Last Sunday, the annual South East Clare Agricultural Show took place in Bridgetown, Co. Clare for the 20th time. Amongst classes for horses and ponies, the class run in the work horse ring was somewhat different.
A good number of work horses had turned up, and from 2 p.m. onwards, they were hitched to different horse-drawn tools like a potato sprayer, a ride-on plough, a spring tooth harrow, a field roller, a manure spreader. Amongst other breeds, there were two very nice teams of Percherons and a huge big Clydesdale who was on his first outing altogether and did a brilliant job.
And of course, there was Henry, the only Irish Cob this time. It was his first time at this sort of event, and at some stage, he got quite excited with all that was going on around him.
Overall, the demonstration attracted many people's interest, and so did the exhibition of many different old and modern horse-drawn tools.
The photos demonstrate the big variety of tools, harnesses used, horse breeds...
Some of the equipment had been imported from the U.S. where horse-drawn tools are still manufactured nowadays for the many farmers who run farms on horse-power alone.
Also, the day was a great opportunity to meet up with so many like-minded people and exchange ideas and experiences.
Amongst other ideas, the foundation of an Irish Work Horse Association was dicussed, and hopefully, a meeting will take place to talk about this further sometime this autumn. Anybody interested in this, just contact us!

After all that hard work in recent weeks earthing up potatoes and shifting stones, we treated ourselves to a day out and went to Dingle for a Trec Ireland competition.
These competitions usually are made up of three parts.
In the first part - the "control of paces" - the rider is asked to control the horse in two different gaits for a certain distance in a certain amount of time.
The second part is an obstacle course, which can include jumps, crossing ditches, riding up or down steep hills, crossing a bridge or water, riding very sharp turns or under very low poles.
The third part is the orienteering ride, where riders have to follow a set route on a map at a certain speed and checking in on check points.
This time, this meant riding up a steep hill through heather and gorse, to end up on top of a mountain ridge, overlooking a breath-taking view of Dingle Bay, the Blaskets, the Skelligs and the whole wide open Atlantic.
Certainly worthwhile coming out for!!! Oh, and the ribbon, of course - we came 6th!

After our successful outing to the Brown Envelope Seeds Farm in the beginning of June, we returned two weeks later for more potato ridging. This time, a film crew took keen interest in Henry and his work. Currently, they are working on a documentary which will be broadcast this October, about food production on different farms throughout the seasons in Ireland.
Henry did his best to impress cameraman and interviewer, and soon, he was followed down the furrows by a big camera.
If Henry made it into television, this would be a fantastic opportunity to promote the use of work horses in modern small scale farming.
So, keep your eyes out for that documentary on TV3 in October!!!

This year's Open Day on the Brown Envelope Seed Farm on Turk Head near Skibbereen on the 6th of June was a great success. Around 200 visitors came along on a bright and breezy Sunday afternoon to walk the farm, view the garden and polytunnel, learn about seed saving and watch Henry, Tim and myself earthing up potatoes in the field behind the seed processing shed. We used our German ridging plough which worked perfectly in the light and almost stone-free soil. Various different varieties of potatoes had been planted and had come up very well in the warm and dry spring. The ridges were about 32 inches apart, which worked well with the available settings on the plough. Spectators were impressed by the efficient and rountine-like way Henry pulled the plough, and in no more than 20 minutes the rows were earthed up.

See Henry in action:

http://brownenvelopeseeds.blogspot.com/2010/07/henry-came-to-help-with-potatoesoh-and.html

The demonstration was followed by an introduction workshop for anybody interested in work horses. 6 people gathered to hear about harnessing, horse-drawn tools, different uses of work horses and work horse breeds. Everybody had a go at driving Henry from the ground, and then with the ridging plough in the field, and participants left inspired and hoping to learn more at another stage.