Each spring the The Rama Performing Arts and Leisure Society (PALS) hosts a field day where the planting of a crop is still carried out using horses.
This year’s event was held May 18 and 19, with events including rope making, skidding, stone boat races, and chore team obstacle driving.
Twylla Newton raises Clydesdale horses just south of Yorkton. She said the Rama event is a great way to connect with the past.
“It is a really unique opportunity to work with the horse drawn farming equipment that was used not so long ago,” she told Yorkton This Week. “The fellow teamsters that have a vast experience with actually using this horse drawn equipment are so helpful to those of us wanting to try it out. I only play farming with my team for a day, and I am beat! To imagine that that is what happened day after day is exhausting!”
Kristina Just is a realitively new teamster from the Orkney area. She said an event such as the one in Ramais about learning in her case.
“Attending events such as Rama: It is a place to learn from very experienced teamsters who have been working with horses all of their lives,” she said. “These people have become great friends so it is a place were we can visit and share stories as well.”
The key lesson is that as the driver you are very much working with the team of horses you are driving, said Just.
“Working with horses, the team become an extension of their driver,” she said. “Working with them is like working with a family member or co-worker.
“I find it challenging, rewarding, relaxing and a very healthy way to live. My teams are used on the farm to help feed cattle. I do it because I am blessed to be able to and it is fun.”
Newton said the group at Rama, does a great job of preserving a part of our heritage.
“I’m very thankful that the PALS organization in Rama puts on this field day event,” she said.
