Draft Horse Barn

The next stop is the draft horse barn which is the low, smaller shed with the hitching rails in between our older barn and the main barn. Some days you may observe students grooming large draft horses tied to the hitching rail. These MSU students learn to harness and drive our draft horses in our popular Draft Horse Basics Class. You may see them drive our MSU Show Wagon in special events, as well as the Michigan Great Lakes International Draft Horse Show held at the MSU Pavilion in mid-October. We use two Clydesdales for class and you may recognize them as the same breed of horse that pull the Budweiser hitch! Our draft horses are much much larger than our Arabians, and have feathering or long hair on their legs which is distinctive for their breed. MSU has a long history with draft horses, and early in the century we were one of the primary breeders of both Belgians and Percheron horses before focusing primarily on breeding the Arabian horse.