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Hi everybody,
I found this forum through the DAP article in the Small Farmers Journal and would like to introduce myself.
On my holidays in France I got introduced to draft horses, learnt to work with them and became addicted. Bought my first horse in 2008 and three years ago my wife and I decided to leave crowded Holland and try make a living in the French countryside. We took our two drafts with us.
Now going into our fourth year we have our Garden from which we sell our vegetables, My wife (being a teacher) works in the local secondary school and I do some carpeting, logging, the chores and the household.
The horses are two Belgian mares (from Belgium) 6 and 12 years old. The oldest works well, but is a little hot and the youngest enjoys life, works well, but at her pace, sadly she is traffic shy which we work on. When we team them up it goes rather well, but I have to improve.I like this forum very much. In Europe working with draft horses is rare and allthough everyones grandparents has worked with them they are but slowly coming back mostly for ecological reasons. I allready read lots of good stories and got some good ideas and tips.
Some photos from us:
Thank you!
Harness and collars are from Zeeland, a Dutch state just north of Belgium. They are still being made. In fact the all black collar is 10 years old and the other is from 1954. There is little leather in our harnesses, but for each job we have to take a different harness. Rope tugs and the wooden pegs are quite common, practical and cheap, but we don’t use them for logging.
The move was (and sometimes is still) nervewrecking. Quitted two well payed jobs to live our dream. Now short on money, but always outside spending lots of time with the ladies. In Holland a life like this would not have been affordable. Land and houseprices are too high.
A photo of our logging harness. The metal front part of the tugs rounds the shoulders, so there is no rubbing.
Thanks for the warm welcome!
The collars are horse-specific and the rest changes all the time. The collars are twice the weight of an american collar, so its impossible to keep everything attached. Downside is that you have to remember the adjustments or re-adjust all the time. Alltough I find them beautiful I will switch to american hame/collar combination when there is money in the bank. For now they work fine and I have to sell a lot of vegetables to pay for new ones. Transportation makes them costly for a european. We pay about $1200 each.
Being a longtime subscriber to the Small Farmers Journal I allready got lot of good ideas and tips from the US, but this forum is a super extra tool. I will certainley post questions when I have them. The internet has been a very good instrument to us up untill now! I don’t know how you all feel, but working drafts over here is very much a sort of draft desert with little oases.
Thanks for the compliments on my ladies, I love them and can watch them for hours. But in fact there is a downside to their beautifulness. Our belgians (same name for a different breed) aka dutch or belgian drafts are heavily bred on exterior and less for work. Breeding has become a sport, but finding a fine working animal has become very difficult. Too much inbreeding has caused the problem of chronic progressive lymphoedema (bad swelling legs) which can not be treated untill now. They still breed with horses who got it and it is genetic. The eldest mare got it and I see the first symtoms on the youngest. There is a way to slow down the swelling and thats work, work, work. I have to work them everyday which is fine by me. Learnt even to ride them (and how to fall off).
We are located in the south west of France, just above the famous Bordeaux wine area. We don’t do farm stays or visits, but when you are close give us a call. In fact operation is a big word for the tiniest of farms…
Brabant is one of the regions where the breed originated, this region nowadays is located in the two countries Netherlands and Belgium. We don’t call them brabants anymore.
Shipping is to expensive as you say, but the purchase is not. A breeding mare will cost you around $2500. A yearling $1300. But then again: how to find a healty one…They change color all the time, same horse:
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