How Did the Viola
Horse and Colt Show Get Started?
By Henry (Hank) Simmons
In 1931 the Viola Horse & Colt show was
conceived by two local men with great interest in promoting horses
and agricultural education. They were S.A. (Spar) Simmons who owned
the Simmons Farm north of Viola and bred Purebred Percheron horses
and Mr. Harrison Eckley, a long time instructor of agriculture at
Viola High School.
The object of the show was to get the
colts sired by the two beautiful stallions owned by Mr. Simmons in
front of the public for advertising purposes and to give students in
agriculture an opportunity to judge both a class of colts and adult
horses in preparation for judging at the state judging contest in
Madison.
The first show was held at the old fair
ground one mile east of Viola where the park and campground is
today. They invited Professor James Fuller who was the animal
husbandry instructor in charge of the horse breeding program at the
University of Wisconsin to come and give a short talk on horse
breeding and to judge the different classes of horse and colts.
There were exactly fifteen suckling shown so it wasn’t a difficult
job. The prizes were a free service by one of Mr. Simmons’s horses
for first prize and $5.00 ft)r second prIze.
The following year the Gillingham horse
association which was a group of farmer’s that owned a Belgian
stallion was invited to the Horse & Colt show. There was
considerably more interest that year. The founders of the show were
so enthused by the additional interest: that they decided to move
the show into Viola the following year.
Since those were the early days of 4-H and
FFA, Mr. Eckley worked toward giving his students an opportunity to
show the public the results of their summers effort on their various
projects.
As more horsemen and business people in
Viola became interested it wasn’t too hard to solicit merchandise to
give as prizes and a horse pulling contest was added, as well as the
junior exhibits. As the show was always held on the Saturday after
the Vernon County Fair, it wasn’t long until concessions moved in to
make their last stop of the season. And thus the world’s largest
thing of it’s kind was on its, way!
A Home
Town Fair with a Past...
The first venture
of the "Horse and Colt Show" was undertaken in 1930,
only a few years after the
Viola Fair was discontinued, sponsored by a few farmers and the
Agriculture Department of the high school, with H.M. Eckley (Eck) as
their leader. At first it was called "Colt Show" and only a judging
contest was held in the old livery barn, but soon was joined by the
businessmen of Viola and became an annual event growing larger each
year… The crowds have grown until it is not unusual for the
attendance to be from four to five thousand. It has as many
attractions as a fair, art exhibits, fancy work and canning, horse
pulling contests, concession stands, judging contests, a parade …and
ends with a dance … which is usually too crowded to dance. …Hundreds
attend to greet old neighbors and enjoy a day in the old home town,
where many were born and raised. Many come who are not natives of
Viola.
From
"The Memorable Kickapoo Valley" by Grace
Hocking p.74 Available at:
Viola Public Library
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