Another newbie here

MNMule – Glad you enjoy our photos. Yes, the Indiana ride is a lot of fun. This group is well organized and plans the ride out to the nnnth degree, leaving little to chance. On top of that, they are all really friendly, wonderful people.

Carl – This photo was taken of Charles Orme of Mt Sterling, Ky. He is one of the top draft horse people in this part of the country (see the reference to him in the current DH Journal). He was driving 7 of his Belgians pulling a 2 bottom Pioneer plow. The reason that this is one of my favorite photos is because 1) Charles and his family are great friends and supporters of my website, 2) You seldom get the opportunity to see a large hitch working in this part of the country, 3) I had a great time that day and the photo brings back memories of that day, and 4) just because.

Regarding my photography….I have been going to draft horse events and taking photos for well over 20 years now. In fact, I wrote an article about this back in the early 90’s that was pulished in the Draft Horse Journal at that time. Back in the 1980’s, I took my interest in photography and combined it with an interest in draft horses and, as they say, the rest is history. Since that time, I have made the pilgrimage to Milwaukee to photograph the Great Circus Parade, have provided the photo for the front cover of the DHJ (Fall ’05), served for several year as a Director of the Kentucky Draft Horse Association, am currently a very active member in 4 different draft horse associations in this part of the country, etc.

I have been to hundreds of draft horse events over the years and I always pay my own way. I don’t ask for anyone to cover my lodging or milage expenses. My motivation is that I love these great animals and love the opportunity to capture them and their “people” in my photos. While I do occasionally sell some of the artwork I produce, this is not my full time work. I actually have a real job at a well known Indiana casket company where I work 10-12 hour days to provide the income we need to operate. Even when I do sell something, my prices are minimal and usually only barely cover the cost I incur to produce the work. If you have been to my site, you will notice that I do not “mask” my work like most photographers do to prevent folks from printing the photos right off of the websites for themselves. Finally, I get a lot of my motivation and personal satisfaction everytime someone like MNMule tells me that they have been to my site and enjoy viewing my work.

As to the question of how I am helping to advance the culture of working horses with my photography, I would say that the hundreds of people who visit my website from around the world are all being influenced by what they see there. I have a monitoring service on the site that tells me what site the visitors come from and where they are located in the world. It tells me that many of these visitors are coming from search engines like Google where they are looking for information about draft horses. I suspect that at least a few of them are positively influenced by what they see in my photos.

I understand Carl. Actually, I enjoy taking those photos, but don’t often hear from folks who are really interested in the details. Here are some links that show a little more detail regarding how these 7 were hooked up:

http://www.drafthorsephotos.com/2008-04-19%20Ky%20State%20Plowing/album/slides/2008-04-19-1700.html

http://www.drafthorsephotos.com/2008-04-19%20Ky%20State%20Plowing/album/slides/2008-04-19-1708.html

Charly

The answer to your first question regarding the light weight chains hooked from the breechings to the plow….. One thing that makes this type of rigging work is to ensure that no one horse can overpower any other member of the team, particularly the horse on the other end of the line that the horse is attached to. Those chains are “hold backs” to prevent the rear horse from overpowering the front horse if the front horse is not pulling as hard or is moving slower that the rear horse. The rear horse can only move so far forward and is held back by those chains. You will note similar chains from the traces of the front horse to the halter of the rear horses for the same reason, except these chains ensure that the rear horse moves forward when the front horse begins to move. With a well trained team, these are usually not a problem except when the team starts from a stop. Then, not every horse will respond at the same speed and these chains help prevent any problems.

As to your 2nd observation….the teamster here is well known horseman Charles Ormes and his horses are well trained and respond to his voice commands. Charles is famous for the fact that he often whistles to the team to signal his intentions. His sons joke that one of them (who I won’t name here) could never drive the big hitch because he can’t whistle. Needless to say, this is not the type of hitch that one would want to try with green horses.