MORRISBURG—Enjoyment should be the number one reason for anyone to work with horses.

"But if you think they’re dumb animals who don’t go fast enough and don’t listen, with that attitude, you should get a tractor. If you enjoy that relation with other living creatures you can definitely make horses work for you. They’re quiet and work at a reasonable pace, but you have to pay attention to what is going on around you," teamster Rob Wallbridge said in his workshop on Equine Power on Organic Farms workshop at Eco Farm Day, 2003.

Wallbridge learned the art of working with heavy horses in Nova Scotia, and south Western Ontario, where he spent a good deal of his apprenticeship at Fran and Tony McQuail’s "Meeting Place Farm", and has been working with horses for the past seven years.

At his parents’ farm near Winchester Springs, Wallbridge started with a pair of 15-year old Belgians, Dan and Sally, and recommends anyone starting to work with draft animals begin with older animals, because "they can teach you a lot."

He since acquired three Suffolks, Misty, her daughter Jewel and her foal Earl, who has grown into a two-year old gelding.

While enjoying working with horses is a prerequisite, Wallbridge shared a lot of other gems of horse sense fron his treasure chest of experience.

At roughly $2,000 for a good draft horse, the capital costs are lower than a new tractor, and fuel costs are lower, as hay and grain, is cheaper than diesel fuel, and the manure is a high-fertility byproduct.

Wallbridge feeds three small square bales of hay daily for four horses, and pastures them during the summer.

They only get a taste of oats to get them into the barn at night, unless they are working hard. But when they’re at their heaviest work, they get eight to ten pounds of oats daily.

Here are some other advantages of horse power. They start in cold weather and can plow the driveway. As you work them, they appreciate in value. Tractors depreciate, but horses produce foals to replace them as a power source or as additional sources of income."

"You build your farming system around a horse, incorporating hay, grain and crop rotation. You may have only 35 acres instead of 100 to plant in soybeans, but you’re not spending on diesel fuel," he said.

As well as cultivating four acres of market garden produce, Wallbridge and his teams do selective logging on woodlots around the area. After the Ice Storm, his horses were in great demand for clean-up work, because of their low environmental impact and maneuverability along river banks and streams, pulling broken trees out, without creating ruts or cutting wide trails.

Finding equipment in good working order is tricky, but occasionally, Wallbridge comes across a forgotten piece of equipment in someone’s barn or at auction sales. He then adapts technology to horse power, by repairing old equipment, or by taking apart a couple of old pieces and piecing them together into one working unit. Some new equipment may be purchased from manufacturers in Pennsylvania or through Amish catalogues.

It’s amazing what a horse will tolerate or learn to do, if you introduce the activity gradually, without imparting a sense of fear. 'You can get horses used to standing quietly while you throw firewood on the back of a wagon, or to anything going on around them, as long as they know, nothing will hurt them," said Wallbridge.

"I expect them to stand there. Every time you work with a horse, it’s a learning experience and a training experience for them. If it’s four times, it’s in their long term memory," Wallbridge said.

"They are very sensitive animals and read people very well. If you expect them to do something they can pick up on it and act according to you expectations. If you expect them to wander off as soon as you drop the line, it’s what they’ll do. If you expect them to be afraid of a car going by on a road, you’re nervous, chances are they will be too. If you treat it like it’s nothing, and not to worry about the horses won’t be worried," said Wallbridge.

During his slide presentation, Wallbridge showed a chain saw being used on a stump with a team of horses standing by patiently, and quietly looking.

He said horses learn to adapt if they are introduced the right way, "if you let them know there’s nothing to fear they’ll very quickly get used to it."

In keeping with the philosophy of learning by degrees, Wallbridge recommends training in a round pen, where the horse doesn’t feel trapped in a corner. The trainer gets the horse used to the feel of a loose rope around her neck.

"Eventually she stands there and lets me move the rope around her belly etc. Next, the horse gets used to lines and we put the lines on and start driving her. The next step is to bring the experienced mare in, and hitch a team together," he said.

Bringing in an older animal helps train the younger inexperienced horse, and hitching more than one together, helps them to learn from each other.

Not only is working with horses more enjoyable than working with machinery, there are other soft aspects to the technology, in terms of other people enjoying being around horses.

Children can be introduced to farm animals by patting and feeding horses, under supervision. Wallbridge said wagon rides are a great public relations and marketing tool, but insurance is a must, and it doesn’t come cheaply.

And after work is done, they can be hitched to a buggy and taken for a pleasure ride.