Up in the Skye: Making a Pickering memory

By Phil Cobb | October 3, 2025 |

For nearly two decades I have written about small towns and the community members working hard to keep them and their traditions alive. And while many of them continue to experience the same difficulties what with shrinking populations, more restrictive utility regulations along with fewer and fewer people interested in serving in the necessary leadership roles, each one also seems to have a special place in the hearts of its residents.

In Pickering, population 149 at the time of the 2020 Census, one of those special events that has left an indelible mark on the town is the Pickering Horse Show, known as the Pickering Horse and Mule Show upon its start in 1934.

According to an article published in The Forum in July written by Elyssa Ford, Nodaway County Historical Society board member and history professor at Northwest Missouri State University, the very first show kicked off one morning with a pony show and the Maryville High School band performing. That afternoon, the horse and mule show offered 21 different classes. Later that evening, events included a tug-o-war, another MHS band concert, a basketball game and other free entertainment.

As interest continued to grow, the prize money grew and more people attended the event. In 1939, the event brought 6,000 people and more than 500 horses and mules to the town with a population of 300 at the time.

Now in 2025, the 88th year of the show, the event’s focus is much smaller, with a show for children, a draft horse pull and some riding events that this year were rained out.

While attending this year’s event, I couldn’t help but notice fewer people taking seats in the aluminum stands, a smaller number of people eating at the Lions Club Cafe and even fewer entrants hoping to get their hands on the $2,000 prize in the event’s main attraction, the draft horse pull.

Over the years, I’ve spoken to drivers at the event, and while they’re more than happy to talk about their family’s involvement and their love of the equestrian sports, discussing the state of the events overall tends to bring down their mood. They know interest in horses is waning. They see it at events all over the country.

Windyville native Renee Poole told me that she and her family members are attending more events across the southern region of the United States, because in that area, there are more people still using horses in day-to-day life as well as in contest events.

She said that in the 17 years she’s been involved with her family’s draft horses, she’s seen the events become less important to the communities in which they’re located. Now, competitors even share the overall prize money to help make sure their competitors make it to the next contest.

Dagmar Whipple said it’s an expensive hobby, costing thousands of dollars just to get started. She was excited to see a new young man’s name on the competitors’ list. Turns out it was Poole’s new squeeze, and Whipple was excited for her, saying she hopes they’re able to get even more people interested in equestrian endeavors.

As an organizer, she said the event does appear to draw fewer people, even those located in the small town. Walking around, I heard at least one person telling friends that she hadn’t been to the show in years, but was glad to have returned.

To kick off this year’s show, a family of young musicians sang traditional standards like “I’ll Fly Away” and “Cripple Creek” while performing on violin, fiddle, guitar, banjo and other stringed instruments. Their family members took up a good portion of the first section of bleachers while younger siblings, cousins and friends ran around climbing on the rodeo fences. But it was just one young man at the Lions Club Cafe who showed me that it really is the young who keep a community alive.

As is tradition for me, every year at the end of my coverage of the show, I seek out my dinner and dessert at the cafe. For nigh on five years I’ve been chasing the memory of a slice of “Blue Goose” pie baked and donated by Teresa Parker of Shambaugh, Iowa, having never again met its match. This year I had a delicious slice of peach, but it just will never be the same as that first sweet blueberry and tangy gooseberry mixture in a sugared crust.

I digress. While putting in my order with a lovely young lady, a young man came over to help make sure I was being helped and noticed my camera.

“Are you taking pictures for the show?” he asked.

After responding with who I work for and why I was there, he put out a hand and told me, “You don’t pay. You’re doing something for Pickering.”

As a reporter, I was taught early on gifts are not acceptable, so I pressed to pay. He was adamant, explaining he was glad to know someone was doing something to help his town.

In that moment I realized that the people still working to put on the show each year and those in all the other smaller communities of Nodaway County will have to look to the young to keep their communities going. Now, this isn’t news to anyone. But in that moment, with the sun just going down, the rodeo arena lights on, Richard Baumli announcing the lineup of next competitors, and gleeful children chasing each other and hollering on a Friday night, I knew Pickering had an ally in this young man who cared for his town.

I then handed my payment and then some to the young lady and drove out of Pickering with my piece of pie and some memories. I can’t wait for next year.

Skye Pournazari is the Managing Editor of The Maryville Forum.