American horse show makes its last stop in Tulsa

TULSA - It may have been the end of an era at the Tulsa State Fair Saturday because a draft horse team known as the Priefert Percherons may have given their final performance.

For the last ten years, Jason Goodman, his wife Rose, and a team of trainers have traveled the country with eight 2,000 pound horses.

"We have Duke, Mike, Moose, Pilot, Titan, Hank, Barney and Bud," said Goodman.

Together, they make up the Priefert Percherons.

The Priefert Percherons are also known as the Texas Thunder because of the thunderous sound they make when running around an arena.

Percherons are a type of work horse first developed in France. Before modern day semi-trucks, these six-foot tall stallions pulled freight wagons across the American West.

The material they hauled was used to construct downtown buildings in many smaller communities across the country.

"These guys are like the linebackers of the horse world," said Goodman, who serves as the team's hitch driver.

The performances the Priefert Percherons put on are tributes to the work the breed did a century ago.

"It's an exhibition hitch similar to the Budweiser Clydesdales," said Goodman. "We'll hook six of them at a time to a very large freight wagon and we'll do a driving demonstration of how these hitches and big wagons use to dock and deliver goods back in the 1800s."

Each night in a different city, the horses provide not only a history lesson about how the West was settled in the 19th Century, they also dazzle the audience.

Because of the number of shows they do each year, Goodman estimates millions of people have experienced the excitement and rumble these horses offer.

But like so many others, the Priefert Percherons have become victims of the Great Recession and may have to be put out to pasture.

Their corporate sponsor is no longer able to keep the performances going.

"It takes a very large budget to keep two semi's and eight head of horses traveling the country," said Goodman. "Because of the economy, they've had to make some cutbacks."

Saturday night's show at the Tulsa State Fair was the last performance for a while, perhaps forever.

Goodman said his team has until March to find new corporate sponsors if the shows are to continue.

If Saturday turns out to be the horses' final performance, it was one to remember.

The horses and their trainers received a standing ovation from a jam-packed crowd at the Expo Square Pavilion.