The Harness Horse Youth Foundation/Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association’s Ohio Grand Tour 2019, which will take place over the course of ten days, kicked off on Monday, June 3 at the Crawford County Fairgrounds.

Fair official David Staats welcomed the small entourage with their six Trottingbreds and did a fine job of hosting HHYF director Ellen Taylor’s crew and their guests as he had the stalls and track ready and in tip-top shape.

The morning’s activities included hands-on demonstrations with question and answer sessions about horse anatomy, temperament, care, and equipment which was all very informative and entertaining.

As one older observer said: “I’ve been around horses for 50 years and I didn’t know that!”

With a break for lunch the kids and their instructors Hanna and Kate then got the animals ready to jog. As they shared the specially-built two seat jogcart with either David or Bob, both licensed Standardbred trainers, they took a five-minute lap around the half-mile track, and really enjoyed being out in the fresh air.

When they finished rubbing the horses down and put away with a well-earned flake of hay and fresh water, the youngsters were treated to a virtual reality headset experience of driving in a race. It was just like being behind a fast pacer in the middle of eight other horses as they went a mile in 1:55. The only thing was that you can’t say ‘oh my,’ ‘wow,’ or ‘oh boy’ when you’re in a real race as that kind of ‘distracts’ the other drivers, especially if one yells ‘there’s a horse right behind me!’

Everyone had a good laugh.

Before anyone realized it, the day was over and we started packing up.

Plaudits to Bucyrus and the Crawford County Fairgrounds and appreciative ‘thank you’ for having us and we’re already looking forward to next year. Now on to more of ‘The Ohio Country’ and Van Wert on Friday, June 7.

(Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association)