Horsepower

Dude and Rusty with Pa

My parent’s farmstead has been home to five or so teams of horses through the years. Pa started out with Dude and Rusty. They were nearly identical red Belgians. This trusty team was on the farm for a test drive before Pa bought them. The final decision was made when he was thrown off the seat of the sycle mower and hollered “ho!” and they did. The reins weren’t in his hands but the team stopped anyways. SOLD. Pa bought them. They are in the majority of the photos of all things happening on the farm. Pa plowed, planted, raked hay, put up hay, binded, pulled bundle wagons, hauled grain, spread manure, plowed snow, pulled out logs, and repeat. He even pulled out his share of stuck vehicles too. Pa did everything with them. They went to Civil War reenacting events where they pulled cannons, wagon loads of troops, and all sorts of cargo. This is probably why they were such a great team. You could pull them up to the barn with the manure spreader, tie off the reins, fill the spreader, and they would stand like a rock. Pa could’ve gone in for lunch and they would have still been standing there when he came back. They had cruise control and a self driving feature long before Tesla. When out on a leisurely drive you could relax the reins in one hand. At a gate, Pa got off opened the gate told them “giddy-up” and then “Ho” when they had walked though. Then he would shut the gate and get pack up in the seat. I’m sure if you had to take them to the store in town they would have been able to pick us up at the door. They worked well together and even stood in their hitching order in the pasture, Dude on the left Rusty on the right. Pa always led Rusty out of the barn first and Dude just followed along. They stood like a rock outside the barn without being tied on the hitching post while Pa put the reins on and made adjustments. Rusty was always a bit bossy, and Dude always pranced a little, but no horse is perfect. When I was little I got to sit on them while they were tied to the hitching post. Pa used to toss me high up onto their backs like I weighed no more than a small sack of apples. I remember the harness being awkward to sit on, but I felt like I was sitting on the top of the world! 

My cousin and I sitting on Dude

I was still too young to remember when my parents got Nellie (aka Whoa Nellie), but there are lots of photos of her as a yearling.  She was another red Belgian with a very, very thick white mane and tail. She got used here and there when Pa needed a third horse with the team. Many hands make for light work, or rather many horses make lighter work in this case. She later became our mama horse, giving birth to two more driving horses on the farm.

Nellie and baby Ivan

In 1994, Nellie had Ivan (aka Ivan Ho). He was a dappled cream color and the cutest thing with knobby knees and long legs. We had known she was due any day, but he was born in the pasture with all the other horses when no one was looking just the same. Ivan and his Mama, Nellie, became the second team when Dude and Rusty retired and later moved on to greener pastures. 

In 2000, Rueben was born. No catchy name related to making a horse stop this time. He was simply named like one of Pa’s favorite sandwiches, though I am not sure if that was intentional or not. I do recall being unimpressed with the name in all of my eleven years of age.  I wanted to name his Tex because his star was shaped like the state of Texas. He and Ivan were full brothers, but they looked quite a bit different. Where Ivan was light and dappled, Reuben was a darker red like his mama with the same thick, white mane and tail. When he was big enough, Reuben was hitched in with his mama and big brother, then transitioned to the third team of Ivan and Reuben. 

Unfortunately these three horses all developed odd conditions. Nellie was diagnosed with mega-esophagus; a condition which made it nearly impossible for her to swallow her food. It is more commonly seen in dogs and other smaller animals than horses. Ivan went blind, eventually deaf and began having seizers. And poor old Reuben just passed on one day and we never found out why. It is never an easy thing to say good-bye to a beloved animal before they have lived out a long and fruitful life like Dude and Rusty did. These losses were bizarre things and not easy for any of us on the farm. They were all good teams and are still missed dearly.

After losing Nellie and Ivan, Pa’s decision for our fourth team was to change breeds in hopes the new genetics would be better for us. The change to a Percheron team from Belgians wasn’t the only change Pa made. He also went from having primarily geldings to mares. We have joked that if you want to go for a leisurely ride, use geldings. If you want to get something done, use mares. For us the girls have more get up and go. Ivan and Rueben were a great team but were also slower than molasses and January. Granted there are worse problems to have, but still a bit inconvenient when looking to get a job done. 

Beauty and Valerie

So in 2008 we welcomed three Percherons to the farm. Valerie, Beauty, and Beauty’s son Roy (Registered name RJ, Grandma and I renamed him Roy which was much more fitting for us.) who was just a yearling at the time. My Grandma, always the horsewoman herself, did not want to see that baby separated from his mama so she bought him for Pa. It was a little trade-off for all those years Pa kept Grandma’s horses for her at the farm. Valerie and Beauty made up the 4th team, with Reuben used as an alternate while he was still around. Since our technologies of the farm had advanced a bit since the humble beginnings, they didn’t get used as much as previous teams, but Pa still has only ever used a team of horses to plant the barley field each year. This team also pulled the binder, plows, and other equipment around the farm as well.

Here we are today. Pa’s go-to team is now Beauty and Roy, with Valerie as the alternate. They were a dream on the grain drill this past spring and hopefully we will get out and haul some manure this fall, maybe even do some plowing.

The story here is a continuing one, I do enjoy some quality time with Pa on a rough sawn plank hauling out manure or helping him with planting and such. The teams we have had over the years have stories are so much a part of ours that I just can’t tell our story without theirs. These are the teams that I have known. At least so far. That is the thing about owning animals - you get to say “hello” just as often as you have to say “goodbye.”  And that is just it! Who knows what lucky equine critter we will get to say “hello” to next! They don’t know it yet, maybe they aren’t even born yet, but they are very very lucky!