Well-broke Percheron Team Avail in PA

[broadwing]

15 y.o 17 hand Percheron geldings, broke to all farm equipment available in Southeastern PA. My fiancé and I recently bought this team of horses from an Amish dairy farmer in Christiana PA who had owned them for 10 years. We are fairly green and wanted an older, quiet, experienced team. We drove the horses a couple times on their farm, ground driving and with a forecart. They drove with a very light touch and stood well. We drove them without their owner present as well. They seemed like the perfect team for us, except for their size which is more than we needed for our produce operation.

In the time they’ve been at our farm they have been more nervous than we are ready to handle. The off-horse, Frank,has been very nervous about the harness, even though the collar is his own. We‘ve also had them startle a lot while leading, with one instance of a run away. We’ve gotten the help of some experienced folks to come out and work with us and had one excellent day getting them harnessed (after hours of slowly introducing harness) and ground driving. We also had some experiences that showed they have more anxiety than we felt comfortable to work around. We decided we need to move on from this team because our experience level and current comfort level is so low and we have a lot of other demands on our time right now. We also feel pretty confident that this team would be the dream team for farmers like us, but with a bit more land to work (they’re BIG!) and more experience and comfort working horses.

The farmer is going to take them back and likely continue to work them once a week or so to haul manure. He sold them in the first place because the lead horse, Fritz, was showing signs of tiredness during the hottest, hardest work (6 days a week, from sun-up to sun-down). He wanted to keep them together because they are so bonded and preferred to not send them to a sale because he wants them to be sold as the honest age they are. But he can’t keep them into the season because he needs a new young team for his field work.

Please be in touch if you are seriously interested in a team like this and we can try to answer any questions or just send you along to Ivan Fisher in Christiana PA who will have them by mid-week.

[broadwing]

Here is a photo

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[JaredWoodcock]

How much are you asking for the team, do they come with harness?

Thanks
Jared

[Mark Cowdrey]

When I try to go to a thread I am prompted for username & PW to enter “Restricted Area”. When I enter my historic UN & PW it fails to satisfy. I am a permanent member. Any advice?
Thanks,
Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

OOPs. Something weird is going on.
Mark

[Donn Hewes]

They Look nice. I am sorry they didn’t work out for you. Often when we are introducing the working horses to beginning farmers we focus on the work; ie here is the harness and this is how we drive them and hook them to equipment. In my own work with beginning teamsters I am trying to take the time to make sure folks understand more about ‘what a horse is”, “how they think”, and why the cooperate with humans”. I have found it very fun and satisfying to take the time to explain these things to folks. Good Luck in your future horse powered endeavors.

[Tyler Sage]

Im interested in learning more about the horses. They seem like a pair i might be interested in. Could you email pictures? sage.tyler AT gmail.com

[Author]

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