My field of dreams has had a team of Suffolk work horses in it for many years now.
Although I’ve had a life-long love of horses and have owned a few saddle horses in my time, the use of workhorses on a small diversified farm grabbed my interest hard about the same time I realized that farming was my calling. Many if not all of a small holding’s pasture, road and field maintenance as well as woodland work can be done with actual horse power; in most cases better (and quieter) than a tractor, with far less negative impact on the land. Horses also contribute nutrients with their manure, and lawn-mowing can be a side benefit if you are so inclined to set up moveable paddocks where you want grass nipped short.
Yes, they are slow. If you have 50 acres to plow, mow or till, you can get it done with horses but you’ll need more than two and lots of good weather. And yes, it is a lot of work to care for, train, harness, and actually use a team of horses to perform useful tasks. Yes, they do get sick or hurt and need veterinary care. But on the flip side, tractors break down, guzzle endless gallons of diesel fuel, oil and lubricants, and their weight compacts the soil. Furthermore, as my dear friend Jason Rutledge has noted on many occasions, you will never find a baby tractor waiting for you in the barn one morning. Horses reproduce themselves, which is a long-term proposition for the teamster, but then so is everything else about running an ecologically sound small farm.
I can’t really say how I became enamored of the Suffolk Punch breed. I did a lot of reading and research, and liked what I learned about their temperament and suitability for farm work. The Suffolk was developed specifically for farm work in 16th century England and became quite popular by the mid 20th century, just before the mechanization of farms brought about the decline in common use of horses for agricultural power. Short and powerful, with a good temperament and work ethic, the Suffolk. Not as many of them around as, say, Belgians or Percherons. A well-trained team of Suffolks is hard to find.
I found a mother-daughter pair several years ago, and set about having them trained and worked during the last few years of my military service, aiming to have a reasonably-experienced team ready to join me on the farm after my retirement in late 2011. Those mares didn’t work out, to make a long story short. So I’ve been waiting, and looking, and biding my time, getting the cow herd started and the farm operation up and running. Getting my first year under my belt.
A little while ago, as Winter passed into Spring, something told me it was time. Time to get ready for work horses. Didn’t have any good prospects, wasn’t really eyeballing a particular team for sale, but the need to prepare was very strong. I’d finally decided on a good stock trailer and purchased that. Then, when my oldest sister said she’d like to come out in between season jobs and help with whatever project I had going at the time, I thought, let’s build a pole barn.
For the Suffolk horses. That I hadn’t found yet.
But I did soon after. Not a trained team, but a brood mare with colt foal at side and her yearling colt from last spring, from a breeder up in New York that is dispersing their herd. With any luck she’ll be re-bred before I go pick them up; another generation on its way. Not sure and not expecting how the youngsters will turn out. There’ll be a future team of workhorses in the mix one way or the other. Time for all that to happen and unfold. But the barn idea started the ball rolling, and the barn is well on its way to being built, and in a few short weeks I’ll be headed up north to load and trailer some very nice Suffolk horses back to Bear and Thistle Farm.
Because I decided to build their barn.
High Meadows Cass and Aedan of Bear and Thistle
Thistledog's Farm 