HUMBOLDT — When a cowboy festival unfolds with a trail ride Friday and festivities in downtown Humboldt Saturday, the seed that grew into the event was planted 50 years ago.
“I have a photo,” Delbert Shields said Tuesday, his 54th birthday, “that shows me when I was 4 or 5 sitting with my feet up and cowboy boots on. I was wearing a cowboy hat and a cowboy shirt.
“I can’t remember ever not having an interest in cattle and cowboying.”
Since then much has happened. Shields took up plumbing as a profession, and also learned to shoe horses, picked at a guitar until he became good at it and developed a knack for writing poetry.
“I grew watching Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry,” cowboys who wore white hats, were on the right side of the law and ended up with the pretty girl.
Today he is co-host of “Best of America by Horseback,” a weekly show on RFD TV, and has become well-known for his singing and poetry talents, all couched in cowboy lore.
SEVERAL MONTHS ago council members approved the event, officially called Humboldt’s National Day of the Cowboy Celebration.
Activities kick off with a trail ride Friday afternoon on land David Gant owns west of Humboldt. The address for the ride’s starting point is 2480 80th St.
“We have about 40 riders so far,” and anyone who shows up is welcome to join in, he said. “David cut some trails with a skid loader through the timber and along a creek. It’s a picturesque ride.”
Saturday downtown Humboldt will be given to many things associated with cowboying, including a 1 p.m. parade. “I don’t know how big the parade will be, but it’ll come off with what we have,” Shields said.
Other activities are a round pen horse training clinic — put on by his son, D.J., whose wife, Trisha, was Miss Rodeo 2012 — cowboy music and poetry, a barbecue cookoff, apple pie baking contest, amateur art contest and kids cowboy poetry competition. An ambitious schedule without doubt on a day that’s forecast to have dead-of-summer weather. “We’re going to have a good time, no matter what,” said Shields.
Opening ceremonies Saturday are at 10 a.m. A concert featuring Shields and Stephanie Layne, a Nashville recording star, tips off at 7 Saturday evening in the Humboldt High School auditorium.
“Stephanie is a great entertainer. She just released a new album, ‘Eclectic,’ which is about her faith, love of horses and being a cowgirl. People will enjoy her performance,” he said.
The entire event will be filmed for the TV show and will air in six or eight weeks. RFD TV is broadcast by many TV providers and also may be seen online at bestofamericabyhorseback.com.
THOUGH HIS rodeo days are over, Shields still breaks and trains horses for others.
“I didn’t own a horse until I was 21, but I rode the hair off other people’s,” he recalled, and his interest in horses, cattle and the Old West never was far from mind.
