03/07/2026
Hello All Draft Horse & Mule Enthusiastists,
I was just emailed on Thursday, March 5th and told that the State Fair of Virginia is going in other directions and my services for managing the Draft Horse & Mule Show were no longer needed. To quote the email,
"This show will now be combined with the Gypsy Vanner/Open Show, and one of our facility rental partners will be putting that all together this year. We will be using your past show program to insure that we include some of the classes that had good participation and were interesting to the fair going public."
Draft horses & mules have been competing at the State Fair of Virginia since it began in 1854, and everytime we were showing, there was always a nice crowd watching.
When I took over managing the show in 2013, and every year after except in 2020, I took care of everything, the fair did nothing for us, except provide the money, and I did not receive that money until I paid them for the stall rental fees, which ranged between $1500-$2000. We arrived with a turn key operation.
From the beginning, the manager has been trying to cut out the draft horses, because "we were the only horse show and horse pull that the fair gave money to." They started out giving me $7,000 for the show and pull, and I have accounted for every penny. All of the money was used for prize money. I had done a study of what the surrounding fairs paid out and tried my best to match those payouts, because owning and showing draft horses are not cheap. It takes several trips with trailers full to haul in all of the farm equipment, wagons, and carriages, plus larger trailers to carry the big horses, and this stuff is not cheap.
Then in 2021, they cut the money down to $5,000 and we had to stop the horse pull. That $2,000 didn't come close to covering the prize money for the pullers, but it did help. I applied for a grant and we were able to have a horse pull in 2024.
Why did we not come with sponsors? Unless it was a national sponsor, most of our local sponsors, which were over 3 hours away from the fair grounds, didn't want to give money because most fair goers would never use their services.
I am sad to see this day come, not because I won't be managing it, I rarely was paid for my services, but because fair spectators will no longer get to experience the grace & beauty of the different breeds of draft horses and the uniqueness of mules. Some people have never seen or touched a draft horse or mule, and this was the place they could do both.
Most draft horse and mule owners will not travel across the state to show in an open show with a few "popular" Draft or Mule classes, with very little prize money offered.
If you feel strongly about the SFVA canceling the Draft Horse & Mule Show,
contact Glenn Martin at 8049942858. If he doesn't answer, leave him a message.
