By: Donovan W. Mann – donovanm@977thebolt.com
Humboldt, IA – Harness horse racing will be returning to Humboldt this summer as the new season in Iowa is set to get underway.
The Iowa Harness Horse Association has announced their schedule for the coming 2021 racing season. However, before the horses hit the track they must be conditioned and trained to handle the competition.
Long time racer Stephanie “Stevie” Gould says that a horse’s training will begin in the fall of their yearling year. “They get their lungs strengthen and their muscles strengthened and they learn how to steer and all that,” she says.
Horses will not actually get to race until the spring of their two-year-old year. Training includes jogging exercises throughout the winter season. Horses are tough endurance as well as speed as they approach the beginning of the competition season.
Gould says harness racing is a sport that is very easy to fall in love with. “Well, it’s kind of a sport that once you get in it kind of tugs your heart strings and you never get out,” she says. In Iowa the primary breed that is raced is colts.
The racer refers to harness racing as the “poor man’s horse racing.” Some owners may have just one horse while some may have 20 or more. “About anybody can do it if they just have a space to put their horse.”
Gould first got involved with the sport when she was a senior in high school. “A good friend of mine, his family did it, and I just started hanging around the barn.” This was back in the mid-80s.
“They let me drive a few horses to jog and then I got my own and then I got my whole family into it,” she says. Gould currently has twin 18 year old boys who are now getting into the sport as well.
The Harness Racing Season in Iowa will begin on May 30 in What Cheer. There will be seven total races in Humboldt at the fairgrounds in 2021. The first Humboldt race will be on June 19.
More information about the harness racing in Iowa including standings, news and scheduling can be found online at iowaharnessracing.com.