STABLE TALK
by Bruce Roy
published in The Draft Horse Journal, Autumn 2008

Scientists state the escalating price of fossil fuel, coupled with climatic change, will alter the social structure of man on earth. Cities will shrink in size, while towns and villages are expected to grow. Purportedly farms will become smaller in size. Rail and water transport will replace transport by truck; the demand for electrical power will increase exponentially. Energy from nuclear power sources, from the wind, tides and, sun, will successfully be harnessed. It is going to be a different world!

Will the power draft horses can generate be harnessed in this new world?

Draft horses such as Windermere's Deidra, America’s newly crowned World Champion Percheron Mare, have much to offer society. This powerful, black mare, combines size and quality, which is not easily achieved. Her substance, bottoms and considerable bone, capture a cosmopolitan horseman’s eye. She has shoulders and pasterns of a proper slope, which allows the weighty female to successfully cope with concussion. Windermere's Deidra travels free, straight and true, wasting no energy when she moves. Her great feet take a firm hold on the ground. In short she is a superb athlete, one that flexes her joints and has length of stride. Draft horses designed like Windermere's Deidra will handle the same load as lower, thicker-set horses but with greater ease. They will also cover more acres in an hour.

Most draft horses our grandfathers employed differed from Windermere's Deidra. The draft horses they harnessed were less productive. However, there is a downside to draft horses the likes of Windermere's Deidra, for less feed was required by the thicker bodied, shorter legged horses our grandfathers preferred. The tall, long-legged horse, when harnessed in the stable, was disliked by our grandfathers.

Keradon’s Camelot, the World Champion Clydesdale Mare is designed like Windermere's Deidra. I’ll wager money, the Grand Champion Mare at the Belgian Championship VI at Indianapolis, will be a female cut from the same pattern.

Given the technology available to today’s agriculture, Belgians, Clydesdales, Percherons, Shires, Suffolks too, offer a viable alternative energy source. Our friends in the Amish community know this. Amish farmers have shown us how the dependence on fossil fuels can be eliminated, how the environment’s health can be maintained and how a profitable return can be achieved on each cultivated acre.

At least this is how I see it!