Horse Power Day battles with rainy weather

Archive for Saturday, June 12, 2010

Mark Patterson, at right, demonstrates lassoing to Cornelius Payne, of Leavenworth, during the Horse Power Day and Hoedown event at the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame.

By Melissa Treolo

June 12, 2010

“Rain, rain go away” was certainly a phrase running through most of the coordinators’ minds during Saturday’s Horse Power Day and Hoedown event at the National Agricultural Hall of Fame.

But the few brave event attendees, who showed up bearing rain ponchos or umbrellas, didn’t seem to mind the dismal weather too much.

“He loves tractors and horses. He calls them ‘neigh-neighs,” Wendy Wilson, from Overland Park, said of her 2-year-old grandson John, who spent the early afternoon grinding corn, feeding chickens and petting the horses that were on-site as part of the event. “It’s just rain. We thought we’d catch (the event) in between drops … we promised our grandson that he could see horses and tractors, and this is a wonderful place.”

The Horse Power Day, a fundraiser for the Ag hall of Fame, featured a visit from the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Posse, horse ploughing demonstrations and horse shoeing demonstrations. The early afternoon rain, however, canceled several of the originally-scheduled events, including the draft horse pull, which had to be canceled as the ground had become too muddy, and all of the 4-H demonstrations.

Mollie Hoge, 10-year-old member of the Reno Bobwhites 4-H Club, had expected to give a demonstration about the digestive system of a horse. She said she had planned to illustrate where the digestive organs of a horse are located in its body by painting them on her own horse, named Red.

Though Hoge said she was disappointed at not being able to present, she enjoyed herself all the same. Some of her favorite parts of the event, she said, were the horse shoe demonstrations and a roping demonstration where she had gotten to try her hand at lassoing a chair.

“(I’ve) really enjoyed everything pretty much,” she said.

Meanwhile, event coordinator Cathi Hahner said she was disappointed at the low turnout due to the rain.

“Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do about the weather,” Hahner said.

Still, at around 1 p.m., she said she was hopeful the rain would let up and more people would come out. She said she expected many more to show up for the old-fashioned hoedown scheduled for 4 p.m. later that afternoon.

• Find out how the hoedown went and more details about the Horse Power Day at the Ag Hall of Fame in the June 17 issue of the Chieftain.