The Big Stage

My wife and I took a day-trip to the Percheron World Congress in DesMoines, Iowa this past week.

That's the "Big Stage" for Percheron horses.


I took some pics and videos of the Six-horse gelding hitches.

This picture above was shot a few seconds before the one below.













It kind of gives a time-lapse effect. You can see that I got as close to the action as possible.

The view from up high is better for the overall picture... but I like to be right there to feel the thunder of all those huge hooves.

 The photo above shows a few of the six-horse hitches being looked over by the judge. Three to four teams came in the area at a time. There were seventeen six-horse hitches in this gelding division. In the photo below you will see the top four teams. At one point they brought all seventeen hitches into the arena for the final awards. That is a whole lot of horsepower all standing in close proximity. It may look simple to an outsider, but if just one horse blows up things could get wild in a hurry.

My two favorite hitches came in 1st and 3rd. I really loved these six geldings in the video below. They were perfectly matched and super calm.

 

 I told my wife during the competition that the Young Living Hitch was going to win. That's the horses in the video below. She can verify that I called it!!! LOL. The Young Living Hitch did not make one mistake that I could see, and they were so powerful and lively. They won, and totally deserve to be World Champs!

By the way, a group of around fifteen-or-so Amish folks was sitting behind us. The Amish in my area would not take in such an event but other Amish groups are more lenient. I'm gonna guess that those Amish either had relatives showing horses or had raised some of the horses in the show.