Discuss: Horse Power

Dear Mr. Courteau,

I live in Arkansas and would like to know if you would be willing to teach me (and maybe another friend) the skills of farming with draft animals which you wrote about.  I’d be willing to come and help out on your farm in exchange for the learning experience.

Thanks.  Oh, have you read the book “Entropy” by Jeremy Rifkin?  If not, check it out.  You might enjoy it.

I call it hybrid haying—horses and tractors.  We use four or five teams using mowers that are razor sharp and 2 horse drawn rakes.  We bale with the Kubota tractor and a John Deere Bailer.  Teams are hitched to the flat beds that pull 100 bales out of the field at a time.  Chuck Bailey says that if you have to carry a bale more than two steps you are carrying it too far.  It’s not a possibility it is the arrangement of the future. We could not do it without someone like Chuck Bailey who speaks fluent horse and knows how to make sharp corners. 

We are not the only ones.  The Best of Sale of the 1980s draft horse auctions were the showy horses that looked like Budweiser horses.  Now well broke Amish team bring the most money at auctions.  Horses that someone like me that weighs all of 120 pounds can drive.  There is nothing nostalgic about haying with horses; it makes sense.  My 15 years old daughter is happy to drive the teams and my 16 years old son is happy driving the tractor with ACDC blaring under his earphones.

We are returning to an era where we like all other species will consider the energy returned on energy invested.  We didn’t just abandon draft horses, oxen or farming.  We were bullied into cities, into factories, into debt to pay for monstrous tractors and expensive fertilizers.  We are a nation of bullied people who don’t want to seem to hic, too old country, too traditional or too weird.

When talking to old ranchers they often say “Yeah I helped my Dad hay with horses” and they pause as if wondering what happened to that way of life. 

But at the moment bailing with a tractor makes sense.  We have to move the hay so hay stacks don’t seem reasonable.  Pressing 80pounds of hay into a 4 foot packet is a good use of gasoline. 

We joke that the sad songs will now be sung about the abandoned tractors watching the horses go by.

Dear Mr Courteau,

I enjoyed reading your article.

I am the friend mentioned by Amoz Eckerson in his recent post.  If you’re ever interested in some free labor on your farm in exchange for instruction on working with draft horses, please contact us.

I have lived and taught in the Delta region of Arkansas for three years, and eventually I plan to re-settle back in my home state of Kentucky.  I plan to get involved in the local food economy / organic ag movement there, and I dream of one day developing a farm-school project in my community. I would like to educate myself about working with animals, and eventually be able to teach others, as well.

Best of luck in the harvest season.
Martin Mudd

This is a great article.  Readers may be interested to know about the 2007 Northeast Animal-Power Field Days Sep 29 and 30 at the Fair-grounds, Tunbridge, Vermont.  There is a small but vibrant community of animal power loggers and farmers in northern New England.  Check animalpowerfielddays.org for information.

Dear Mr. Courteau,

I like so much your work.I have the same idea. If you can read read Spanish, you will corroborate this,in my work “LA TRACCION A SANGRE ANIMAL EN CLAVE DE PETROCOLAPSO” in the following link:

http://members.tripod.com/choloar/percheron090606.htm

Greetings from Buenos Aires

I am glad to see that on-line that you list Small Farmer’s Journal as a resource. I was very surprised not to see it mentioned in the print edition. Small Farmer’s Journal has been promoting horsefarming for over 30 years. If you have not read this journal, I would highly encourage you to, it is more than just horsefarming! It will get you thinking and make you understand the importance of the small farm, as the future of our current agricultural system is at risk. I was glad to see Orion bring the importance of horse power to the front of the environmental movement. There are no easy answers… but we have been using horses longer than we have been using tractors!

Dear Mr. Courteau:
Thank you so much for the lovely article.  While I have never farmed by horse, I spent my childhood as an avid equestrian and have lately been thinking quite along the lines as you.  We need to return to at least partial use of horse power if we’re serious about wanting to stop relying on other parts of the world for our energy.  And I’ve so been longing for a pony cart!

I read the first page of this article in the morning before heading off for work at a small organic vegetable farm in Victor, Montana.  All day long, while picking strawberries and tomatoes and green beans, I couldn’t stop thinking about what I had read.  I finished the article right away when I returned home in the evening.  Thank you for your insight, Mr. Courtreau.  I’m working on my Master’s Degree in Sustainable Food & Farming right now, and when I finish next year I’m going to look up some of the training programs you mention.  Thanks again for re-igniting an interest of mine and bringing horse power to the table of environmental discussion.