OXFORD – A local draft horse club will hold its 17th annual auction and field show over Memorial Day weekend.

The two-day event will take place starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 26, and 10 a.m. Sunday, May 27, at the Oxford County Fairgrounds. It is organized by the Farmers Draft Horse, Mule, and Pony Club.

Saturday’s events include demonstrations and contests, as well as clinics and hayrides around the fairgrounds. People may bring in farm equipment to be auctioned off on Sunday. That day will also see horse trades and auctions conducted by Dwight “Pete” Tripp Jr.

The event’s organizers expect the activities to show a wide range of draft horse capabilities, such as logging, haying, mowing, scooting and twitching. Scooting involves a horse pulling a load of logs on a wooden sled called a scoot through a series of gates and turns, while twitching has the horse pull a single log through such a course.

The demonstration is free and open to the public, though the club will receive proceeds from events such as the auction, which will go toward defraying the cost of insurance and awards.

Stan Merrill, the club’s vice president, says the organization began in 1988. He and Bill Winslow, one of the club’s directors, both lived in Harrison, owned horses, and were dedicated to finding people with similar interests.

“We knew who had horses and who was interested in horses,” Merrill said.

He said an informational meeting on the club attracted so many people that they couldn’t all fit inside the building. The first event the club held was a plowing demonstration at Merrill’s house. At the time, Merrill estimated the club had between 40 and 50 members, but he says the membership is now around 200 people.

The majority of the members live within a 50-mile radius of the club’s headquarters at the Fairgrounds, but include people in New England and as far west as Indiana.

“We’ve tried to serve all of our members, all of our interests,” Winslow said.

While most animals owned by club members are draft horses, some own ponies and mules. Some members don’t own any animals at all.

“Some just have sleighs,” joked Gordon Curtis, the club president.

He said the organization is as much for people who love the animals and are interested in them as for those who own them. He said the club’s purpose was to educate people about activities involving use of the horses, ponies and mules.

To that end, the club gives hayrides to elementary school children on “Education Day” to teach them about farm work.

The club has no formal association with the Oxford County Fairgrounds, but helps at the site through such activities as maintaining roads and removing litter. Thursday, it began the process of moving from its old clubhouse to a new one, which was constructed last summer.

“It’s an all-volunteer effort,” Curtis said.

The organization aims to put on one event per month, and will also be putting on a plowing demonstration at 9 a.m. on May 19 at Ferland Farm in Poland.

Scott Gray, a club member and owner of J.L. Gray & Son, was out with a pair of the massive horses on Thursday, exercising them by walking them around the grounds.

“I work like a dog all winter,” said Gray as the horses towed him on a scoot, “and play all summer.”