Plowing match and a dream

LONDON, Ohio – An added feature last year to the Farm Science Review in London, Ohio, was the state draft horse plowing match.
The plowing match proved to be a success and was brought back again this year.
Winners compete. With more than three dozen regional statewide plowing match winners competing for the state title, spectators got a chance to see the best plowmen demonstrate their skills with a variety of plows drawn by two, three, four and even eight horse hitches.
The winner, Kurt Shroyer of Botkins, Ohio, will represent Ohio in the National Draft Horse Plowing Match next year at Carriage Hill Farm in Dayton, Ohio.
Cousins. Also working like horses behind the scenes to put this show together are cousins Dean and Gary Hopkins. Dean and Gary have recruited as fine a support team as you will find anywhere.
Their dream is a national draft horse and mule plowing match next year.
Still recovering from a surgery on his heart’s arteries, Dean was off to South Carolina immediately after this match to organize representation from the Southern states in next year’s national match at Dayton. They are also working the other points of the compass
A first. To the best knowledge of everybody they have talked with, there has never been a national draft horse and mule plowing match and this should be a first.
With the effort these people are putting into next year’s national match, it’s going to be one of the major draft horse and mule events of the year.