A medley of equine events will take place over the Thanksgiving weekend at the Erin Fall Fair.
Oct. 9 will feature a special performance of the Canadian Cowgirls, an all-horse parade and commemorative mile, in addition to the regular equine events going on all weekend.
The Canadian Cowgirls, who have performed at the Erin Fall Fair in the past, will be back this year to lead Monday’s equine events.
“We’ve had them before at the fair, but we’re having them especially this year to promote and commemorate Canada’s 150th,” explained Bridget Ryan of Equine Erin.
The performance will be followed by an all-breed heritage horse parade.
“We want, within reason, to get as many breeds as we can from the region and most of those breeds will be tied into something in the equine tent,” explained Ryan.
Closing the Monday schedule is the commemorative mile, a friendly competition between many horse breeds to celebrate the 250th year of horse racing in Canada.
Erin will be one of the many racetracks and fairs that will celebrate this milestone with the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
“They’re going to try and do a couple of miles, using all different disciplines of horses,” said Stacie Roberts, hall of fame anniversary coordinator.
“We’ve also wanted to go back to the fairs and the grassroots of where horse racing took place,” she said.
“Before these modern-day racetracks of today, there was a lot of racing done at these fairs and so, what the fairs are doing, is they’re digging up their history, their horse racing history and putting on displays.”
The Monday event is part of a larger equine-focus during the fair.
“Our goal is there’s something going on in that ring every minute,” said David MacDonald, equine tent coordinator.
“It’s a continual extravaganza of activity.”
The equine tent has grown each year since its inception in 2010. Last year over 14,000 people passed through the tent.
“It was established in 2010 to celebrate Erin fair’s 160th anniversary and it was going to be a one-year initiative and we were hoping to bring the RCMP musical ride, but … we couldn’t get it that year,” said Ryan.
“So we went forward with the equine tent and it was such a success at the fair and it’s been established as one of the key cornerstones.”
MacDonald said the tent aims “to educate the people in what’s available in the equine arena. It’s not just horse racing, it’s not just jumping.”
Ryan added the tent displays breeds from across the industry.
“The biggest thing that the fair promotes is agriculture education and awareness so, we’re amalgamating more urban people into a rural environment,” she said.
“So what we are hoping to do with agri-education to introduce people to animals and lifestyle.”
Other equine events
Other equine events happening at the fair include shows featuring heavy horses, Haflingers, ponies, welsh ponies, sport ponies and gaited horses, as well as heavy horse pulls, Ontario barrel racing and hunter/jumper shows.
Entries into the all-breed horse parade and commemorative mile are being accepted until Oct. 1.
Interested parties can contact Bridget Ryan at 519-216-4562 or David MacDonald at 905-873-3213.
