The Rural Voice, 1979-10, Page 11Bill Leeming, left, with one of his pony teams at a local fall fair;
McKillop reeve Allan Campbell is riding with him.
Horses are a way of life for William J.
Leeming of McKillop Township in Huron
County. Raised on the 14th of McKillop, he
started farm work in the days when horses,
not tractors,,were used for ploughing.
At 13 he plowed behind a team at his
first Huron County Plowing Match.
"Anybody could plow with horses," Bill
Leeming says and he predicts that we'll see
more and more horses working on small
farms as energy costs continue to climb.
"A tractor is just a hunk of machinery,"
he says, while a horse is a lot more than
that.
Though he recently sold his farm and
moved south a few miles to the seventh of
McKillop, horses are still a big part of Bill
Leeming's life. He owns 40, 11 on his new
two and a half acre home place and the
others pastured out with friends and
nephews.
He buys heavy colts from Eastern
Ontario, near the Quebec border and
raises them, along with ponies, to sell. This
fall he'll sell 12, aged from a year to two
years.
He often mates them up as teams and
sells them that way, mostly to people who
want horses for parades and shows. It's a
booming business.
Harness maker Malcolm Jacobs of
Brussels, with whom Bill bought colts last
summer, brought another load up this
summer "and they are all sold now," Mr.
Leeming says.
Mr. Leeming has raised "I don't know
how many ponies" which local parents
h', 1,-,'!ght for their kids.
Horses
A way ofllfe
" 1 tell them to try them out first. If the
ponies don't suit the kids, they can bring
them back."
He's careful to buy only mild tempered
ponies. "I won't keep a bad one." One
wild tempered pony that he "wouldn't sell
or give away," Mr. Leeming sent to the
Kitchener horse sale. Most animals sold
there go for horse meat, a popular item
with some Canadians.
"I don't like to see a horse go for meat,"
Mr. Leeming admits but he says horsemeat
is becoming a profitable commodity. There
are feed lots fattening horses for meat and
the McKillop farmer has heard there's one
near London with 500 head. It's not yet
part of the Huron farm scene however.
County Ag rep Don Pullen says he doesn't
know of anyone raising horses for meat in
the area.
Those sold for meat at the Kitchener sale
are usually old, bad or perhaps race horses
that are too slow for the track, Bill Leeming
says.
While horses of just about any kind
interest Bill Leeming, his eyes really light
up when he talks about his "hobby
horses," several miniature teams that he
exhibits in parades as far away as Mount
Forest and Kincardine.
These include sorrels for a four hitch
wagon, a Palomino team 51" high and a
pair of hackney ponies 42" high. He's
working on putting together a team of
Belgians, black with four white legs and
faces. He hopes to get heavy colts next
year.
He's driven miles to find mates to match
up his teams and often gets calls from
other horse lovers who know what he's
looking for. "We help each other," Mr.
Leeming says,adding that the main thing
he enjoys about parades and steam shows
is the "fellowship" with other horse
owners. Horse breeders and raisers know
each other and hunt for each other. "It
draws everyone together," he says.
Mr. Leeming has several different sizes
and types of buggies and wagons for his
small teams. He's cut down old ones and
made new ones. Not long ago he bought a
very old but factory made small pony
sleigh . One priceless item his horses pull
is an early McKillop road grader, over 100
years old, which he bought from the
township and exhibits occasionally in
historical parades. Bill is a township
councillor and he sometimes represents thG
township with the erader.
Also priceless is the sorrel mule which
Mr. Leeming bought near St. Mary's. An
RCMP representative from the west was
keen to buy it at a recent parade in Mount
Forest. "But I wouldn't even put a price on
it. I've learned. 1 did that once and sold a
team I didn't want to sell," Mr. Leeming
remembers with a smile.
"It's a business and a hobby," Bill says.
"I like buying and selling."
There's a real art to getting horses ready
for a parade. Mr. Leeming says there
always must be at least one experienced
horse in a team. Even so, horses regular ly
shy at crosswalks and other lines on main
THE RURAL VOICE/OCTOBER 1979 PG. 9