c-10 pp 4-5 Nov.qxd
10/8/2002
1:31 PM
Page 2
Remembering the Old Ways
Draft horse lovers
preserve the past
by working the fields
By Craig Reed
I
t was a sight from another era.
Our grandparents and their
ancestors would have felt right at
home as the earth was turned.
But in 2002, the horses working
the fields of the Jack Laurance
farm, alongside Melrose Road west
of Roseburg, were a car-stopping
sight.
The groaning, straining and
blowing of draft horses and their
creaking leather harnesses replaced
the much louder roar and rumble of
diesel tractors parked in a nearby
shed.
It was a scene from the early
4 NOVEMBER 2002 DOUGLAS
1900s. Percheron and Belgian draft
horses strained into their harnesses,
pulling plows and harrows from an
earlier era through the South
Umpqua River bottomland soil.
Through the middle of the day, the
horses and their owners took turns
working the soil.
Members of the Umpqua
Harness Driving Club meet once a
month to work their horses, turning back the clock by working
farm fields or by taking cart or
wagon rides on trails or back
roads.
“Some of us like the old ways,”
says George Day of Lookingglass.
“Those old-timers were pretty
sharp. They had things figured out
then, like we do now with our new
technology.”
“I think young people need to
know how we used to do it,” says
Bill Talburt of Yoncalla.
Bill, 76, grew up in Missouri
when horses were still prominent
workers in the field. He is not worried the tradition is fading away.
“Horses and a wagon are still
used to feed livestock in the winter
in eastern Oregon, Montana and
Idaho, and just about all over the
Midwest,” he says. “One man can
do it all with a team and a wagon,
and in some places fields are
dragged with horses.”
A retired truck driver, Bill helped
organize the Umpqua Harness
Driving Club in 1982, and is a past
president.
George is now president of the
club, which has 52 members.
Bill owns two Percheron-Belgian
cross horses. He uses them on his
own ranch to drag out manure in
pastures. During the summer, he
brings a team back to Laurance’s
fields and produce stand, where he
uses them to pull a cultivator
through the cornfields and gives
wagon rides to visitors.
“The horses don’t compact the
soil as much as heavy tractors do,”
Bill says. “During the summer,
young people are out of school, and
when they’re at the produce stand,
they like to watch the horses work.
I like to show them how it all
works.”
Bill also demonstrates and displays his draft horses and old
equipment during several summer
events in the Yoncalla area. In addition to the horses and plows, he has
blacksmith tools, an anvil and a
forge.
All of Bill’s old equipment and
tools were his father’s in Missouri.
“I can show how to heat and
bend metal, how to set horseshoes
and how to sharpen plow points,”
he says.
George and Jeannette Day own
a pair of dapple-gray Percherons,
one black Clydesdale, two
Belgians and one quarter horsePercheron cross. The Days use
their horses for a variety of jobs
c-10 pp 4-5 Nov.qxd
10/8/2002
1:31 PM
on their property, dragging in
firewood, discing the fields and
maintaining fire trails during the
hot summer when fire danger and
restrictions cut down on the use of
power equipment.
The Days’ horses also are available to be used at weddings and
other special events, for a fee.
“When I retire, we hope to use
the horses more for that,” says
George, who works for the Douglas
Forest Protective Association in
Roseburg. “It’s business in a way,
but it’s also fun.”
The Days say a good draft horse
costs at least $1,500, and it’s “not
uncommon to pay $5,000 for a
good well-broke team.”
Harness equipment costs $1,500
for a farm leather harness, or
$5,000 and up for show harness,
which usually includes patent
leather, stainless steel hames (knobs
on top of the collar) and usually
nickel- or chrome-plated metal.
When the animals are working
Page 3
for the Days, they earn one to two
pounds of grain and a half-bale of
hay a day. When not working, they
get “a good-sized flake of hay in the
morning and another flake at
night,” Jeannette says. “Our horses
don’t eat much more than a saddle
horse would. You don’t need any
more room than you would for a
saddle horse.”
Jeannette says there are some
differences between having draft
horses and smaller saddle horses.
“If you use panels, they need to
be heavy duty, or a draft horse will
rub them over,” she says. “Same
with a gate. They can bend an aluminum gate in nothing flat.
They’ll rub on it and next thing
you know, it’s bent. Tall stall doors
are also necessary, so a horse can’t
get its head over it and push on the
door.”
Jeannette says having draft horses
is becoming more popular.
“People just think they’re fun to
have around,” she says. ■
Above, Bill Talburt discs a field with his
horse, Bell. On the opposite page, Bill,
left, and Moe Frost discuss Bell’s
performance in the field.
“Some of us like
the old ways. Those
old-timers were
pretty sharp. They
had things figured
out then, like we do
now with our new
technology.”
—George Day
DOUGLAS NOVEMBER 2002 5