EPISODE 268 LORNE SAUNDERS AND FAMILY : WINTER SLEIGH RIDE 1975
alan skeoch
Feb. 2021
A team of horses on a farm in Southern Ontario was as common as hen’s teeth even as late as the 1940’s.
But tractors were doing most of the farm labour by then. By the 1970’s most of those teams
were gone. Their harness may be hanging on big pegs where the horse stalls might remain but
the horses were gone.
There were exceptions, farmers who kept a team and used them for winter work like logging
…horses did far less damage to a forest than tractors and bulldozers. Marjorie’s guardian once
took us into that kind of lumber camp near North Bay. Horses were used to fish new cut
logs out of the forest without pulling down and smashing new growth. Deep snow was no problem.
Other farmers found horses were especially useful hauling manure to the back fields
when the snow was deep.
Lorne Saunders and his team made Saturday afternoon sleigh rides into a family outing.
In the picture below Lorne is standing on the pile of manure talking to his team while
his wife Carole and their first born boy Alfie are resting at the back on an old stuffed
cushion.
Their are three pitch forks. I think there was method to Lorne’s madness when
he asked us to tag along.
Site: Fifth Line, Erin Township, Wellington County, date 1975 or thereabouts