Crossbred Drafts

[Gabe Ayers]

WVDrafty,

You are welcome anytime you can get over the river and up here. I guess we are about 75 miles from Princeton Bluefield, just go south on 460 towards Blacksburg and then over to Christiansburg and then on route 8 south, over a couple more ridges to the edge of Appalachia in Floyd county.

Rudy is aging. He will be 15 this year. Still stout, active and will train another gelding this spring. We plan to work him with one of his sons that is bigger than him and slow as a snail. I like em slow….. the older I get the slower I like em.

Accepting that horses tend to have natural gates against resistance is easy as long as they are willing and ongoing.

We have a few registered mares to bred him to and many grades as always. Of course at today’s cost of keeping any animal – a more valuable one cost the same to keep as a cheaper one. But the main point is that one likes what they have and gets along with them. Most draft animals will do more work than most people will ever do these days. And if you don’t get along with them you won’t do anything with them.

I have always wanted to cross a Brabant with a Suffolk. Had old Rocky here several times. He was Tommy Flowers Brabant stallion from South Carolina. Couldn’t get him to breed a horse while he was on the road, Tommy thought it would make him foolish while traveling and that horse did some traveling. Tommy brought him and Bula to every HPD for year. I think he would have been fine to breed a mare anywhere, he was a perfect gentleman. Although Tommy’s handling and choices may have been why he was humble away from the farm. He probably knew best and it was and always is the stallion owner’s call. I just would have liked to had some of that bulk in a pair of geldings. Rocky passed away last year and Tommy is still getting over it. Unfortunately he didn’t have any colts out of him to carry on the Rocky bloodline. He has daughters though and they are nice horses too.

I have certainly bred mares with Rudy all over the country. I have bred thoroughbreds in northern Virginia, and grades tied to the side of the trailer down in the Chesapeake, and unexpected breedings when mares came to see him in the night, over the one strain electric fence at the logging camps. The funny part about those logging camp reproduction programs is that I never get a breeding fee…. It has happened more than once – I think it may be a plan with some of these guys…. When they do get out they go off to themselves and he keeps the mares away from the other horses, just like in the wild…

Anyway – we have lots of crosses in our group of Biological Woodmen, most possess some hybrid vigor for sure and are great work horses. It is the people that make them that way though, a horse is just a biological potential without a horseman (or woman – man is a just a contraction of hu-man). I should post some photos of crossbreds under this thread. There are several out there I would just like to have a photo of. I think all horses are more alike than different.

Look forward to meeting you in person WV D. Give me a call to make sure I am around and come on over.

BTW – if you are interested in logging some in WV I get calls all the time and don’t have anyone to refer them too….not in WV at the moment. My email and phone number are below.

Salute,

[Author]

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