The first farm assets that Nathan and I owned were horses, before we even had a farm. We were inspired by Chad’s team of logging-turned-farming horses that we drove at Essex Farm when we all worked there. They were calm and sure footed, easy-keepers, as the saying goes. Nathan had also spent time with horses at Meeting Place Farm in Ontario, Canada.
In 2011, we bought three American Suffolk Punch yearlings from John Hammond, a breeder in Cornish, NH. They travelled with us as we looked for a farm, moving from Essex Farm, to Full and By Farm and then to Wild Orchard Farm. It’s hard to believe these babies are 10 now. We still have Ida (named for the white Idaho like blaze on her forehead), Polly (middle) now lives and works in Massachusetts at Sawyer Farm, and Faust (right) at Rolling Hills Farm in Westport, NY.
How about this picture from 2012!
Even as Reber Rock has shifted from a grain and veggie growing farm with lots of cultivation to a grass-based diversified livestock farm, we’ve kept the horses active. Most years we use them to mow hay, and Chad logs with them daily in the woods to haul his draft wood. We also breed them and train teams that go to other draft powered operations.
The joy of breeding is that each year we get the gift of new foals. We currently have three mares: Ida will foal this fall, Mable who was just bred this spring to Chad’s stallion Don, and Rose, whose baby came last week. Chad says that Rose always drops the same beautiful foal – a filly, all brown, sturdy and vibrant. This year was no exception, and she needs a name!
She needs a name!
Send us your ideas via social media, text or email .
We will pick one and announce her name next week.
Ridgewind Aethling Donald, the stallion and Papa to all RRF foals, Don for short (left). Mable, Chad’s newest mare (right).
The two yearlings below will go to Wild Carrot Farm in VT when they are trained in a few years.
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