It took three years of research, collection and writing, efforts culminating in the recent release of Horses, Harness and Homesteads.
The book by Merlin Ford, is subtitled The History of Draft Horses in Saskatchewan and is very much a labour of love for the author who has had a lifelong interest in the big horses.
"It's an interest I've had for quite a while," said Ford, in a 2011 interview with Yorkton This Week who lives in the Kuroki area.
Ford, 39, said he can recall working horses from when he was a youngster.
"When I was a kid I remember going to visit my aunt and uncle (Graham and Linda Thomson). They always had a team of Percheron geldings," he said, adding "getting to feed them a can of oats was a highlight of the trip."
And then Ford himself would become directly involved with draft horses.
"My family bought our first draft horses when I was 14, and I started doing a little bit of showing when I was 15," he said.
Ford said the book took time to come together.
"One of the challenges in compiling this book has been the amount of information that could be included. Horses played such a vital role in our history that it would be virtually impossible to cover it extensively in a book of this length," he wrote in the book's forward.
"It is over-simplifying things a bit, but to a degree it would be like writing a book which covered the different tractors and cars, as well as their owners, which were used in the province in past years."
Ford said one of his proofreaders Bruce Roy said he had accumulated more information than could be contained in a single book.
"He said 'the amount of stuff you have gathered up you don't have one book'," said Ford with a grin over a cup of coffee Friday.
Ford said he eventually chose to leave out much of the most recent history of draft horses. He said "to a degree I included the '50s and '60s, but it's fairly light on those years." He added it was a conscious decision to focus most of the book on the earlier years. "I wanted to cover the older stuff."
Ford said he is still receiving photographs and stories, adding he is considering "a second book of old stuff," and there could be one on the more modern history of draft breeds too.
In terms of history that of the draft horse is intertwined with that of the province. In the earliest years of settlement much effort was made from the farmer to the government to ensure quality horses were being bred to fill the diverse needs of a growing population.
"In 1893, Saskatchewan had a law governing the stallions in the province, making it the first province to have a Horse Breeders Act. The most important parts of the new act were" details the book;
1-Inspection of all stallions, purebred, grade or scrub will be compulsory in all parts of the province;
2-Graded certificates will be issued to purebred horses; grade sires which are sound will be permitted to stand for public service;
3-Municipalities will be given the right to state whether they wish grade stallions to travel within their boundaries or not, and if it is found that a sufficient number of purebred sires can be secured to meet the needs of the resident mare owners, the municipality will be incorporated into the approved stallion district.
The federal government remained focused on horse improvement for decades to follow.
"A newspaper report in 1933 stated that the federal department of agriculture would join with the Saskatchewan in providing a bonus of up to $300 on approved stallions, details the book.
"The premium was to be calculated at the rate of $6 for each in-foal mare, up to 50, making a maximum of $300 per stallion.
"In order for stallions to be eligible, they must have passed their federal inspection, and be enrolled with the provincial department of agriculture."
Ford said the need to ensure quality horses was critical given that in the time from the first settlers through to at least the 1950s they were critical to so many jobs.
Ford said as worked on the basic book idea he came to realize the story that most needed preserved was the one about the varied roles horses filled over the years in our province.
"I was looking at all the jobs horses did. There were a whole bunch many people had probably never seen," he said in 2010.
Ford said most people are at least somewhat aware of horses doing farm work, pulling plows and binders and threshing machines, but at one point they did all the jobs in a city too.
"People think of milk wagon horses," he said, but added basically everything that moved was moved with horses. Goods would arrive by train and then be taken to stores and homes by wagons drawn by draft horses.
Ford said even buildings moved drawn by 20, or more horses.
"People don't realize, or remember that," he said.
But the influence of the big horses would wane, although there was a time there were those who thought the horse would prevail over the tractor.
"The demand for quality draft stallions was considered as high as it had ever been. Stallion clubs or syndicates were considered the quickest way for the average farmer to make progress in horse breeding," stated a passage in the book.
"R. H. Taber stated that the life of the small tractor had proven to be very short, and they were incapable of producing any foals. He felt that the wearing qualities of the tractor would have to be significantly improved before they would be able to seriously compete with the draft horse on the farm.
"Saskatchewan was leading the country in the number of horses. In 1919, there were 1,780,452, an increase of 88,443 over the previous year, and 158,000 more than the province of Alberta.
"A world shortage of 3,468,000 head had been reported the previous summer. Belgium, France and Poland were the countries where the shortage was most severe. (This number seemed almost unimaginable when I (Ford) first read it, but after seeing the list of countries most affected, I would expect that this would have been largely due to World War I)."
But the tractor was a reality, even if it was unclear what impact their arrival might have on the future of the horse.
"In 1920 S.G. Carlyle, livestock commissioner for Alberta, spoke on 'The Future of the Draft Horse in Western Canada'. He said that there had never been a time when there were as many conflicting opinions on the future of the draft horse. The low price of horses, the high price of feed, and the popularity of the tractor seemed to favour the tractor. He believed that the peak in popularity for the tractor had passed however, and that while many farmers would continue to have tractors, all of them would have draft horses. The one thing that was certain was the need for more power in the future. If the horse breeder didn't meet that need, the tractor manufacturer would," stated a passage in the book.
The book is available locally at Coles in the Parkland Mall, or you check out www.clippityclop.ca or contact Ford at clippity.clop1@gmail or call 338-2132.
