Though newcomers, Young Living’s Percheron draft horse teams have established tradition of excellence
Competition team manager and driver Tim Sparrow along with assistant driver Brittany Sparrow, his wife, drive the competition team into the arena during the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Exhibition team manager and driver Jason Goodman, who is also the Percheron program manager, drives his team of Percheron horses during a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Show wrangler Cole Sanders brushes the hair a Percheron horse while the exhibition team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Show wrangler Cole Sanders cleans the hooves of a Percheron horse while the exhibition team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Competition team manager and driver Tim Sparrow tends to his horses after the competition team won first place in the open six-horse hitch category during the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Exhibition team manager and driver Jason Goodman, who is also the Percheron program manager, drives his team of Percheron horses around the arena during a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Show wrangler Bradley Glover prepares to bridle a Percheron horse while the exhibition team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Show team manager and driver Jason Goodman, who is also the Percheron program manager, maintains the stall of one of his exhibition horses while the show team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Show wrangler Bradley Glover prepares a Percheron horse while the exhibition team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
An alternate Percheron horse stands in its stall while the exhibition team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Show wrangler Cat Hester moves carts out of the show barn while the exhibition team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Exhibition team manager and driver Jason Goodman, who is also the Percheron program manager, shovels manure near the arena while the exhibition team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Exhibition team manager and driver Jason Goodman, who is also the Percheron program manager, tapes the shins of a Percheron horse while the exhibition team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
A Percheron horse is led toward a wagon by show wrangler Mason Mackay while the exhibition team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Show wranglers, counterclockwise, Mason Mackay, Cole Sanders and Cat Hester secure Percheron horses to the wagon while the exhibition team is readied before a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Exhibition team manager and driver Jason Goodman, who is also the Percheron program manager, drives his team of Percheron horses around the arena during a practice Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Percheron horses rest during a practice for the exhibition team Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Competition team manager and driver Tim Sparrow readies himself before the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Show wrangler Haley Anderson holds bridles as the competition team is readied before the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Competition team manager and driver Tim Sparrow bridles a Percheron horse before the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Competition assistant driver Brittany Sparrow secures a pin on the jacket of competition team manager and driver Tim Sparrow, her husband, before the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
A fly rests on the tassels of a Percheron horse as the competition team is readied before the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Competition assistant driver Brittany Sparrow sits atop the wagon as show wranglers prepare the competition team before the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Competition team manager and driver Tim Sparrow along with assistant driver Brittany Sparrow, his wife, drive the competition team around the arena during the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Competition team manager and driver Tim Sparrow along with assistant driver Brittany Sparrow, his wife, wait with other hitches as results are tallied during the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
A Percheron horse sports ribbons before the competition team took to the arena for the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
All the competing hitches, 18 6-horse hitches, stand for the judges during the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Announcers stated that all the hitches had 108,000 pounds of horsepower collectively. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Competition team manager and driver Tim Sparrow along with assistant driver Brittany Sparrow, his wife, drive the competition team around the arena during the Fall Festival Draft Horse Show held Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, at the Young Living Lavender Farm in Mona. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
The big Percheron draft horse teams at Young Living Essential Oil’s Lavender Farm were sparked by an equally big dream.
Upon seeing the gentle giants perform at Colorado’s Big Thunder Draft Horse Show and National Western Stock Show, the farm’s founder, D. Gary Young, wanted a hitch of his own.
“His heart was in the farming, which established Young Living Essential Oils, and the animals were next,” said Liz Davies, senior director of global farm events with Young Living. “He loved animals.”
Young wanted Young Living to not only have its own draft horse team, but also to have that team be the best in the world.
The farm’s draft horse teams and show have only been around for about the past four years, but they’ve learned the ropes at a lightning pace. “Usually they say it takes 10 years to establish an event like this, but we’ve done it in three years,” Davies said.
Amazingly, Young’s dream came true.
The farm’s competition team won first place in several categories as well as the overall premier exhibitor at the World Percheron Congress last year, which is known as the “Olympics of the breed,” according to Tim Sparrow, competition team driver and manager.
In September of this year, the competition team was also crowned the world champions at the North American Six-Horse Hitch Classic Series.
Unfortunately, Young never saw his dream come to fruition.
“The World Percheron Congress was very special because Gary Young passed away last May, and that was one of his dreams — for his hitch to win that competition,” Sparrow said. “The Classic Series Finals was also another one of his goals.”
Despite Young’s passing and his goals being achieved, the farm’s draft horse teams and program show no signs of slowing.
“We’ve gone literally from having maybe 100 to 200 people in the stands during the day to almost filling the stands,” Davies said. Young Living Lavender Farm’s arena can hold approximately 5,000 people according to Davies, and she said they’re looking to expand the venue.
But what goes into creating a world-class team of horses that stand about 6 feet tall and weigh approximately a ton each? As one might expect, it entails a lot of long days and hard work.
Just getting a six-horse hitch prepped and ready takes about three hours and a handful of people to achieve.
The process begins around dawn with breakfast. From there, stalls are cleaned, horses are groomed and they are tacked up with all the necessary equipment. Horses are then hooked to the wagon, taken through their practice regimen, and once finished, they’re unhooked from all of their equipment, washed off, and eat once again. Throughout the process, both the horses and the equipment are meticulously maintained by Sparrow and his crew.
