Draft Horse Class

On a farm in central Michigan, surrounded by woods, fields, and barns, two Percherons stood quietly in front of me. I clasped the lines, soft leather between my index and middle fingers. Birch and Cedar paused in front of a forecart.

“Step up. Haw. Haw. Back.”

They stepped over the wooden tongue of the forecart, a versatile two-wheeled cart that attaches to several implements. While my six classmates watched, Rick and John, our two instructors, walked me through looping the lines around the rail of the forecart so they stayed taut, then hooking and unhooking the metal chains to the wooden eveners. Then, I climbed into the cart, accompanied by John, took the lines, and drove the horses around the fields.

This was Day Two of the Draft Horse Basics course at Tillers International in Scotts, Michigan. For months, Jeff and I had eagerly awaited this opportunity for honing our skills in harnessing and driving. With our goal of putting the family Clydesdales into action through wagon rides or work on the farm, we invited my dad to the class, and all three of us traveled north Wednesday for the class on Thursday and Friday.

Day One started with horse psychology, as understanding how horses think helps with every aspect of handling them. We also discussed hoof care, as good feet are essential for a horse. Then, we practiced harnessing the horses. Leather lines, collars, and back pads were all connected with metal clasps and buckles to create a mechanism for pulling a wagon or implement.

This is a process I’ve only watched my whole life, whether through my own family hooking up a six-horse hitch or seeing the hitch class preparations at State Fair competitions. Understanding the purpose behind each piece and how it contributes to the overall goal of pulling a wagon or implement helped things click for me.

The next step was ground driving, where we walked behind the horses without an implement to get used to how the lines felt and how the horses responded.

Once we'd learned how to ground drive, we hooked Cedar and Birch to a plow. Rick demonstrated how to handle the plow—tip it right for the metal tip to go left, and tip it left to go right. I grabbed the handles and steered the plow as my classmate drove, experiencing the difficulty of breaking the earth open pre-tractor. It’s harder than it looks. The plowing scenes in Western movies were really put into perspective.

It was a relief to switch to Sam, a Suffolk Punch, and Pete, a Belgian, at their forecart, which pulled a harrow to dislodge weeds and level the field.

Once all the students experienced the plow and the harrow, all four of the horses were hooked together to pull a bigger harrow across virgin land. The field had been a pasture, and now it was being prepared to grow a variety of vegetables. Now, we were working on getting rid of the rhizomes that would interfere with the food crops.

A Tillers Internationals employee’s eyes lit up as he described what would be grown there. “Sweet corn and some beans, a little of this and some of that!”

At the end of the day, we removed the harnesses, brushed the horses, and turned them out into a pasture next to the barn.

The next morning, we caught the horses and harnessed up again. Birch helped by lowering his head into the collar I held up to his nose. I felt more confident in my harnessing skills as I tossed the hames onto the collar and pulled the leather pads onto Birch’s back.

Rick brought in his percherons, Don and Marshall, as well. With the two Percheron teams and Sam and Pete, we spent the morning driving around the property in three forecarts.

At lunchtime, Don and Marshall were hooked to a wagon large enough for all eight of us to ride in. We took turns driving to and from the local cafe for quesadillas.

I drove out of town.

Friday afternoon, we worked on logging and mowing hay. Rick showed us how to wrap a chain around a log and drag the log to a new location.

I was excited about learning how to mow hay with horses. I’d been waiting a long time to try it out. I was the first one to try out the sickle bar mower. The steel wheels drove the gears that moved the blades on the sickle bar back and forth. It only looks easy in the video.

The two-day course built my confidence in working with the horses, and at the end of the day, we felt like we’d had a good work-out, both mentally and physically.

Thanks for Reading!

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This Week on the Farm

After Dad plowed the furrows, Jeff discovered three potatoes that hadn’t been harvested last year. In the process of gathering them up, I found three more.

At the end of the day, I washed them, and Friday morning, I fried them for breakfast.

It was very cool to look out the window while eating the potatoes and being able to see the field where we found them.

Farm Shop

Light in Winter is a story and art series we created to share our adventures on the farm. Our Light in Winter artist, Lydia, has created a sticker shop, which includes art from the series. Here are links for a llama sticker or a Gandalf the Ram sticker for your notebook or water bottle!