On their way to watch a rodeo, Dennis and Jean Kuehl got distracted by another kind of horse event — a 40-horse team of Belgian draft horses waiting to pull a big wagon around the arena.
“We had been here in Colorado for two years and Jean and I decided that we needed to go up and see Cheyenne Frontier Days,” Dennis said.
But when they turned into the parking lot, the couple from the Longmont area saw a big tent with a sign about a 40-horse hitch. There were 48 horses tied up around the tent and a big circus wagon. They walked inside the tent to see what was going on.
“We just about didn’t make the rodeo because we spent the rest of the day there. Coming home, that’s when we decided we would probably raise draft horses,” Dennis said.
That day in Cheyenne, the Kuehls met Dick Sparrow of Iowa, who drove his 40-horse hitch in parades across the country. The group was made up of 10 rows of horses with four across.
“He had outriders in case anything went wrong,” Dennis said.
Sparrow, who became friends with Dennis, talked to officials with the National Western Stock Show when they were considering whether to revive draft horse shows at the Denver event.
Dennis and Jean began raising Belgians in 1977. The horses can be at least 6 feet tall at their withers, the highest point of the back, and at least 1,800 pounds.
When the National Western brought back the draft horse show in 1981 after a 40-year hiatus, Dennis was the ring steward. He fetched the horses, kept the action moving and helped the judge.
In 1984, Dennis became the superintendent of the shows until stepping down in 2018. He was a full-time math teacher and then school principal. But starting in mid-November, he also worked several hours with his team to prepare for the National Western.
“Before we had cell phones, come November, I would not answer the phone anymore because it was almost always some exhibitor calling with questions for Dennis for the stock show,” said Jean, who taught home economics and at an alternative high school in Loveland.
Jack Taylor of Fort Collins, who raises Percheron draft horses, has worked at the National Western shows for more than 20 years and was an assistant to Dennis. Taylor took over coordinating the draft horse, mule and donkey shows after Dennis, now 82, walked out of the ring for the last time.
Horses were first shown in 1907 at what was then called the Western National Stock Show, Keith Fessenden, the stock show’s historian and archivist, said in an email. The horse shows stopped after 1940, which Dennis and stock show officials attributed to fewer horses used for farm work in favor of tractors and other mechanized equipment.
Members of a state draft horse association that Dennis belonged to talked to Chuck Sylvester, then the stock show general manager, about having draft horse shows again. The return of draft horse shows coincided with the National Western’s 75th anniversary in 1981.
“Dennis was kind of the spearhead of it,” Taylor said. “He is, I think, responsible for revitalizing it, keeping it going and promoting it over the years.”
The draft horse shows this week during the stock show’s 120th anniversary will include 15 six-horse hitches, or six horses pulling a wagon. Taylor said exhibitors will be from Canada, Washington state, Michigan, Colorado and several Eastern states.
Taylor, formerly in law enforcement and now a real estate agent, planned to spend more than 12 hours a day at the stock show Thursday through Saturday.
“Denver is known for producing a good crowd, producing a good show for the spectators,” Taylor said. “To me, it’s like going to the Super Bowl of draft horses.”
Kendra McConnell, the National Western’s director of show horse operations, said the draft horses are popular with both spectators and exhibitors. Events include two-horse working teams that compete in obstacle courses and log skids. The draft horses also participate in pulling contests to see which can pull the most weight.
Working with ‘gentle giants’
Dennis said large audiences turned out for the early shows, staged in the Stadium Arena, which was built in 1909 and is next to the Hall of Education. People didn’t need tickets for the shows, but they needed to arrive early to get a seat, he said. The packed, standing-room-only crowds drew the fire department’s attention and the show had to be halted one time so a man having a heart attack could be taken out.
The shows, which now require tickets, are held at the Events Center, near the Hall of Education. Dennis said a key to building interest in the shows was attracting horse owners, which meant making sure the exhibitors had what they needed.
“What I realized is that it’s January. Why would these guys want to come out in January, in the middle of the cold weather? So, I spent a lot of time on the phone with them, helping them find places to make stop-overs,” Dennis said.
He and his team made sure the exhibitors’ stalls were ready and met them at the gate to take them where they needed to go. Asked why people like to watch the draft horses, Dennis believes it’s because they’re so big.
“And because of their temperament. Quite often, people come out here and they’re surprised they can walk up to our horses and talk to them,” Dennis said.
Taylor called draft horses “gentle giants.” Clydesdales and Shires are among those giants.
Cole, a Belgian gelding who’s about 12 years old, calmly stood tied to a rope in the barn on the Kuehls’ property as visitors walked up to him and rubbed above his nose.
Dennis and Jean are both from southwestern Minnesota where they had horses. The family has bred and raised several draft horses through the years, growing the herd to as many as 22 at one point on their 40-acre Mountain View Belgians northwest of Longmont.
“All these pens would be full. It’d be feeding twice a day. It’s kind of an all-consuming thing in a way,” said Cody Kuehl, 42, who lives down the road from his parents.
Cody and his brother, Brady, 45, helped with the feeding and all the other chores. The family raised hay to feed the horses. Dennis shoed the horses. The family uses horse-drawn equipment: mowers, hay rakes and a wagon to spread horse manure for fertilizer.
Jean got up during the night to check on the mares that were ready to give birth. “I’d worry enough to go check in the barn every couple hours.”
They later got a video camera and monitor to keep an eye on expectant mothers. “But you still had to wake up every two hours to look at it,” Jean said.
Cody and Brady helped put together one of the stock show’s timed events for draft horses where teams load, haul and unload hay bales. They packed up large, heavy harnesses, bridles and other gear to travel to the National Western and shows in Nebraska and Indiana.
“The logistics of it is interesting,” said Cody. “You got all your tack and your buckets, your feed and grain. It’s like going to war a little bit.”
The family hauled six horses in a convoy led by a 2-ton truck pulling a 32-foot trailer. Someone followed in a smaller trailer.
The Kuehls are no longer in the breeding business and they have just five horses now. But there are plenty of reminders of the many years the family devoted to their horses and the business. Rows of ribbons, buckles, pins, posters and photos line the walls of rooms in the barn, tack room and the house where Jean and Dennis live. Cody’s paintings of horses and Western scenes hang in the living room.
Cody credits his father with helping to build the National Western draft horse show into a “world-class” event.
“I think dad really built something special there,” he said.
Dennis said it was a team effort. “I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for Jean. It takes a family to do this kind of stuff.”
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