Rose Hopkins participates in Horse Progress Days with rare North American Spotted Haflingers
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
Raising horses nearly all her life, Rose Hopkins of Hillsboro participated in a national event in early July as she took part in the 27th annual Horse Progress Days in Mt. Hope, Ohio, getting to lead the parade and take part in field demonstrations.
According to horseprogressdays.com, the event is held each year “to encourage and promote the combination of animal power and the latest equipment innovations in an effort to support small scale farming and land stewardship,” and “to show draft animal power is possible, practical and profitable.”
Being included in the event is a high honor, as it is by invitation only to participate in the presentations and demonstrations. Hopkins took the over three-hour drive earlier this month with her North American Spotted Haflingers to showcase them in the event.
Hopkins, who is an associate at the Hillsboro Rural King, owns and raises the North American Spotted Haflinger (NASH) horses, which are a rare breed as there are around only 400 of the horses in the United States. The NASH Registry Founder J.P. Gantous describes the horse as having “the size, speed and agility of the paint stallion, with the disposition, beauty and endurance of the Haflinger mare. The North American Spotted Haflinger does it all with style and color.”
Hopkins first began raising her NASH horses when they were 4 years old. The horses are now 11 years old, as she told the story of how she first obtained them.
“I’ve had Haflingers for over 25 years, and now they came up with the spotted ones, and the white on the horses is chrome to me. I just like the color,” she said. “I’ve read about them in the Draft Horse Journal years ago, and I just like the looks of them. I wanted to breed those kind of horses, but we just couldn’t get them to take, so I said, ‘I’ll just go buy them.’
“I had sold a team of 62-inch regular Haflingers, and they went to Chicago. I took that money and found these spotted ones and got them. I bought each one at a different time and I trained them to be a team.
“They originated in the USA, but they are in five different countries now over in Europe. I bought mine in Ohio.”
Hopkins first got into raising horses when she was young, as she said she’s a lifelong farmer and horse owner. Eventually, she became interested in team driving, as she prefers working with the horses as she farms.
“I’ve been a farmer all my life, and (my brother and I) were farming over 1,000 acres,” Hopkins said. “We used great big equipment and big tractors, and when I got a team of Morgan horses, I decided I wanted a team to drive. I just got hooked on this team driving. I’ve done combined driving for 40 years, but there is none around here, and I’d have to travel to different states to do it.
“If I have to get on a tractor now, I’ll have my husband do it, but I can go get a team of horses and stay out there all day. I just like to do it. I love farming with horses. They have their own mind, so you never know what they are going to do. It is the challenge to train the horses and getting them to do what I want them to do that’s part of the enjoyment. It is a lot of work, but I enjoy doing that if I have horses to work with.”
Hopkins explained what it is like to train horses, including her two North American Spotted Haflingers.
“When you train horses, they were trained to drive, but I had to work with them to get them together as a team where they take off at the same time and when I say ‘whoa’ they stop at the same time,” Hopkins said. “They don’t move until I say, ‘Let’s go, boys.’ It takes a couple months working with them to get them where I want them.”
Hopkins has five horses currently. Along with her two NASH horses, she owns a Gypsy and two Spotted Draft cross horses.
“I’ve been around horses since I was 5 years old and raising horses for the past 40 years. I’ve had horses my entire life,” Hopkins said. “We used to have Spotted Draft horses, and we had the largest team in the USA of Spotted Draft horses, and my husband took them to Horse Progress for five years. My husband got hurt and we sold them, then I got another team of black-and-white Horse Progress horses. As I get older, I keep getting smaller horses.”
At Horse Progress Days on Friday, July 2 and Saturday, July 3, Hopkins and her team of horses demonstrated the manure spreaders and led the breed presentations on both days of the event.
“It is the same as the Ohio Farm Science Review, only this is horse-drawn equipment. It is all new equipment that the manufacturers have made to be used with horses. They go out and demonstrate all of the equipment. It is by invitation only, and I was invited because of the rare breed of horses,” Hopkins said. “So far I’ve never seen a team of them bigger than mine, and their barn names are Kash and Hidalgo.
“It was two days on Friday and Saturday (July 2-3), and in the morning I got to demonstrate the Conestoga manure spreader with a Pioneer forecart on the front. In the afternoons, I got to demonstrate a 10-foot hay tedder.”
Hopkins also told a story from the breed presentation, as she was the only woman teamster invited to the two-day event.
“I loved it, and it was fun. In the evening time we did the parade of breeds, and they had horses from Russia,” Hopkins said. “I was the only woman teamster there, and in the parade, that was kind of neat. I pulled the platinum sponsor wagon, and that was all the people who had donated $5,000 each to put on this event.
“They put boxes of seat cushions on there, and as I’m going around, they threw those cushions all around the crowd. There were probably 40,000 people, and when they were done throwing the cushions and introducing the sponsors, they talked about my breed of horses and who I was.
“The second time I was back in the ring on Saturday, they threw out cushions again, but the second time I went back in on Saturday night at like 7 p.m. they were throwing Frisbees off my wagon,” she continued “When I first went to the right, the wind was blowing, and the Frisbees were going right back at my horses.
“My horses never missed a step and went all around like they were supposed to. It was funny, and everyone was laughing.”
Hopkins suggests for anyone who is a fan of horses to attend the annual event.