“I get a lot of attention because I am the driver, but I can’t do this without my crew,” Sparrow said. “They work hard, long hours. They make sure these horses are well taken care of and everything is up to par, and the support from Young Living is great.”
From about the age of 10, Sparrow knew his heart was with horses.
“I grew up on a farm in central Iowa,” Sparrow said. “We raised about 15 Belgian horses and about 50 head of cattle. My father and grandfather hooked a 40-horse hitch every summer for a parade.”
After graduating from high school, his love of horses brought him to work on the farm of a family friend in Plainview, Minnesota, where he met his wife, Brittany, who is now also the assistant driver on Sparrow’s draft-horse team. Their love blossomed through showing horses and milking cows together on the farm. He interviewed with Gary Young for the position he now holds with Young Living in June of 2017, and began working in August of the same year.
Much like athletes on a sports team, each horse has a mind of its own.
“You need to know the best way to motivate your team, each individual on your team,” Sparrow said. “It takes time, different circumstances and different situations to see how horses tend to respond. They’re always evolving and learning.”
During the heat of practice, drivers often work with their horses six days a week. About four or five days before a performance, teams frequently relax to allow time for the horses and drivers to recover. “And then, you can drop the hammer at the show,” said Jason Goodman, Percheron program manager and driver of Young Living’s exhibition team — a separate outfit from the competition team.
According to Sparrow, the competition team competes in about 12 shows a year. Most shows take place in the Midwestern United States, where the draft horse industry has its deepest roots in this country. “Young Living did the least amount of shows among other hitches, but still placed in the top four Percheron teams nationally,” Davies explained.
The season begins in January with the Big Thunder Draft Horse Show and National Western Stock Show. The Young Living team typically takes the springtime off and competes mostly in the summer and fall. In the ranking system they use, points accrue from Labor Day to Labor Day each year.
Much like maintaining these horses, taking them on the road is also no small feat.
“You’ve got to be very cautious with the horses,” Sparrow said. He explained that he takes 10 horses and two semitruck trailers to each show — one trailer for horses and the other for equipment.
“The hauling can be very taxing over the show season,” he said. “Horses aren’t resting when you’re hauling them; a horse has to hold themselves up in the trailer.”
In terms of being an award-winning draft-horse hitch, the key is in the details.
“As a general rule, you’re looking for a uniform hitch,” Sparrow said. He explained that if you’re looking at a six-horse hitch from a profile view, the goal is just to see three horses. The aim is for each horse to be totally in-step with the others, from their hoof steps, their speed, to how they hold their head and how the equipment hangs on them.
In competitions, several draft horse teams simultaneously take several laps around the arena as judges inspect the hitches several qualities.
“There’s no set rules; it’s very subjective,” Sparrow said. Upon completing their laps, hitches line up and judges examine the physical shape of the horses and meticulously inspect the wagon and equipment — all the way down to ensuring all of the horses’ hooves are uniform.
“Just like people, sometimes they don’t respond at the show; they have a bad day, they aren’t feeling good or they’re inexperienced,” Sparrow said of his team of Percherons. “So when it does go right, it’s special.”
The competition team also has to keep a steady pace as it shows to judges, not too fast and not too slow. This is the place for composed, team-oriented horses, not renegades.
However, that’s where Goodman comes in.
“I can use some of those horses that don’t quite fit that,” Goodman said. “That might be some of the renegades. But what we do is a little more on edge, and a lot of those renegades fit that.”
With Goodman’s exhibition team, it’s less about being calm, cool and collected, and more about putting on an exciting show for audiences.
“I’ll take six of them on that wagon just as fast as they can run,” Goodman said. “We’ll throw the wagon sideways — a 3,000-pound wagon behind 12,000 pounds of horses.”
Despite the brawny demeanor of draft horses, Goodman attests that they’re just as nimble as the most athletic of horses.
“Everyone sees a barrel-racing horse or a roping horse and they’re real athletic, and they know how to lay down in the corners and stop on a dime,” Goodman said. “Well, these big guys can do the same thing.”
Young Living raises their own draft horses. At 2 years old they begin training. By the age of 4, they’re placed on either the competition or exhibition teams, or do work on the lavender farm itself, depending on what work best suits them. Among the horses used in the breeding program and the workhorses themselves, Young Living has about 52 gentle giants, according to Goodman.
Besides wowing crowds, Goodman’s routines with his hitch also aim to inform people about the history of draft horses.
“We do a driving demonstration to try to show people what these draft horse hitches used to do in 1800s,” Goodman said. “Semitractor-trailers have only been around since the early 1900s, so before that all freight was hauled in these big wagons. These days all the semitractor-trailers have fifth wheels. Where do you think that came from?” Goodman asked, nodding to a nearby wagon equipped with a fifth wheel.
Goodman explained that the fifth-wheel came to be to help hitches towing large loads be able to maneuver the tight streets of the era’s big cities, and allowed them to back up to loading docks just as modern-day semis do. “We actually do what we call a docking portion of our exhibition where we replicate that,” Goodman said.
Whether it be preserving the history of the draft horse industry or the local history of Gary Young and Young Living, the lavender farm’s Percheron draft horse teams aim to continue to excel in competitions and to captivate a growing number of people into having an appreciation for the horse world’s gentle giants.
