Specially-bred horses from across Victoria and South Australia will be put through their paces in Edenhope this Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Edenhope Pastoral And Agricultural Society's inaugural Draught Horse Festival is aimed at giving the showgrounds more uses beyond the annual show in September.
Secretary Marcia Tustin said the event would be run between 10am and 4pm.
"I just it as a waste of opportunity when it was only used once a year," she said.
"There should be about twenty horses at the festival, and I'm hoping to get three or four hundred people through the gates."
Scottish Clydesdales, or draught horses, performed most of the heavy farm work before the advent of farm machinery in the twentieth century. Ms Tustin said the activities at the festival will reflect this past.
"We're going to do some plowing and log-pulling," she said. "We're basically going back and showing people what these horses could do."
Ms Tustin said there would also be shearing demonstrations, vintage machines, live music and market stalls.
She said people would be bringing horses from as far away as South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, Bendigo and Melbourne's Airport West for the event.
"There have been quite a few that have been around the Wimmera too," she said. "We've got a couple of locals but we seem to have more from beyond the region coming, because they don't have many things like this they can just come to."
The event will fall on the same day, and in the same town, as the 2019 Apsley Cup. Ms Tustin said this was not planned.
"The more things that are on the more people will come to the region, she said. "Casterton have got the 23rd Annual Australian Kelpie Muster between Friday and Monday, and both events will appeal to people who like horses that have come for just one of them."
A 2012 heritage study by Horsham Rural City Council noted the Wimmera was recognised as the headquarters in Victoria for draught horse breeding in the 1930s.
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox twice weekly from the Wimmera Mail-Times. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the Wimmera, sign up below.