In 19th-century battles, marching fearlessly into the war to end all wars at the beginning of the 20th century, or tirelessly pulling whatever it is asked to pull to this day, the noble Percheron draft horse has always answered the call to duty.
The Percherons that pulled the wagon at the Bunkhouse Bonanza in Cochrane recently are representatives of a proud breed that played a key role in opening western Canada to agriculture.
Originating in the Perche province of western France, they were originally bred as war horses, before being used for pulling coaches. Later, they were used for agriculture purposes.
Enthusiasts describe Percherons as proud and alert, intelligent, willing workers with good dispositions, who are known to travel up to 60 kilometres a day at a trot.
The Clydesdale, developed in Scotland during the late 19th century near the Clyde River, is perhaps the most well known draft horse in North America. For many years, those Scottish origins made that breed the preferred choice in Great Britain.
During World War l, however, Percherons became so popular with British soldiers that Great Britain sent representatives to scour the U.S. and Canada for the highly-regarded French horse. Hundreds were purchased and shipped back to Europe every week.
The British Percheron Horse Society ran an ad in 1975 praising the Percheron as the “Wheel-less tractor; Low First Cost; Low Running Costs; No Expensive Tyres; Grow Your Own Fuel! It’s got the fertilizer people worried too!”
Draft horses were also a part of life in the Canadian West, pulling settlers' wagons and homesteaders' ploughs.
All Saints Anglican Church (now located at Bethany Cochrane) wouldn’t be in town without the tireless work of draft horses. The church was dragged from Mitford, through Big Hill Creek to Cochrane in 1899 by 12 draft horses using the log rolling technique. It took a week.
One account of how draft horse enthusiasts were sometimes divided on the prairies tells of a small town church where the ‘Clydesdale people’ (predominantly of Scottish heritage) sat in the pews on the left, while Percheron devotees sat on the right.
As a young cowboy in Montana, George Lane saw what the Percheron was capable of. When he bought the famous Bar U Ranch near Longview, Alberta in 1902, he was already well on his way to eventually owning the largest Percheron herd in the world. At one time, the herd numbered over a thousand.
During the first two decades of the 20th century, Lane journeyed to the U.S. and France, bringing back prize-winning Percherons. At the 1909 World’s Fair in Seattle, the Bar U Percherons won most of the awards.
Lane, cattlemen Pat Burns, Alfred Earnest Cross, and Archie McLean were known as the “Big Four” – the group that are now famous for putting up the money to hold the first Calgary Stampede in 1912.
Ryan Fleetwood of Fleetwood Farms in Champion, Alberta, brought his Percheron mares Pearl and Paris to pull the wagon at the RancheHouse at the Bunkhouse Bonanza last weekend.
Fleetwood, a fourth-generation horse breeder, spoke fondly of the Percherons’ place at the farm.
“They fulfill a role . . . a want, for me,” he said. “They’re just so versatile. You can do anything with them, they’re a ton of fun.”
Fleetwood’s 10-year-old daughter Truly has already taken an interest in caring for 20-year-old Pearl and 14-year-old Paris. His three-year-old daughter Tulsa is also eager to get involved.
But Fleetwood doesn’t worry at all about both of the girls working closely with the one-ton, 17-hand tall gentle giants.
To highlight the horses' gentle nature, he referenced an event where, with their blinders on, his horses were hooked up to a wagon on an incline. An unoccupied baby stroller suddenly came rolling down the hill from behind.
“The stroller rolled down and came to rest under my horses. They didn’t kick, they didn’t move at all,” he said.
“To me, especially when they couldn’t see it but they could hear it and feel it, it’s pretty amazing for flight animals to not have any flight response.”
Colleen Coleman doesn’t just breed Percherons – she loves them.
Coleman said the Percheron has very little “feather” (hairs on the lower legs and feet) compared to the Clydesdale. She argued this is a huge advantage in Alberta, as mud-balling is a high-maintenance grooming irritant that can lead to chafing and other medical issues.
When she married her husband in 1990, they used Percherons to do more than 80 per cent of the work on their farm.
“Yes, I married an Alberta Amish man,” she laughed.
The Percherons did discing, harrowing, seeding, and haying on their ranch near Didsbury. Ploughing, not so much. When the plough hits a rock, it’s game over.
“You get popped off,” she said. “Which is fine, the horses are broke, as soon as you lose contact they stop.”
They currently have around 20 to 25 head of horses. Their breeding operation, Eaglesfield Percherons, produced the 2004 World Supreme Champion Percheron, High Hope Heather.
They do a lot of public events with the Percherons pulling wagons, like going door-to-door in Sundre and collecting donations for the food bank.
“We knock on people’s doors and say, ‘Hey – you got anything for the food bank?’ How dare they say no?” she said with a laugh.
Bruce Roy of Olds (who was Brian Coleman’s teacher) has spent the best part of his 85 years involved with Percherons, having bought his first mare, Wee Ginger, for $300 back when he was in university.
Roy went on to serve as secretary of the Canadian Percheron Association for 18 years, and also started his own draft horse magazine.
He said Alberta is still known as hotbed of quality draft horses, especially Percherons and Clydesdales.
Draft horses fascinated Roy from the time he was a small boy. He would spend hours gazing at the majestic horses while everyone else explored other attractions at the Calgary Stampede.
But his best memory – or the worst, depending on where he was sitting – came in 1964 when Roy loaded up Wee Ginger and crawled onto a livestock train in Calgary, arriving 105 hours later at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. That’s Winter fair.
He rode with her in the horse car, sleeping on straw and grain sacks, trying to shelter himself from the cold.
“It was the longest train ride of my life,” Roy said. But at the same time, he added it also remains one of his fondest memories. The passengers he called the “old timers” rode in relative comfort in a “colonial car” next to the engine, playing cards and making soup.
“When we got on a siding waiting for a train to pass, they’d run along with a bucket of soup and you’d put your cup out,” he said.
“The poor pig men were at the end of the train – I don’t think they ever got soup.”
