The Rural Voice, 2000-05, Page 56IQ GREY BRUCE
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52 THE RURAL VOICE
Andrew Grindlay
Horse logging on the comeback trail
By Andrew Grindlay
Old timers all over Ontario are
chuckling as they see horses hauling
logs out of woodlots. Back in the
days when tractors were smoke -
belching, cumbersome, slow and
heavy and the skidder had not yet
been invented, the only way to get
logs out of a
farm woodlot
was with the
help of old
Dobbin.
Now there is
renewed interest
in horse logging.
particularly
where it is
impractical to
use mechanical
equipment. A
horse, which
typically weighs
around 1600
lbs., compacts
the ground much less than a skidder.
which weighs about 10,000 lbs. This
difference is particularly important in
wetlands where ruts can take years to
recover. A deep ravine often presents
a major challenge to skidder
operators whereas a horse can
scramble up or down a steep slope
with ease. Areas that are sensitive
from an environmental or aesthetic
perspective, such as parks, golf
courses or nature preserves, are ideal
places for horse logging because after
the logs and tops are removed there is
little evidence of the activity.
Art Shannon of Reaboro, Ontario,
has been using horses for logging
since 1982 and now has two Belgians
trained to respond to his voice
commands. He does not normally use
reins but has a length of twine tied to
the bit to steer his horse through
difficult spots.
"I compete for logging business
against people with mechanical
skidders and I get all the work I can
handle", saysShannon. Right now he
is booked for the next 12 months.
Most of the woodlots he bids on are
10 - 15 acres in size but he recently
logged one that was 180 acres and
one that was 120 acres.
"People hire me to log their
woodlots", says Shannon, "because I
have a reputation of being concerned
about the wildlife and the fauna in the
forest as well as the trees. And my
bids are competitive."
Shannon, who is a trained forest
technician and certified tree marker,
adds that after the horses have hauled
the logs to a trail or a clearing, he
uses a rubber -tired machine called a
forwarder that picks up the logs and
takes them the rest of the way to the
landing where they are loaded on to a
truck.
"Horse logging is a little more
expensive than logging with
skidders", says Allan Arthur of Delhi,
who also owns a team of Belgians
and uses them in his own woodlot as
well as helping his neighbours. "But
if there are only,a few trees to be
taken out or if the ground is steep, my
horses can do the job quickly and
economically"
"We do less damage to standing
trees", says Arthur, "and we can
snake a log out without needing wide
trails through the woodlot." He adds
that with his horses he does very little
damage to young trees and other
plants on the forest floor. He takes his
horses to neighborhood farms in a
horse trailer hauled by his pickup
truck and can move and get set up
very quickly. In the winter his horses
wear steel -cleated shoes to give them
more traction on ice.
There appears to be considerable
interest in the U.S. in horse logging
as well. Greg Caudell produces a 4
quarterly newsletter that he calls
Horselogger's International News. In
his January 2000 issues he writes,
"I think the most rewarding
experience I have had working horses
is starting a new horse. There aren't
enough well broke teams to go
around.... So I figure I should try to
do my part to fill the bill and start a
couple of prospects each year. The
way I go about it takes a long time. I
don't expect a horse to put in h real
day logging or farming until they're
at least five years old. It takes a lot of
feed and handling to bring a horse
along. Draft horses don't get their full