Field Days tickets for all.
To keep Field Days accessible while covering event costs, we are happy to offer a sliding scale payment model again in 2026. When you buy tickets, please select the option that best fits your financial situation - no questions asked.
While it’s true we are a volunteer-run non-profit, charging admission keeps the event self-sustaining. Your admission fee helps cover essentials like equipment rentals, catering, printed materials, advertisements, and compensation for presenters and teamsters.
If you have any questions or concerns, contact Ivy Pagliari at ivy@draftanimalpower.org. If you would like to volunteer reach out to Emily DeYoung at volunteer@draftanimalpower.org.
Sliding Scale Passes
Advocate
Pass
Supports the event and helps others attend.
CHOOSE THIS PASS IF:
The cost is comfortable for you, and you’d like to help make Field Days more accessible.
You have stable income, savings, or financial flexibility.
You want to contribute to the long-term sustainability of this event.
Patron Pass
Covers the true event cost without extra support for others.
CHOOSE THIS PASS IF:
You can meet your basic needs and afford occasional extras like eating out or entertainment.
You have steady income but limited financial flexibility.
You want to pay the true cost of Field Days without additional support.
Friend Pass
Budget-friendly for those who need a lower price to attend.
CHOOSE THIS PASS IF:
You are a student, apprentice, or working a low-wage job.
You have financial constraints, such as significant debt, medical expenses, or high living costs.
You sometimes need to be mindful of extra expenses beyond basic needs.
Youth
are free!
Plus a Chaperone for Saturday and Sunday.
Thanks to a generous bequest from Robin Jurechko, this year young people (18 and under) and one accompanying chaperone can attend for free on Saturday and Sunday! Advance registration is still required so we can plan accordingly. Saturday registration includes lunch and dinner.
Register for
DAPNet
Field Days!
Sliding Scale Registration
Friday, Saturday, Sunday Attendees
Youth and Chaperone Registration
Saturday and Sunday Attendees
2026 DAPNet Field Days Schedule and Pricing!
Friday October 2nd Intensive Workshops 8am-5pm
Join us for a full day workshop focused on a single topic. Our Friday Intensives are taught by subject area experts, offer hands on participation, and have smaller group sizes to give time for individual attention and questions.
Registration includes lunch and dinner.
Friday Intensive Registration Fees
Advocate Pass - $225
Patron Pass - $180
Friend Pass - $140
This year there are 6 Friday Intensive Workshops
to choose from.
Learn about them below
Draft Horse Basics
-
Dave Gibaldi, Coordinator
Participants will get a full day hands-on experience learning basic care, harnessing, and driving of equines. The morning will focus on basic equine care, harness parts and types, how to harness and ground driving. The afternoon will include more practice harnessing and how to hook/unhook and drive a variety of vehicles, as well as the possibility to try some more technical driving environments, like a basic obstacle course.
All topics covered will emphasize safety. All ages from youth to adult are encouraged to sign up. Any youth under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
Farming with Draft Animals
-
David Fisher, Coordinator
This hands-on workshop is designed for all skill levels and garden sizes, from backyard plots to full-scale CSAs. We’ll cover soil preparation, plowing, manure spreading, secondary tillage, bed forming, transplanting, cultivating, and harvesting, all with horses or oxen.
Teamsters will demonstrate working with both single animals and teams, emphasizing safe practices and effective use of tools. You’ll also learn about efficient wash-pack setups, storage, marketing, and more with plenty of time for questions and observation throughout the day.
Bring gloves and work shoes, we’ll be in the dirt with great animals and experienced teamsters.
Oxen Basics
-
Ari Auger, Coordinator
Join us for a full day of ox and teamster training. From selecting and training animals, to grooming basics, yoking methods and yoke fit, as well as hitching and pulling implements with a chain or a tongue, there will be lots to do! We will have young steers and adult animals to work with. This is a great workshop for anyone curious about oxen, getting started with their own team, or who might need working cattle refresher. Young people are welcome when accompanied by an adult.
Starting Young Horses to Work
-
Donn Hewes, Coordinator
Learn about starting horses to work and building a partnership with a working equine!
We will use 4 different horses in different stages of training to demonstrate a progressive approach to starting a young horse to be harnessed, drive, and get hooked up and drag things as well as work on a cart with wheels.
This hands-on program will have students practicing specific leadership techniques that prepare horses (and humans) for harnessing and driving. Throughout this program the highest attention is placed on safety and calmness of horses. Calmness in training leads to calmness at work.
Forestry with Draft Animals
-
John Smolinsky, Coordinator
Join our team of live power loggers for a day in the woods focusing on methods for home woodlot management and small contracts. We will cover chainsaw safety, tree selection, felling, limbing, lineless single horse twitching, skidding with one or two animals, scoot loading, and forwarding logs. Our goal is to keep this workshop on the ground and out of the spreadsheets, but we can do a little number crunching if there is a demand. For folks who have a solid foundation driving horses or oxen, there will be time for hands on safe skidding training. This is a great opportunity to learn from professionals as well as to observe the regrowth of DAPNet’s 2019 forestry work.
Holistic Live-Power Business Planning
-
Maggie Smith, Coordinator
Willie Gibson, Instructor
"What is the Future of My Enterprise?" is an all-in engaging intensive designed for farms and businesses (existing or planned) that want to optimize quality of life, farm management/stewardship, and over-all resiliency. This workshop will help you define your enterprise's future, or define your future enterprise. We will focus on assessing where you are now and creating a plan for achieving holistic goals in the short and long term
Instructor Willie Gibson is the owner of AGRI-Culture Services, LLC. He is a Certified Crop Advisor Agronomist in the specialty of Soil Health & Regenerative-Organic Farming. He worked for UVM as an extension agent and VT NOFA as a dairy and livestock advisor.
Saturday October 3rd - beginning at 8am
Activities begin at 8am and include workshops, round-tables, animals working in the woods, the fields, and around the farmstead. There will be a youth track, training track and artisans crafting equipment.
After dinner, there will be a fundraising auction starting at 6pm and a barn dance at 8pm. The public is welcome to attend.
Saturday registration includes lunch and dinner. If you will just be joining us for the evening, you are welcome to purchase dinner here or bring your own picnic.
Saturday Registration Fees
Advocate Pass - $125
Patron Pass - $90
Friend Pass - $70
Youth and Chaperone Pass - Free
Sunday October 4th - 7:30am-1:00pm
Join us for teamster breakfast put on by the Green Mountain Draft Horse Association at 7:30 (payment by donation) and the DAPNet Annual Meeting at 8am. Afterwards there will be a repair cafe, obstacle course for beginning and experienced teamsters, felt making, and our horse vs human tug of war.
Everyone is welcome to help clean up and look forward to next year!
Sunday Registration Fees
Advocate Pass - $35
Patron Pass - $25
Friend Pass - $17.50
Youth and Chaperone Pass - Free
But wait! There’s more!
Free dry camping (no power or water hookups) is available from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning.
There will be trained working draft dogs at Field Days. No participants are allowed to bring dogs to the event.
Lunch and dinner are included with all Friday and Saturday registrations. Teamster Breakfast is offered by donation on Sunday morning.
If you would like to purchase additional meals, you can do so on the registration page. This link will take you there.
Interested in volunteering at Field Days? Please contact Emily: volunteer@draftanimalpower.org
Still have questions? Email us at info@draftanimalpower.org or check out our FAQ!
See you at DAPNet Field Days!
Ready to Register?
