Visitors flocked to Larned’s Santa Fe Trail Center in nearly summer-like temperatures Saturday to enjoy some good old-fashioned historical fun for the first day of the museum’s two-day 21st Annual Tired Iron Show.
One featured presentation offered a peek into old-fashioned farming.
Howard Myers, Overbrook, used to farm but has opted for something a little more old-fashioned. As a member of the Kansas Draft Horse and Mule Association, he travels the state to give horse-drawn plowing demonstrations to whoever asks for them.
On Saturday, Myers, his team and his crew were west of the Santa Fe Trail Center grounds, doing what they do, for the Tired Iron Show. He is a regular at the Goessel Threshing Days and Yoder Heritage Days events, but this weekend was his first time in Larned.
“I’ve been doing this for about 11 years,” Myers said. “Possessed is a good way of putting it.
I just loved watching those big horses work. I came across a demonstration at a show one time, and was just amazed. I knew then that I had to get a team.”
Myers’ first team wasn’t really large enough to handle the job, however. “They didn’t work out worth a darn,” he said. “A good man gave me some advice to sell those before somebody got hurt, and I did.
“By the grace of God, I came across these two, and they changed my life.
It takes a good deal of knowledge and communication – verbal and non-verbal – to ride a horse-drawn plow down a furrow. Even in Myers’ short demonstration runs up and back, he was constantly giving instructions to the team up in front, and the horses complied. After they were done, however, the horses stood still for photographs and having small children lifted up to pet them.
“I got these two horses as a pair,” Myers said. “They’ve grown up as a pair, as far as I know. When you have two horses, you don’t really have a lead horse, just a left-hand and a right-hand.
“If you had a herd, like most did in the old days, then the horses could get switched from left to the right wherever you needed that horse to be. In that case, you might have a lead then, and you would want him on the right hand side all the time, because he kind of took control of things.
“In my case, I leave them this way because they work best this way,” he said. “You could look at them walking around the pasture and they’d be paired up just like this. That’s who they are, bonded together.”
“I don’t think much about doing anything else than working with these two,” Myers admitted. “Years ago I farmed, but I don’t, now. This is my sanity project. This keeps me squared away.”
What else happened
Saturday’s other events featured demonstrations of daily life as pioneers settled the plains along the Santa Fe Trail. These demonstrations included wood-crafting, sawmill cutting, wheat threshing, and even an old-time class in the museum’s one-room schoolhouse. Demonstrations on black-smithing and wheat grinding will be available again today.
Anvils also once again soared high into the air, fueled by gunpowder, in what has become one of the event’s signature attractions. As in past years, the event also exhibits a large collection of antique and modern farm equipment and military vehicles.
Attractions for kids included several games, corn shelling, a corn coin hunt, and a pedal pull in the afternoon, as well as rides on the kids’ barrel train. The schoolhouse was also home to some old-time storytelling in the morning.
With warmer weather expected, SFTC Director Seth McFarland said he anticipated a good turnout for the event.
The event will continue today with a full slate of events beginning at 9 a.m. For those planning on attending, he said, in regard to COVID-19 precautions the museum simply requests those who are feeling ill not attend. In addition to the events above, the SFTC will host a worship service at 9 a.m. today in its historic Escue Chapel on the museum grounds.
The museum is located 2 miles west of Larned on K-156, and is regularly open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
