The return of the working horse

Working horses in towns and fields? It might sound like a quaint idea, with a funny aura of nostalgia to it, yet in France, there are now 130 town and city councils (including Paris) using horses for such tasks as rubbish collection, school runs, park maintenance, road sweeping, timber extraction from ecologically sensitive forests, etc., and this number has been growing steadily over the past 10 years.
Increases in fuel prices, and a growing concern for the environment have led many local authorities in France to see working horses as an essential element to their sustainable development strategy.
This has led to a vast increase in the availability of modern horse drawn equipment. A number of small French companies are manufacturing horse drawn road sweepers, grass cutters, and all sorts of horse drawn trailers for rubbish collection or for the transport of persons, including handicapped people.
Nor it is not just local authorities that are increasingly using draft horses. Larger multinational industrial groups are increasingly getting interested too. Veolia, a world leader in environmental services, has recently won a multi-million, 13 year contract, to operate six 50 people horse drawn shuttles which will take tourists to and from the world famous Mont St Michel.
And of course, farmers, particularly organic farmers, are now seriously considering draft animals as an economically viable alternative to fossil fuel powered machinery for some jobs. Horses are a particularly interesting option for small acreage farms producing high value crops, such as market gardens or vineyards. In that sort of setting, they often make economical sense. And if the farm is operating in an organic or biodynamic system, the manure that the animal produces can also be used to fertilise the land, adding another attraction to the draft animal option.
PROMMATA, a French organisation started promoting modern horse drawn farm equipment in the South of France in 1991. From a small start with just a team of a few volunteers, the organisation has grown steadily and now employs 8 people full time, in addition to a team of five part time trainers. They produce a full range of modern horse drawn farm equipment for horticulture and market gardening, work in vineyards and even field work. They also run training courses in all aspects of agricultural work with animals, in France, but also internationally, particularly in Africa. Their work gained international recognition when their Kassine tool carrier for horticulture was awarded the first prize in the Innovationspreis category at the Pferde Stark at Detmold (Germany) in 2005. The Kassine is still the best seller in their range (they sold about 60 last year) and has inspired other similar tool carrier manufacturers in France and Italy.
Of course, France had a head start as there were always large numbers of draft horses reared in the country, most of which where ending as meat for human consumption. But in the UK too, the working horse is making a come back. Timber extraction by horse has been a growth area in the UK over the last 20 years. Where damage to the forest floor is unacceptable for environmental reasons, or where steep slopes are involved, horses have proven to be a successful alternative to mechanised extraction. The National Trust, amongst others, regularly employs horse loggers. There are about 15 full time horse loggers in the UK, and demand for their service is so high that the British Horse Loggers Society is running an apprenticeship scheme to train younger horse loggers. And in the UK too, far-sighted local authorities have started using heavy horses: the city of Aberdeen, for example, uses teams of horses in a variety of tasks, such as park maintenance, rubbish clearance and plant watering in the city centre.
While Ireland is clearly lagging behind, interest in working horses is increasing. Jim Cronin, who is working his market garden business with the help of two Percheron draft horses, has been running introductory courses for the last 6 years with the Organic Centre in Leitrim. He proudly reports that he sold six work harnesses last year: "that's six more working horses in Ireland". Here too, things are moving and hopefully, Ireland, with its well established equine tradition as well as its native breeds (all of which are working breeds) will soon be playing its part in the revival of the work horse.

Written by Christophe Mouze
First published in Organic Matters, Ireland Organic magazine