Draft Horses: A Modest Proposal
by Dan Hubbell of Traverse City, MI
photos from Kate Braden
Having reached the fabled three score and ten (plus two) I have been looking back on my time with draft horses and farming to see where I have been and where I think we should be going. Please indulge me. I had graduated from college and had bought an unbroke 800-pound mule who was named “Elizabeth Jane” from a local horse trader. I paid $125 for her and later learned she had jumped over a 3-foot gate with a rider on her back. So, I had grossly overpaid for her. Luckily, we were well matched – neither knew enough to pour water out of a boot and both were equally stubborn about our lack of knowledge.
A real old-time cowboy took me under his wing to help me get her trained. He was a caricature of a redneck, and I was an anarchist-hippie with a ponytail and an abiding desire to learn to farm. Nonetheless, he was gracious, and we became good friends.
We hooked her up to a wagon and an older Percheron gelding named “Prince.” She promptly ran away with the rest of us and only stopped when she ran the tongue into a utility pole and snapped it off. We dug another tongue from the pile of eveners, tongues and whipple trees on the farm, put it on the wagon and we were off again. There could be a whole book written about the times and tribulations of Dan and Elizabeth Jane.
I had started to work for the horse trader I bought Elizabeth Jane from. I was eating lunch and came across an ad in the Western Horseman for a new publication called “The Small Farmer’s Journal.” I subscribed and have enjoyed it ever since. I bought our present farm and have seen at least three “back to the land” movements and we seem to be entering a fourth. Additionally, the opportunity to buy quality new draft horse equipment has never been better in my lifetime. Now I don’t have to dig out a worn-out piece of junk from the neighbor’s fence row, cutting the tree growing through it; I can buy it from a current manufacturer.
I have seen a lot in my time and now feel eminently qualified to pontificate about the future of the draft horse industry. Don’t misunderstand – just because I feel qualified – doesn’t mean I am the least bit qualified. I have just been “rode hard and put up wet” a few times. So, this is the ultimate “for what it is worth” rant.
During my history, the future for the draft horse industry has been partially based on the premise that we are running out of fossil fuels. However, it seems that, every time we get closer to that mythical future – we locate more large reserves that we were unaware of. Don’t misunderstand, fossil fuels are finite. It is just apparent that they are not finite in the near term. Every prediction of imminent scarcity is followed by another discovery, recovery enhancement, etc. and the price per barrel drops again. Now we also have the radically diminishing global population. How that will impact the environment we just don’t know but it will likely be profound.
Humans are having a detrimental effect on the earth. This is a scandal and an indictment of all of us. The reality, however, is that continuing to rely upon the finiteness of fossil fuels is not a good plan. If in fact, fossil fuels are here to stay for the near future, we need to come up with a different plan for the future of draft horses. The old timers who taught me are all gone. The way I learned to drive is also gone (luckily). There has become a greater split in the breed organizations between the work horse section, the show horse section and the ride-the-work-horse section. Now there are almost separate breed types within the breed.
Anyhow, I am not saying we should become climate deniers, just that we likewise shouldn’t be stampeded into acting like a bunch of “chicken littles.” I am concerned that the public is not buying what we are selling. In the most recent “back to the land” movement I noticed a lot more emphasis on using small and/or used tractors instead of animal power. That appears to me to be a change of emphasis.
With the old timers gone and the rest of us getting pretty long in the tooth – how do we market draft horses to use. I have a passion for driving working horses. However, the resources to pass along “how to drive a horse” will be gone in one generation, if it isn’t passed along. In my area, and in most of the country I believe, one can go to multiple barns in the locality and get lessons on how to ride a horse. Learning to drive a horse is a different story. If we don’t change that, the skill will be lost in one generation.
So, what is the path going forward.
First, we need to dedicate ourselves to the next generation. To do that, we need to identify our market. Our local draft horse club has run a driving clinic for over 20 years. We provide the horses, the harness, the wagons and instructors. We don’t work the students’ horses. It is too much to try to train green students and green horses.
When it started, I thought we could fill a niche providing some multiple hitch driving etc. What we found was that the market needs were much more basic.
The vast majority of our students over the years just want to learn to drive a single or at most a team. They love to see the bigger hitches, but the market is pushing for beginner training, not advanced. I am not saying that advanced training has no place, just that it is beyond most student’s ken.
Another point that the students have taught is that many of them would likely still ride their drafts even after the clinic. Most of them rode when they were younger but have learned the universal truth that Motrin and other anti-inflammatories stop working when you turn 30. Riding is still more natural to them. I wish that wasn’t true but it is reality and we have to face it. Most of our students will come from a riding background and will tend to gravitate back to it.
So, second – and the point of this rant – is that your local clubs can do what ours has done. The market is there. Our local club doesn’t have unique resources – they aren’t needed. The students need really basic information and even then they are drinking from a fire hose for the two and a half days of the clinic. That ability is available from many of our local clubs. We just need to recognize the need and choose to accept the challenge.
Yours in the never-ending journey to spread more fertilizer in this world, Dan Hubbell.
