The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot Great Lakes Bolters How y'all handling the snow / cold?

FWIW... Peggy mentioned our boys in the snow. During inclement weather (snow or freezing rain), I would *usually* leave the gate to the run in shed open so they could decide for themselves where they wanted to be. I remember trying to round them up for dinner in a raging blizzard -- I found them standing together,seemingly content. Their butts were to the wind, however. Anyway, they usually preferred being out in it. We had one nasty bit of weather that I cooped them up in the run in shed, though.

Our boys were our second (and last) team of Belgians. Jerry was right at 20 hands and about 2,700 lbs. Dom was two inches shorter and about 100 lbs less. I got them from the Kentucky Horse Park when they were retired. When I worked at the park, I had been Jerry's groom in the "5-Breed" show and demonstration hitch. We had 3 on the wheel and two leaders. The wheelers were the big guys -- Jerry (Belgian), a Shire and a Percheron. The two smaller guys were the lead team -- the Clydesdale and a Suffolk Punch. Jerry was the largest horse at the Kentucky Horse Park so it was always fun to take him to the daily "Parade of Breeds" and we'd show him standing next to a miniature horse. I was in a LOT of pictures. I also worked the Park's Show Hitch -- a 6-horse Percheron team. We had a Budweiser hitch and the Southern States hitch visit the park from time to time and it was always fun to work with those guys.

While we've been here in Maryland, I have friends for a long time with the gent who owns the Clydesdale Team representing Budweiser in the greater Washington, D.C. area. I helped train one of his earlier teams when he was just starting out and helped train his son (who does most of the hitch driving). It was fun taking him from 2 to 4 horses.

Driving big teams is exhausting so I've always just preferred to drive a pair. My Mennonite neighbors put me on a 6-abreast team once. They were pulling a modern 6-row seeder on a power cart (PTO and hydraulics). THAT was a handful -- I had to drive the team AND run the power cart AND control the seeder ... It took about a full acre to turn. And on that team, I was only controlling the two center horses ... In a turn, one end of the team was almost walking backwards while the other end was at a trot. It was fun ... for about 15 minutes.

Here's Dom and Jerry. They've gone on to the big pasture in the sky.