Ayden Schafer and four-year-old Freisian mare Onyx won first place in his class during the Jr. Draft Horse Cart Show on August 21 at the Lorain County Fair, 23000 Fairgrounds Road in Wellington.
Ayden, who attends Firelands Schools, was accompanied by his father Tony when he won.
Cart shows are just another way to showcase workhorses at the fair, Ayden said.
The shows also come with different challenges, he said.
Not only must the young carriage drivers maintain control of the horse while performing on the carriage, but they must also repeat commands more frequently due to the excessive noise from the harness and wheels.
“When you’re on horseback, people can hear you much better,” Ayden said. “You have to be a lot louder.”
During the show, riders are asked to walk their horses, then switch between trotting and backing up, and finally line up to be questioned and evaluated individually by the judge.
There, participants will be asked a variety of questions, including some that test their knowledge of harness and equipment terminology, Ayden said.
“They ask you to back up, and that’s partly on your signal to the horse,” he said. “They can see and hear you up close.”
Judges also look at how the horse works, how the rider works with it, the rider’s posture and how much force is required when using commands, such as how hard to pull to make a turn, Ayden said.
The horse’s responsiveness during a show, as with many animals, is usually an indication of how much work he is being done during the off-season.
“It’s always cool to see yourself getting better every year and everyone else getting better,” Ayden said. “It’s cool to see everyone else and see how they’ve worked.”
He said he has been showing horses at the fair with his family since third grade and has placed in many shows over the years.
It’s more about the memories, Ayden said.
“This is my best memory of the whole year,” he said.
Ayden’s family purchased their first horse in 1983 and has purchased many more over the years.
During these years they have shown them in shows at the Lorain County Fair.
“I was around horses before I could walk,” Ayden said. “My parents always tied horses around me, and I think just seeing them do it made me want to do it too.”
