Winter Blues Returns
While Earth Valley Saddle Club hosted the Winter Blues Draft Horse Challenge on Valentine’s Day 2026. Draft horses are any horse that pulls something. This could include wagons, stoneboats, logs, plows, mowers, manure spreaders and more. Sizes of Draft horses range from the mini pony to the largest of all horses. WEVSC had Belgians, Clydesdales, Percherons, Fjords, Halflingers, quarter-crosses, and a variety of ponies present at this event. Drivers ranged in age from nine years old to around seventy years young.
Photographer Michelle Rudland said about the event, “I wonderful thing about the WEVSC and the Draft Horse Community in general is that they work so hard at passing down knowledge and experience to our youth. From the ground up, these wonderful people educate and help girls and boys learn about and fall in love with the big loveable draft horses. I was lucky and grew up working alongside my parents with draft horses and I have always taken that wonderful experience for granted. Not everyone has that opportunity. The WEVSC and other Draft Horse organizations work hard at preserving the joy of working with these amazing gentle giants and teaching some of our interested youth about them and how to properly handle and drive them. It’s a group effort sourced out of a love for this lifestyle. Well done everyone! It brings me so much joy to capture it and yes, occasionally get to drive. It is a blessing from above to be involved in all of this!”
This event is free for participants and spectators. WEVSC’s next Draft Horse Challenge will be held in Watford City in cooperation with the McKenzie County Ag Expo on March 14. Then they head to the WEVSC Rodeo Grounds on June 28 and finish the series in early October.
Photographer credit to Michelle Rudland, About You Photography, auphoto.net.