Families enjoy showing Haflingers
Family competition: Mother and son Jacque and Johnathan Woodward are pictured waiting in line to show their Haflingers in the outside arena at the Coshocton County Fair on Oct 7. Beacon photo by Josie Sellers
COSHOCTON – The draft horse show on Oct. 7 at the Coshocton County Fair in the outside arena was a family event for some of the contestants.
Johnathan Woodward, the 10-year-old son of Jacque Woodward, was right behind his mom in line to be judged with his horse Wiz Bang.
“It’s hard to compete against her, but I like how she has a different horse every time so one time I could win and another time I might not,” he said.
Jacque trains horse and said that Johnathan is the third generation of their family to compete in horse competitions.
“I love watching the kids and seeing their confidence with showing such a big animal and their sportsmanship,” she said. “It can get pretty competitive at times when we show together, but it’s fun.”
Ben and Sarah Hastings from Red Haw also were showing their Halflinger horses in the same event as the Woodwards. The Hastings explained that the judges look for confirmation, size, and overall movement in the Halflinger show. Their family has been showing Halflinger horses for the past 20 years. They spend their summers going all over the state showing their horses. This year, the Hastings were showing Donnie, Miles, Naveen, and Bart.
“Half of the reason we love doing this is just because of the people we show with,” said Ben. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s our hobby.”
To get the horses ready to be shown, Ben and Sarah routinely practice with the horses and feed them proper nutrition.
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