A Draft Horse… er… Poodle?

By: Brittany Bevis

What does a 1,950 lb., 19 hand, Draft Horse do after a hard day’s work plowing fields? He dresses up like a gigantic Poodle, of course!

For 14-year-old Bart, a Draft Horse who resides in Hagerman, Idaho, donning hilarious costumes is his side job, when he’s not serving as part of a six-horse hitch, plowing fields, or driving in parades. The costume class is an annual tradition for his owners, Lisa Boggs and Jim Ruby, who attend the Draft and Mule Show at the Western Idaho Fair every year.

“People really seem to enjoy the class,” Jim says. “It happens on the last day of the show, and it’s a good release. They have costume classes, a gamblers’ choice class, a wagon obstacle course, and a sled race. It’s a fun day.”

Bart has been part of the family for 12 years, and Jim did all of the horse’s training himself. In addition to Bart, Jim has four other Draft Horses and four saddle horses, and they all pull their weight around the farm. Bart’s best barn mate is “Homer,” who was also in the costume class, dressed up like a Hawaiian hula girl. The pair can frequently be seen taking Lisa and Jim on errands around town.

“We drive them a lot,” Lisa says. “We live outside of Hagerman, so we drive the two of them into town to the coffee shop and what not. It’s kind of funny, because he’s used to being part of a six-up hitch, with six horses in a wagon. So, I thought he would probably be mortified to go from a six-horse hitch to a Poodle, but he took it well!”

Although Jim grew up with Draft Horses, he never imagined he would one day have a barn full of his own. “My Dad and Granddad used them, and I thought they were crazy. I couldn’t get away from them fast enough. Then, when I got older, I took a two-week job driving sleighs and hauling tourists. I realized those Draft Horses filled a whole in my life that I didn’t know I had.”

“They’re pretty, laid back horses, but they’ve got some fire to them. They’re pretty accepting of new situations. They work here too. I plow pastures with them and clean ditches. I won’t clean ditches with anything but a horse.”

We wondered how Jim felt about being dressed up as a dog handler to complete Lisa’s vision of a larger than life Westminster team. “It was alright with me,” he says simply. “The thing is that I never have much time to think about how I might be dressed, because it’s always a surprise for me. But this year wasn’t nearly as surprising as last year, when she dressed me in a tutu!”

“Normally, I don’t show anybody the costume beforehand, including him,” Lisa says. “Part of that might be because I’m afraid he will look at it and say, ‘I’m not doing that!'”

Luckily, Jim was happy to oblige and, as a result, he and Bart took home the first place prize in the costume class. “There were some fantastic costumes this year,” Lisa says. “A close friend of ours is Hawaiian, and we dressed his horse in a grass skirt, a lei, and a gigantic flower in his ear. There were also some bees and beekeepers.”

When it came to creating Bart and Jim’s costumes, Lisa looked to Pinterest for inspiration. “The thing Bart is wearing on his head is literally just a headpiece. Some guy on Facebook said the photo had to be Photoshopped, because there is no way a horse would wear that sort of thing. Well, I’m sorry to tell you, but he did! I sewed the headpiece together with batting. It has room for his ears to go up inside. Then, the headpiece has its own ears. It attaches underneath the throat latch. It stayed on really well.”

“The little things on his feet were just poofs that we tied on, and then his tail had a gigantic ball that was attached to a sock. It was hilarious.”

Once Bart’s costume was all set, Lisa’s sights turned to her husband to complete her creative vision. “I had some ideas about making Bart into a Poodle, and then I wondered what Jim could be dressed as. I got some ideas on Pinterest, and I thought it would be hilarious if he dressed like a dog handler. Of course, nobody at the Westminster Dog Show is going to look that dorky, but I wanted to make sure it was fun. I made sure his pants were high waisted and his hat was really goofy.”

The finishing touch was a dog collar, but where to find something big enough for a Draft Horse?  “His collar is actually just a plastic belt that I found at Walmart. That’s the only thing keeping him under control. You can tell how gentle he is. He’s 1,950 pounds and 19 hands tall, so if he really wanted to go somewhere, he could. As you can see in the picture, he’s very easygoing.”

Now that he’s taken first place in the costume class, Bart is ready to return to his day job. “He and Homer are going to a parade this weekend in Sun Valley and then they will go to the Thousand Springs Festival in Hagerman to do wagon rides. He’s also done local funerals. They do just about anything.”

As we can see from the picture above, they certainly do…