Winner of Horses Pulling

[IL Rancher]

I was always a bigger fan of Percherons than Clydes or any of the other breeds... But half of the town I grew up in used to be a giant Perch farm back in the 1800's so I guess I am pejudiced... ome mior draft breeds I have seen over the years that I have like to that I can't place a name too right now..


Everyonce in a while I think havng a team would be fun.

[DJL]

I think a team of Shires would be interesting, because not everyone has them, but Belgians are a lot easier to find.

[IL Rancher]

I told my wife that I was thinking about draft horses once and she laughed and told me only if they are American creams... NOw, speaking of a a hard breed to find but they are barely bgigger than an TB. I think I'll stick to my perch dream, almost came true last year, almost had 20 or so draft horses.

[DJL]

Twenty!?! That is a bit more than a team! Nothing like going all out!

[Jinglebob]

[DJL]

I suppose it's not unreasonable Jinglebob. They do it naturally rather than from being shod to get artificially big action.
They had an 18 hand jumper at a show jumping barn I worked at once. You didn't have to bend over to scratch under his belly, but he was a goofy character handle. He couldn't see all the way to the ground in front of him, (I know horses don't see what's under their head but he was extreme) so if you dropped a rein or anything he was sure it was the devil come to claim him! He was definitely too big for anything but what he was doing.

[greybeard]

My father in law has Percherons by the dozen. He always seems to have 4 in the barn year-around. One favorite team and one young team he is breaking in. Looks like a lot of work to me. He’s 76 and thinking of bidding on some more land next spring. I think the horses keep him young.
My dad told me a storey about driving mules when he was young.
His dad sent him with a rack and team of mules to haul to his uncles threshing outfit. He told him not to overload the first load; just load level or the mules will balk and not pull anymore. He said everyone will laugh at you, but add one row with each load. At the end of the day you will be hauling full when they are cutting their loads back.
I'll try to get some pictures up of the Percerons.

[DJL]

One oldtimer here had a team of mules that would get balky when he went to feed cows, so he got mad and took an handful of hay, lit it on fire and threw it under the team. The mules must have read that book though, cause they just pulled ahead until the fire was under the rack and stopped. I don't think I'm of the right temperment to deal with mules.
I'm looking forward to the Percheron pics, Greybeard.

[IL Rancher]

DJL,

We were looking at buying a place down south of here that was a horse/cattle farm. He had a hundred mustangs along with their offspring that were mustang/quarter horse crosses that he sold down to Mexico for some strange cross country race. But he also had a lot of draft horses that he breed for Amish communities and for pulling comps. He had Perches, Cylsdales and Belgians.. Probably had 5-10 of each of those three breeds, mostly brood mares but he had Stallions too... they were huge. one was standing in his main cattle working barn... It dwarfed me. They were for sale with the place, the Mustangs were ours for free if we wanted them. If I had a few Million extra dollars laying around the place would have been mine... It was awesome. The help would have stayed on, I woulda needed them, lol.

[DJL]

Gee IL Rancher, if you'd a bought all those horses you'd a been horse poor just like me! Horses just seem to collect around here for some reason......