“If anybody likes draft horses and farming with horses, that is the event to go to, to see all the new modern equipment,” she said. “Most of the manufacturers are Amish, and they’ve made it modern. It is amazing.”
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According to horseprogressdays.com, the event is held each year “to encourage and promote the combination of animal power and the latest equipment innovations in an effort to support small scale farming and land stewardship,” and “to show draft animal power is possible, practical and profitable.”
Being included in the event is a high honor, as it is by invitation only to participate in the presentations and demonstrations. Hopkins took the over three-hour drive earlier this month with her North American Spotted Haflingers to showcase them in the event.
Hopkins, who is an associate at the Hillsboro Rural King, owns and raises the North American Spotted Haflinger (NASH) horses, which are a rare breed as there are around only 400 of the horses in the United States. The NASH Registry Founder J.P. Gantous describes the horse as having “the size, speed and agility of the paint stallion, with the disposition, beauty and endurance of the Haflinger mare. The North American Spotted Haflinger does it all with style and color.”
Hopkins first began raising her NASH horses when they were 4 years old. The horses are now 11 years old, as she told the story of how she first obtained them.
“I’ve had Haflingers for over 25 years, and now they came up with the spotted ones, and the white on the horses is chrome to me. I just like the color,” she said. “I’ve read about them in the Draft Horse Journal years ago, and I just like the looks of them. I wanted to breed those kind of horses, but we just couldn’t get them to take, so I said, ‘I’ll just go buy them.’
“I had sold a team of 62-inch regular Haflingers, and they went to Chicago. I took that money and found these spotted ones and got them. I bought each one at a different time and I trained them to be a team.
“They originated in the USA, but they are in five different countries now over in Europe. I bought mine in Ohio.”
Hopkins first got into raising horses when she was young, as she said she’s a lifelong farmer and horse owner. Eventually, she became interested in team driving, as she prefers working with the horses as she farms.
“I’ve been a farmer all my life, and (my brother and I) were farming over 1,000 acres,” Hopkins said. “We used great big equipment and big tractors, and when I got a team of Morgan horses, I decided I wanted a team to drive. I just got hooked on this team driving. I’ve done combined driving for 40 years, but there is none around here, and I’d have to travel to different states to do it.
“If I have to get on a tractor now, I’ll have my husband do it, but I can go get a team of horses and stay out there all day. I just like to do it. I love farming with horses. They have their own mind, so you never know what they are going to do. It is the challenge to train the horses and getting them to do what I want them to do that’s part of the enjoyment. It is a lot of work, but I enjoy doing that if I have horses to work with.”
Hopkins explained what it is like to train horses, including her two North American Spotted Haflingers.
“When you train horses, they were trained to drive, but I had to work with them to get them together as a team where they take off at the same time and when I say ‘whoa’ they stop at the same time,” Hopkins said. “They don’t move until I say, ‘Let’s go, boys.’ It takes a couple months working with them to get them where I want them.”
Hopkins has five horses currently. Along with her two NASH horses, she owns a Gypsy and two Spotted Draft cross horses.
“I’ve been around horses since I was 5 years old and raising horses for the past 40 years. I’ve had horses my entire life,” Hopkins said. “We used to have Spotted Draft horses, and we had the largest team in the USA of Spotted Draft horses, and my husband took them to Horse Progress for five years. My husband got hurt and we sold them, then I got another team of black-and-white Horse Progress horses. As I get older, I keep getting smaller horses.”
At Horse Progress Days on Friday, July 2 and Saturday, July 3, Hopkins and her team of horses demonstrated the manure spreaders and led the breed presentations on both days of the event.
“It is the same as the Ohio Farm Science Review, only this is horse-drawn equipment. It is all new equipment that the manufacturers have made to be used with horses. They go out and demonstrate all of the equipment. It is by invitation only, and I was invited because of the rare breed of horses,” Hopkins said. “So far I’ve never seen a team of them bigger than mine, and their barn names are Kash and Hidalgo.
“It was two days on Friday and Saturday (July 2-3), and in the morning I got to demonstrate the Conestoga manure spreader with a Pioneer forecart on the front. In the afternoons, I got to demonstrate a 10-foot hay tedder.”
Hopkins also told a story from the breed presentation, as she was the only woman teamster invited to the two-day event.
“I loved it, and it was fun. In the evening time we did the parade of breeds, and they had horses from Russia,” Hopkins said. “I was the only woman teamster there, and in the parade, that was kind of neat. I pulled the platinum sponsor wagon, and that was all the people who had donated $5,000 each to put on this event.
“They put boxes of seat cushions on there, and as I’m going around, they threw those cushions all around the crowd. There were probably 40,000 people, and when they were done throwing the cushions and introducing the sponsors, they talked about my breed of horses and who I was.
“The second time I was back in the ring on Saturday, they threw out cushions again, but the second time I went back in on Saturday night at like 7 p.m. they were throwing Frisbees off my wagon,” she continued “When I first went to the right, the wind was blowing, and the Frisbees were going right back at my horses.
“My horses never missed a step and went all around like they were supposed to. It was funny, and everyone was laughing.”
Hopkins suggests for anyone who is a fan of horses to attend the annual event.
“If anybody likes draft horses and farming with horses, that is the event to go to, to see all the new modern equipment,” she said. “Most of the manufacturers are Amish, and they’ve made it modern. It is amazing.”
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