Unmatched Team

[gwpoky]

Looked at team today, nice pair of horses, but one is black and one is Sorrel both grade animals. The guy I have been working horses with is pretty strong about resisted Belgians, but I am not showing only farming with them. I drove the team on the feed sled and they went well, they are matched pretty good for size the black is shorter legged but a bigger body a little more old fashion looking and the sorrel has a little more leg but still stout. The price is right they are eight year olds. Any thoughts?

Thank you,
George

[mitchmaine]

hey george, what do you think about them? that’s what counts. pretty is as pretty does. a matched pair to me works well together. one could be a giraffe and the other a hippopotamus, but if they pull good, what else. you ain’t married to them. if it don’t work out sell ’em. good luck

[jen judkins]

Buy them, George. There’s no reason in the world a team needs to be the same color or size. They just need to work well together and provide the power you need. I, myself, almost ended up with a belgian and a percheron for a team…

[CharlyBonifaz]

as the saying goes:
beauty won’t work

[TBigLug]

We always say around here, “A good horse is never a bad color.” Same goes for teams.

[LostFarmer]

I have an older (72 yo) friend that pulls horses with us. Bryce has pulled a lot of horses over a lot of years. He feeds with them and plows as well. Bryce is notorious for hooking mismatched and unorthodox teams together. He had a bay belgain shire percheron mare hooked with her red roan son out of belgain. The weren’t within a hand of the same height but weighed up about the same. Anyhow, one of the other pullers was razing him about his matched team. He turned and said, “When your hooked onto 8000 lbs and the boat is moving you look down the eveners are even THAT is matched.”

The longer I am around horses the more I agree with him. LF

[Carl Russell]

I bought my first horse in 1986, and I have never had a team that looked the same. In fact a few years ago I had four in the barn, a bay Belg/Perch, a sorrell Belgian, a red chestnut Belgian, and a bay roan Brabant.

There is a difference between a draft horse, and a work horse, just look at them;).

Remember the teamster is a member of the team too!!

Carl

[gwpoky]

Thank you very much to all of you for the encouraging words, we have decided to purchase this team, I will post pictures when I get them to our farm. This site has been very helpful I hope to meet as many of you as I can in person someday in the future. We are very excited here as we look towards the sustainable future of our farm and yours.

Merry Christmas to all,

George & Rachael Walker

[Anonymous]

this might be a dumb question what is a resisted belgin

[Donn Hewes]

I am guessing that is ‘registered’

[Marshall]

The sure fire way to tell if they are well matched is to look down at the evener. If it is straight across then thay are well matched. Nothing else matters.

[gwpoky]

Sorry it is ‘registered’ and He called today with a team his niece has for sale I am going to go drive them today before I make up my mind. This is a team of mares one is 10 and the other is 15 not sure I like the 15 getting up there but she hasn’t been over worked in her life either so we shall see.

Thanks again
George

[Does’ Leap]

How is this for a matched team?

This is one of our two bay horses paired with our halflinger mare for the first time. Their size difference is hard to appreciate from this picture. Despite their differences, they went great together on our snow groomer. The bay gelding is 8 who usually goes with his half brother. The mare is 8 years old and we got her for free from a beef farmer who had her out with his devon bulls for years. We had no idea if she had been driven or ridden, but she seems to be doing both well. We plan of raking and tedding with her and one of the brothers this summer. We have also been twitching wood with her single this winter.

George

[john plowden]

It’s not size – but attitude!
I have a 16hh and an 18hh that go together really well – they have to ’cause they’re what I have – Merry Christmas –
John

[Scyther]

Makes me think of the old Saturday Night Live skit with the punch line,” it’s better to look good, than to feel good”. Only the truth is in reality the opposite. In this case, it’s better to work good than to look good. Good luck.

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