Races, Trolley Ride Gallop Into Draft Horse Show Wagon Rides Come Courtesy Of Bowman Family Donation

The gentle giants aren’t just for big kids anymore.

At the Idaho State Draft Horse International show Friday, little kids were getting into the action, riding a horse-drawn wagon around the fairgrounds and competing in a pumpkin race in the arena.

It’s all part of a new audience-friendly draft horse show.

“Mommy, I’m not holding anything and I’m not sitting down,” boasted 3-year-old Berkeley Lincicone as he stood in a trolley pulled by Crocus and Blondie, a team of Suffolk draft horses.

He jumped up and down while his mother watched from the trolley’s bench and the wagon rolled across the fairgrounds to the parking lot. The family was ducking out of the rain and escaping a walk in the mud in the canopy-covered trolley.

“High gear,” said driver Lee Holmes as the horses broke into a trot.

The North Idaho Draft Horse and Mule Association special-ordered the trolley from Shilo Wagon Works in Minnesota, purchasing it for $5,000 with money donated posthumously by Lorraine and Bill Bowman.

The Bowmans, who owned Connie’s Motor Inn, were Sandpoint tourism promoters and big supporters of the annual draft horse show. The trolley purchase was the association’s first major expenditure from the Bowman’s $50,000 donation.

Mike Bowman and his sister Teresa Blankenship were in their cowboy boots and dusters at the fairgrounds Friday, checking out the action on the Bill and Lorraine Bowman Memorial Trolley.

“I want to stay on this awhile,” 9-year-old Kyle Lincicone told his mother. She coaxed him off when they rolled up to a tent with a farrier demonstrating how to shape horse shoes.

“It’s terrific,” Blankenship said of the trolley. She guessed her parents would love it. “If they’d thought of it, they probably would have done it before.”

The decision to purchase a wagon specifically for spectators came after members of the draft horse association conducted a survey last year.

“People said, `We want to ride,”’ said Pat O’Halloran, association member.

O’Halloran and several other teamsters are donating their horses and time to pull the wagon around the fairgrounds.

Association members instituted other changes to please the crowds. On Friday, they held their first pumpkin race. Teams of children raced to load pumpkins into horse-drawn wagons in the muddy arena. The horses pulled the wagons to the other end of the arena, where more kids would unload them.

“The old-timers got into it,” O’Halloran said. “It was uplifting for everyone.”

This is the first year for draft horse barrel racing, drag racing, and blanket racing. Blanket racing involves hitching a blanket to the back of a horse and riding it around the arena.

Each show will also feature a demonstration of draft horse dressage riding, and blacksmiths, farriers, wainwrights and wheelwrights will host demonstrations outside the arena.

“We’re trying to make it more spectator-friendly,” O’Halloran said. And kid-friendly: “It’s their chance to get in the arena and share the show. And it’s a safe environment. Then they can go out and ride the trolley until they get tired.”

SCHEDULE The draft horse show runs through Sunday at the Bonner County Fairgrounds. Performances begin at noon and 6 p.m. today and 12:30 Sunday, and cost $7 for adults, or $6 for students and seniors.