Meet the Contestants: The Final Two

Having broadened our search to include the entire country, we set out to narrowing down the possible Percherons.  What we needed was a horse  sensitive enough to understand the sometimes muddled cues of a beginner driver, yet quiet enough to stand indefinitely.  When Sunny was still around you could often find him hitched in the parking lot with his eyes nearly closed, drifting in and out of sleep while he waited for his next passengers to board.  That commitment to relaxation was exactly what we needed in our next horse.  Relaxation aside, just what were we looking for?

Age 3-13. Draft horses are often slow to mature and may not be ready for real work in harness until their third year.  However, just as important as their physical maturity is their mental maturity.  NCEFT has been lucky, coming across a handful of young horses born with old souls.  Sunny was three years old and had never been trained to drive single when Bonnie bought him back in 1995.  A few months later Sunny was starring in weddings and parades, pulling the carriage as though born for it.  However, for every young horse who makes it there are a hundred too inexperienced to handle therapy work. Like giant dog breeds (Great Dane, Mastiff), draft horses have shorter life expectancies than their light horse counterparts and taking on a horse in their late teens may be a short-lived investment.  We opted to search for something inbetween, not so old as to be in the twilight of their career but mature enough to be ready for the big task ahead of them.

Experience outside the arena.  NCEFT’s arena is far from ordinary.  On any given day you’ll see horses walking in and out of hula hoops amd children playing basketball while riding backwards.  You’ll hear bells, tinny chords from toy guitars, and sometimes the occasional car alarm.  However, outside of a hippotherapy center arenas are decidedly less stimulating.  A driving horse who’s spent most of his life in an arena may be overwhelmed by tasks we take for granted.  So, we looked for the odd, the uncommon, the extraordinary.  Horses who’ve done parades, who’ve pulled logs and attended chaotic horse shows, who’ve been ridden over bridges and through woods and then stood quietly at Grandma’s house without pawing or fussing.  It wasn’t so much the experiences that were important, but the qualities they proved: trust, courage, and a desire to please.

Good looks and good health.  It wasn’t long flowing manes and liquid brown eyes we wanted, but big hooves and short backs.  When it comes to looks, longevity is king.  In other words, we looked for physical traits that suggested the horse would be sound and healthy for a very long time.  Though searching for a big draft horse, we hoped to find a Percheron on the smaller end of normal, about 17 hands. Not only is it harder to groom and tack a tall horse, but their size can sometimes be intimidating for new students.

Personality, Personality, Personality.  Everything else aside, the attitude of our new horse would be most important by far.  The horse would need to be calm and steady.  He would need to accept new things without batting an eye and respond willingly to confusing aids from student drivers.  And while Jazzy may deny its importance, he should play nicely with the rest of our equine therapists.

It’s all well and good to say your horse does the above and more, but could owners prove it?  Unable to meet many of the horses in person, we replied to ads with requests for photos and video.  Some simply failed to answer, others sent videos demonstrating just how unsuitable their horses were, and a few gave us hope our horse was truly out there.

Tune in next week and meet the candidates who gave us hope!