The Rural Voice, 1979-10, Page 13sold four horses during the past year.
"It seems in the Belgians, Clydesdales
and Percherons--the Belgian has had the
biggest demand," Vern said.
Vern said he thought the reason for this
was that the Belgians are colorful horses.
"It's an improved breed from what they
were 20 years ago. They're a big good
tempered horse and everybody likes the
color," he said.
He also said there was a demand for
registered brood mares as there are
quite a few who would like to get into it for
a hobby and a lot of the Belgians are used
as pulling horses.
The demand for these Registered Bel-
gians has even extended to Japan where
they use them for some type of racing.
Training the horses for show takes some
effort and the 50 acres surrounding the
Bast home provides a good training
ground. There they have hay and grain and
pastures just for the horses. Breaking the
ground with the young colts helps them to
learn how to drive.
But what works even better for training
the young colts Vern says, is to hitch them
up to a sleigh in the wintertime along with
a more experienced horse.
"An experienced horse will go and a colt
will learn to stop and to go and an old horse
will have to train it (the colt)," Vern said.
Showing requires that the horse have
shoes on, be groomed and trained. They've
got to be able to lead, and broke with a
harness and anything that's old enough
has to learn to run and walk and stop on
command. To break a colt to drive would
take approximately a year, Vern said.
Vern has won ribbons and champion-
ships with his horses, "which makes a
fellow feel like it's worth a lot," he said.
In the Regional Belgian show which is
the show for this part of Ontario, Vern had
the Siring Champion and the Grand
Champion mare one year.
Vern is a member of the Ontario
Belgian Association as well as the Can-
adian Belgian Association and although he
hasn't been showing lately, Vern recently
had a chance to try his hand at judging,
something he calls, "a great challenge."
When judging horses, he says he looks
for good hooves, a good posture, good
confirmation, size, good color and groom-
ing and trained actions, and an owner is
judged on his capability of handling his
horses.
"To show, you've got to have a love for
it. You've got to have a love for it or you
would never do it. It's not for the money.
It's for the pleasure," Vern said.
As in most hobbies, the raising of
Registered Belgians for showing and
selling requires a lot of time, patience and
money but for Vern Bast it is obviously a
hobby that's worth every bit of the effort.
A PROUD OWNER — Vern Bast of R.R.2, Newton lust recently
purchased this stallion to start a new line of Registered Belgian horses.
A SUCCESSFUL BREEDER — Currently Vern Bast has 12 Registered
Belgians at his home at R.R.2, Newton where he operates a breeding
and selling program Here he proudly shows a mare and
her colt.
THE RURAL VOICE/OCTOBER 1979 PG. 11