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Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Duane Van Dyke
Draft horses pull their weight, and then some
Draft horses dot the fields of One Mile Shires farm outside Yamhill, Oregon running, grazing or simply sunning themselves on the rolling green acreage.
But when Duane Van Dyke gets ready to hitch up a pair for pulling and plowing, all the horses head to the barn. They line up like spectators at a show, watching the action and hoping they'll be next.
The big, gentle horses know they are an important part of
the life of the farm, and they're proud of that
"They love working," Van Dyke said. "You can tell. Watch their ears," and pointed out the way the ears of a partly-harnessed horse swiveled, following his voice. "It's like people who run regularly. They want to get out there and do it."
Van Dyke, of course, feels the same way.
He has loved draft horses since he got acquainted with a pair of Belgians at his grandfather's place, next door to his childhood home in Gaston. Back then, in the 1960s, Belgians and Percherons were the big breeds most commonly seen on Oregon farms.
As soon as he could crawl over the fence, he said, he spent as much time as possible with the horses. He learned to communicate with them, care for them and rig them up to pull.
When he was 12, his dad bought him a decades-old Syracuse walk-behind plow. They fixed it up and hooked it to Grandpa's team for the youngster's first ploughing competition.
Nearly 40 years later, Van Dyke is still competing, along
with breeding and training draft horses. And he's still using
the same antique plow.
It's a simple piece of machinery, consisting of a pair of curved steel blades mounted on a frame, with handles for the driver on one end and a hookup for the horses on the other. But with Van Dyke's guidance, and the pulling power of nearly two tons of horse, it cuts through the soil like a warm ice cream scoop cuts through fudge ripple.
"Ploughing is teamwork," he said. "The horses pull and I guide. Ideally, it's the three of us working as one."
Van Dyke is one of the draft horses owners planning to demonstrate their plowing prowess, and compete for top plowman honors, at the local Farm Fest.
Eighteen teams are expected at the competition, including one led by Van Dyke's daughter-in-law, Sara Van Dyke. Last year, she became one of the first women to win state champion ploughman honors.
Van Dyke and his wife, Diane, gave themselves their first pair of draft horses as wedding presents to each other. They chose Shires.
"We wanted to try a breed that not everyone had," he said.
Shires, which originated in England, are among the largest
of the draft horse breeds. They average 16 to 17 hands in
height, with massive, muscular chests and hindquarters.
They come in several colors, from bay to black, often with white faces and stockings. They can be identified from afar because of the characteristic feathering — the long strands of silky hair around their forelegs.
The feathering is pretty, but not always practical, Van Dyke said. The light-colored feathers soon become covered with mud as Shires plow Oregon's muddy fields.
The Van Dykes first pair consisted of a gelding and a mare.
They bred the mare to a stallion from Medford. Soon One Mile Shires — so named because it was just a mile from Highway 47 in Gaston — was home to some foals as well.
As their herd grew, the Van Dykes decided to relocate to a larger piece of property near Yamhill. It's farther from Highway 47, but Van Dyke jokes that the name still fits, because visitors drive about a mile to his place after turning off Pike Road.
The rolling, oak-dotted acreage is currently home to about
18 draft horses, including a daughter and some grandsons
and granddaughters of their original mare.
Their reigning stallion is "Stoddard Crofter," aka "Harley," who was born in England and imported to the U.S. as a yearling. Now 21, he has been retired from plowing so he can devote all his time to the stud business.
"He doesn't miss ploughing," Van Dyke said. "He has all his mares around."
Several other horses are stabled at the farm for training. Most are draft horses, but one is a lighter, "regular-size" horse.
When the smaller horse arrived, Van Dyke's dog mistook it for one of the draft horse foals, which are big from birth.
"Bentley thought it was a baby," Van Dyke said. "He wanted to protect it."
Training starts the day a Shire is born.
Diane Van Dyke works with the foals, getting them used to people and giving them traditional names like Grace, Hannah or Willie. The horses learn to come when they hear their names.
Duane starts working with them when they're a few months old. By the time they reach yearling status, they've already been driven.
"At 3 or 4, I can do anything with them," he said.
Some draft horse owners use mostly geldings for pulling, Van Dyke said, but he likes teams of mares or mare and gelding combinations.
"I have a way with girls," he joked. "It's all in the way you talk to them."
Seriously, he said, "You have to get into a horse's head, get 'em thinking and understand how they're thinking."
He recalled how he came to an understanding with Ellie, now his lead mare.
A victim of abuse, she hated people. He saved her from being put down, brought her home and left her alone for a few days. Then, he said, he went out and looked her in the eye and thought about what he wanted her to do. Soon, she became a friend and loyal worker. She's so attuned to her owner, he said, that she often anticipates what he wants to do before he gives the command.
Ellie and the other Shires pull singly, in teams of two
or in teams of up to six. The larger the team, the more weight
it can pull, whether that means a large plow that turns up
huge amounts of soil or a wagon loaded with Christmas carolers
from the Van Dyke's church, Yamhill Christian.
Van Dyke, who works as service manager at Pacific Tractor and Implement in Hillsboro, in addition to training horses, keeps his herd busy all year long.
He uses them to turn soil and pull loads. And he takes Ellie and other horses to plowing competitions and Oregon Draft Horse Breeders Association play dates.
They also appear at the Washington and Clark county fairs, the Oregon State Fair and weddings, hay rides and other private events.
Van Dyke said he enjoys the camaraderie of getting together
with other draft horse owners. And he likes the competitions,
which are friendly.
"What I really love, though, is being with the horses," he said