyone to dress in the time of the early 19th
century,” he continued. “When we’re farming with horses, we look
like we’re farming with horses.”
Brown explained that his association plowed the 6-acre field
Saturday, “worked it down” Sunday, will seed it in oats throughout
the week and cut, rake and bail in early July. All this will be done
using horse teams.
“A tractor could do this in a couple hours,” Brown said of the work
down Saturday and Sunday by several teams. “It gives people an idea
of the struggles (farmers) went through.”
The exhibition, which began in McMinnville in 1967 and is held each
year during the first weekend of May, has been held for the past
several years at Portland Community College’s Rock Creek campus,
sponsored by the Washington County Historical Society and Museum.
“We started out as a competition, then we became just an
exhibition,” Brown explained. “We wanted to move back to a
competition again.”
“This ground here is a lot better than Rock Creek,” he continued.
“And the big reason we (changed location) was we wanted to tie into
the history — and when you talk Oregon history, you can’t not talk
Champoeg.”
The event coincided with Champoeg’s 106th annual Founders Day
celebration, commemorating the anniversary of the historic vote to
establish the first provisional American government on the Pacific
Coast.
Marie Van Patten, a Champoeg ranger and volunteer member of the
Friends of Historic Champoeg board of directors, expressed
appreciation that the two events occurred at the same time.
“It added an additional element of living history (to the celebration),”
she said.
“The (Oregon Draft Horse Breeders Association) already had a
relationship with us because they’ve been plowing that section of
land for many years,” Van Patten continued. “And we were thrilled
(to have them), because we get that many more visitors to the park.”
Brown said 200 to 400 people attended Saturday’s competition, which
featured 26 teams competing in four different categories: juniors
(under 17), novice (never competed), ladies and open class. Lisa
Hubbe was named this year’s “Supreme Plowwoman.” |
|
From
May 9, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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