Yesterday, I had to do something to one of my house trailers, so I walked back to where I keep them.
As I arrived, I couldn’t help but notice, there was a very pretty Belgian mare standing in front of the trailer I wanted to work on, placidly nibbling the grass.
I thought to myself, “I don’t remember that being there.”
She was so nonchalant in the way she went about dining on the greenery, I had to ponder the question of whether she was supposed to be there or not.
She allowed me to approach and take hold of her halter, so I led her towards my neighbor’s pasture where she belongs. As I topped the rise and came in view of the pasture, I observed that the electric fence appeared intact. Not knowing anything about electric fences, I decided to take another route.
So I led this enormous horse down the main street of Orwell, past several houses. At one house, there was a group of people sitting on the front step, so I called to them, “Which house is the Carters’?”
When I got her home, I noticed that neither of their other two horses was wearing a halter. I was thinking, what could I have done if the horse hadn’t had the halter?
Now I’m wondering if my belt would even fit around that horse’s neck. This is a large animal.
At various places when she wasn’t sure she wanted to go where I was directing her, trying to get her to move was like pulling on a brick house.
You can lead a well behaved horse, and most heavy horses fall in that catagory, just by forming a u with your fingers and thumb and grasping the lower jaw just behind the “chin bump” , kinda in the gap where a bit would fit- I’ve had to do that a few times back in the day…
And if you turn the horse’s head sharply to the left or right while tugging on the halter, it will move then just head it in the direction you want to go, puts them off balance and they have to take a step. Had to do that more than once too, sometimes we’d look like two drunks zig-zagging along on our way.
That makes sense, but I’m not sure it would work for that particular horse. It was actually more the other way around.
At one point as I was leading her along, she swung her head a little to the right. I was on the left, and my entire strength had no effect on the motion of her head. The effect on me was to cause me to stagger to the right, whereupon she stepped solidly on my right foot with her massive hoof. (Nothing broken, and not nearly as sore today as I would have expected, thankfully.)
I was around horses a bit when I was in my teens and twenties, but I’ve never handled quite such a large animal. Amazingly solid, but extremely sweet natured and gentle too, and a very pretty horse. I can see why a lot of people like Belgians.
Saw this happen with a Belgian at the state fair. The fellow tending the horse in the stall was effectively pinned to the spot and understandably not in the best of spirits. No help for it so he started punching hard on her flank. Took a while, but she finally turned her head back with a “Huh? Oh. Um…sorry about that” look and stepped off of his foot.
Those large horses are magnificent animals, but the first time I got even a little bit close to one, my thought was “Thank god these things don’t eat meat.”
I have two friends who work with horses. She’s an equine dentist and he’s a farrier. She’s 5 feet in shoes and he’s about 6’2". She of course has to use a ladder a fair amount in her work. They got called out to a new client years ago who had miniature horses that needed both hoof work and dental work done. When they got back home I have never seen so many bruises in my life. I don’t think they have worked on animals smaller than her since.
What a great story, Jerry! It sounds like something straight out of a James Herriott book.
I have a Belgian horse story too. The summer after I graduated from high school, I worked at a day camp for elementary-school-aged kids. We had a different batch of kids each week, so we cycled through the same activities week after week. Most activities were focused on “pioneer” type things – churning butter, dyeing cloth using plants and flowers we picked, etc. One day a week, we visited a nearby farm where an elderly man used Belgian horses to do some farm chores such as cutting hay. He’d talk to the kids while hitching up a pair of horses with the help of a young assistant, and then we’d all get a ride in the wagon pulled by the horses. One week he called to say his assistant was unavailable and he’d have to cancel unless one of us could help. I’d seen it all done several weeks in a row and I said I’d help. So, I got to help harness up those enormous, beautiful, strong & gentle horses. It was a little scary but actually less so than with smaller horses I’d been around, because these horses were so placid and well-behaved. I think if I were to get a horse (purely hypothetical, because I’m not going to!), it would be a draft horse.
yes, they’re boring! 
