Rural Heritage August/September 2025

Publisher's Post I recall seeing on Facebook a photo of a large moose in harness and a man adjusting its belly band. Stacked logs were in the background suggesting it was being used to skid logs. I saw that photo many times on many Facebook pages before its authenticity finally succumbed to better sense. It was fake, of course. Before it showed up on Facebook, it made the rounds by email in early 2007.

Social Media can be a great platform for people to connect, ask questions, promote events, and simply join a group of people with like interests. For folks who use draft animal power, it can be a place to learn you are not alone. You might be crazy to want to farm or log with horses, mules or oxen, but there are others crazy just like you. Not that I think using draft animal power is crazy. But for those doing it in isolation, it can seem the world is determined to make you feel that way. Which is why I love reading comments and posts by draft animal people supporting one another. They may not agree on whether you should have halters under your bridles, dock your horses’ tails, or use plastic instead of leather harnesses, but they will respect you and your choices. That's why I get a little irritated with people who don't use horses, mules, oxen or donkeys to get work done, but are compelled to criticize the choices of people who do. “Get a tractor and stop abusing your animals,” is a common comment. Another is “If you're going to use a power cart, what’s the point? You’re cheating.” As if by using horses you must forego all modern technologies, or else. Or else what? You will be expelled from some club? After I posted a couple videos showing the two prototype pull-type combines being demonstrated at Horse Progress Days last month, a fellow chimed in with: “I just can not respect these folks. Will not use tractors. But instead uses an auxiliary engine. To those backward folks. GET A LIFE.” Of course, the folks in the video couldn’t care less whether he respects them or not. I just have trouble understanding what makes this person voice his disapproval. It’s as if he feels insulted or threatened by the fact they don’t farm the way he does. As if by using draft horses they are disparaging HIS methods of farming. I also get a kick out of the person who chimes in to tell us the folks in the video are doing everything wrong. Thankfully, there are usually others who reply to point out the people in the video are not professionals but simply demonstrating a process so others can learn how things were done years ago. Instead of criticizing, you might think they'd applaud the efforts of the folks trying celebrate our legacy.

At the time, it was considered genuine by many. Today, in the age of Artificial Intelligence, it would suffer greater scrutiny. Now we have much more credible-appearing photos making the rounds. I’ve seen a couple photos of impossibly tall horses, mules and other animals standing beside a supposedly normal-sized person. Reminds me of a postcard I once saw of a man riding a corn cob pulled by a team. It is a shame that every photo we see today needs to be vetted as a potential deep fake.

August/September 2025

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