The annual pair of parades — the Horse & Hitch Parade and the Grande Parade — that mark Pioneer Day rolled through town.

But as with most things, a parade doesn’t just happen overnight.

Bryan Schade, director of the Grande Parade, and Horse & Hitch Parade Director Tracy Smith spoke with the Standard-Examiner about the parades.

“We’ve got a great parade this year,” Schade said. “It’s got some 70 entries and we expect a wonderful parade.”

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

He said requests on entries are generally sent out in March.

“A lot of the entries get in on time and do it correctly and a lot of entrants seem to wait until the end of the line to get in on the deal,” he said. “They need to fill out the form, pay their fees and then we notify them where they’ll be lining up.”

Meanwhile, Smith said the Horse & Hitch Parade attracted 28 entrants this year, though that number can be a bit deceptive.

“It doesn’t sound like a lot, but by the time we figure in the horses in that, that’s about 270 horses,” he said. “Most of those are riders, some of those are on carriages and most of them have their families.”

He said that planning for the Horse & Hitch Parade starts around the same time as the Grande Parade.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“We start planning in about February,” he said. “Our entries start coming in about March, April, May and all the way up until parade day.”

Once held on separate days, Smith noted that the two parades were combined around four years ago.

“We had to do that because of budget cuts in the city,” he said. “We had to combine them so it was on one day.”

Schade said this year, he’s noticed a reversal of what had been a worrying trend among entries.

“We have seen less participation from the merchants in town,” he said. “However, this year, it’s kind of turned around and we’ve had a lot of businesses that wanted to get in and advertise their product.”

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

Smith noted that the nature of the Horse & Hitch Parade itself makes it a bit of a different beast to put together on parade day.

“As far as the Horse & Hitch goes, it’s the logistics of getting trailers, trucks and everything in and out with the participants so we don’t have congestion,” he said. “It takes a pretty good size subcommittee — we had 10 other people helping us on parade day to line everything up, get people lined up, get them where they need to be; so it takes quite a few of us.”

Speaking with the Standard-Examiner post-parade, he said he was happy with how the parade turned out.

“It went really, really well,” he said. “Everybody has kind of learned what to do now that we’re part of the Grande Parade and it worked out really well this year.”

Members of the Ogden High School Tigrettes entertain the crowd at the Ogden Pioneer Days Grande Parade on Friday, July 24, 2026.

Members of the Ogden City Council participate in the Ogden Pioneer Days Grande Parade on Friday, July 24, 2026.

Kids wave at an entry in the Ogden Pioneer Days Grande Parade on Friday, July 24, 2026.

Our nation's first president picks up a guitar on a float at the Ogden Pioneer Days Grande Parade on Friday, July 24, 2026. Several entries during both the Grande Parade and the proceeding Horse & Hitch Parade were themed for America250.