A longtime tractor plowman switched to horse plowing in search of a friendlier and stress-free atmosphere.
“I plowed with tractor and plow for a number of years,” said teamster (driver) Russel Rogers. “Like everyone else I was getting older and … the class I was in was competitive and I wanted something a little less stressful and I’ve always loved horses and decided that the horsemen looked like they were having more fun than I was – so that’s how I got started in the plowing.”
The 82-year-old Mount Forest resident has now been plowing with horses for eight years. Before that he’d competitively plowed with a tractor for over 15 years.
Rogers has now taken his involvement in the International Plowing Match (IPM) one step further: he is responsible for the horses and horse plowing at the 2016 IPM near Harriston next week.
“There’s always a certain amount of pride and that’s why you wear (plowing match) hats and T-shirts,” he said. “This is the first time that I’ve ever been involved at this level, like to be in charge of the horses or anything.
“I just went and plowed before.”
The horses and mules will be stabled one kilometre south of the IPM’s tented city in a machine shed that has been outfitted with box stalls for all 28 competitors and their teams.
At other plowing matches Rogers said he remembers traveling about an hour to get from the barn to the plowing fields. However, even with the close proximity, trailers will take the horses to and from the site each day.
Rogers will be the only competitor representing Wellington County in horse plowing.
It will be his fifth plowing match competition since his transition from tractor to horses. When he decided to make the switch in 2008 he didn’t even own a plow.
“I went out and I bought a new pioneer plow in Ohio and I just started learning how to plow with horses,” he said.
At the time he had two Haflinger horses that learned with him.
“I had them until three years ago when we were in Ivy … they were good to pull but it was just getting too much for them and they were too good a team and I didn’t want to … ‘break them,’ which means they go over and they won’t do anything … so I sold them and bought a team of Percherons a year ago and they didn’t pan out.”
About two months ago he bought a team of Belgian mares named Lily and Ginger.
Luckily, harnessing horses wasn’t completely foreign to Rogers.
“My dad still had horses on the farm when I was a teenager … the greatest joy was the day that I could throw a harness over a heavy horse …” Rogers said.
“You watch their movements and so on and you know when they’re tired and need a rest and you make sure you give them a good rest, especially plowing and it’s learn by doing.”
However, he said he also read a lot about plowing.
“In the plow book it will tell you certain things like maybe the traces are too long or too short and it’s a lot of trial and error and where [the horses are] comfortable and everybody has to be comfortable in it … and you try to be quiet with them and just work with them,” he said.
Lily and Ginger are stabled at Murray Grein’s farm in Grey County and Rogers spends about five days a week working with them for about three and a half hours. a day.
“It’s a trust that you build and … the teamster that sold [the Belgians] to me said he would sell them to me and he wouldn’t sell them to anybody else – he’d keep them instead,” Rogers said.
“He knew they’d have a good home here. We just have fun at it.”
Rogers said he makes sure he gives the mares treats for a job well done.
“I have alfalfa pellets that I feed them at the end of the day after a good day and they look forward to that,” he explained.
“It’s just part of building a relationship with the horses but you have to be comfortable with them … around them.”
In competitive horse plowing there are three categories: walking plow, sulky plow (antique) and riding plow. Competitors are tasked with plowing a 25-foot (7.6-metre) by 100-foot (30.5-metre) plot in five and a half hours.
“Lots and lots of time and so the main thing is to just take your time,” Rogers said. “Don’t rush them and get them upset … it’s learning and knowing the horses.”
He said it’s important to let the horses settle and get their angst out so they’ll plow smoothly for the remainder of the plot.
Rogers added the horses can tell when the teamster is worried or tense.
“They can tell by the way [the teamster] holds the lines whether he’s comfortable or nervous and he can transmit this to the horse,” he said. “Oh yes, they’re very, very, very intelligent animals.”
Even though more than one team is plowing at a time, in the IPM horse plow teamsters are competing against themselves.
“In plowing we do not compete against our neighbour,” Rogers explained. “We compete against the scorecard and there’s a scorecard that the judges have.”
The teamsters are competing to get as close to 180 points, a perfect score, as they can.
“You can’t get upset with the competitor to your left or to your right because it’s what you did,” he said. “That’s why I enjoy it.”
In order to qualify for the IPM each team must receive a score of at least 100 in a competition the previous year. Each IPM competition day is scored individually and the results are announced at the end of the match.
Though teamsters are competitive, they don’t hesitate to give each other a helping hand.
“If someone’s having a bad day, something just isn’t right, they’ll try and help them to correct it,” he said of competing teamsters.
“I didn’t find [that] in the tractor plows.”
The IPM horse plowing field is located across from the tented city. Plowing runs from Sept. 20 to 23, beginning at 10am each day.
Rogers said he frequently stops to talk to curious spectators during competitions.
“With the horses we plow around and somebody’s there we’ll talk to them for a few minutes,” he said. “I mean … you’re conscious of the time but … you aren’t in that rush, gotta-get-it-done type of thing.
“We always have lots of time. There’s always people come along and ask questions about the horses and so on.”
The 2016 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo is taking place from Sept. 20 to 24 on Wellington Road 109 near Harriston in the Town of Minto.
For more information visit www.plowingmatch.org.
