TORONTO, Nov. 13, 2016 /CNW/ – The horses of Ames Percheron Farm, driven by Travis Shaw, earned the win in the $25,000 Royal Six Horse Draft Championship, on Saturday night, November 12 at the Royal Horse Show in Toronto, ON.

The $25,000 Royal Six Horse Draft Championship, presented by Ames Construction, was the culmination of five days of six horse, breed-specific competition at The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair with the top three Belgian, Clydesdale, and Percheron hitches invited back for the championship in Ricoh Coliseum.

The Ames Percheron Farm hitch, of Jordan, MN, finished second in the $2,500Percheron Six Horse Hitch before claiming the overall championship.

“We’re always aiming to try to be at the top,” Shaw said. But it takes so little – one little mistake – to drop you from first to fourth. It’s tough.”

Despite the always stiff competition, Shaw and the team at Ames Percheron Farm are no strangers to success at the Royal Horse Show, having previously won the same championship in 2013 and 2014 and finishing as the reserve champions in 2015.

“There’s no other show that we ever see that’s as prestigious as this show,” Shaw said. “The crowd, the atmosphere, the arena, the lighting – it’s all just a first class show.”

The reserve championship in the $25,000 Royal Six Horse Draft Championship was awarded to the Country Lane Belgians of Sunderland, ON, driven by Kyle Forsyth for owner Ted and Chris English. The Country Lane Belgian team also topped the $2,500Belgian Six Horse Hitch class earlier in the week.

Rounding out the top three in Saturday night’s championship were the winners of the $2,500 Percheron Six Horse Hitch, the All Star Farms hitch, driven by Ross Honsbergerfor the Doyle Dingman and Nick Wagner.

“This is a real big win for us,” said Honsberger following his team’s Percheron Six Horse Hitch victory. “We actually took some of the fall off with these girls. They’d been off for a good seven or eight weeks. This is their first show back after a break off; we didn’t know what we’d have but they performed well. We were really ecstatic.”

All Star Farms first competed at the Royal Horse Show in 2010, and the prestigious indoor horse show has been a favorite of their team ever since.

“We look forward to it every year,” said Honsberger. “It’s so unique compared to everything we do. To have the other breeds here and the lights, the cameras, the action, the pomp and circumstance – that’s the Royal. That’s what you think of when you think of it. It’s just a classy, classy event. We always look forward to it every year, and it’s usually our last show of the year, so it’s kind of the grand finale.”

Finishing in fourth in the the $25,000 Royal Six Horse Draft Championship were the winners of the $2,500 Clydesdale Six Horse Hitch competition, the Express Clydesdales of Yukon, OK, driven by Josh Minshull for owners Bob Funk and Express Clydesdales.

In addition to the popular Six Horse Hitch classes, the Royal Horse Show also continually offers Two Horse, Four Horse and Unicorn classes for the draft teams.

Funding support for The Royal has been provided by the City of Toronto and the Government of Ontario.