by Edward Y. Morwick

"Among the many Amish communities in the United States with well-deserved reputations as producers of quality draft horses is the Arthur-Arcola area of east central Illinois. Level as a billiard table and as green, fresh and fertile as the Valley of the Nile, it is, at first glance, an unlikely place for a concentration of draft horses," wrote Maurice Telleen in the Winter 1980-'81 issue of The Draft Horse Journal. "It is a more likely spot for mile-long rows of soybeans and corn, cash rent tenancy, abandoned farmsteads and an absence of fences."

Yet here, the Belgian draft horse is still an important source of farm power. And it is here, postal address R.R. #2, Lovington, Illinois, that you would find the Hale Farms, the place where brothers named Jack and Gary, when it came to Belgian horses, rewrote the record books.

Read more about the Hale Bros. and all the great Belgians they bred & showed.. purchase the Spring 2023 issue!