Visitors enjoy watching a 2-day-old colt during Sunday’s Open Farm Day at Troika Drafts
HEBRON – Munch probably didn’t expect to have so many people looking at him on his second day on Earth. The silver-gray colt, born Friday, watched the human onlookers with his liquid eyes before nuzzling against his mother, Lady Lane, and bowing his head underneath her to nurse.
“He’s a little nervous,” said Vicki Schmidt, owner of Troika Drafts farm in Hebron, where Munch was one of the main attractions during Open Farm Day on Sunday. “Each colt that is born is called Little Munchkin; we call him Munch.” Millie, a very pregnant mare who stood near Munch and Lady Lane while people stroked her nose, will give the farm another newborn “any day now,” Schmidt said.
Sunday marked Maine’s 16th annual Open Farm Day. Ninety-four farms in all 16 counties opened their grounds to the public to promote a greater awareness of agriculture and let visitors enjoy a taste of life on a farm. Troika Drafts in Oxford County specializes in shires, although other breeds live at the farm. Owners Schmidt and Frank Walker offered visitors carriage rides as well as informational displays and workshops on working draft horses, which are horses that pull heavy weight.
Real workhorses
Shires were the literal workhorses of American commerce in the 1800s and early 1900s before motorized vehicles were invented, used to pull heavy loads of goods from ships to their destinations. Shires are the biggest of horse breeds, weighing an average of 1,700 to 1,900 pounds.
“They were doing then what tractor-trailers do today,” said Walker. They also were used by city fire departments, including in Portland and Boston, to pull firefighting equipment to emergencies.
Once motorized vehicles were invented, shires began dying out as a breed, but their numbers are now increasing due to breeding, Walker said. The farm now uses its horses – numbering about 20 – for recreation such as parades and carriage rides at weddings, but they are also used for work tasks, including logging.
Open Farm Day attracts between 300 and 400 visitors each year at Troika Drafts, which also operates a shoeing shop. Schmidt said she hopes the event gives the public a greater appreciation for the role agriculture plays in their lives by putting food on the table. “People aren’t growing up in an agrarian society anymore,” she said. “We want to promote agriculture.”
Massage for a mare
Schmidt said horses also are a strong positive influence for kids who take riding lessons and compete in shows. “They usually are not involved in drugs,” she said, adding that adolescent girls who are avid horse riders are much less likely to become pregnant than their peers.
Open Farm Day wasn’t a treat just for the public; the horses benefited too. Lee Dassler, a certified equine massage therapist from Otisfield, stood in a stable gently stroking and kneading the back and leg muscles on Divit, a female shire-Thoroughbred cross.
“Most horses are used as athletes,” she explained. “So the benefits (of massage) are the same for horses as they would be for human athletes.”
Divit stamped a hoof in mild protest. “This is her first massage so she just needs to get used to it,” Dassler said. “By the third time, they practically come to you and give you the rope.”
“(A farm) is just a great way of life,” said visitor Jane Campbell, who grew up on the Troika Drafts property and lived there until the late 1950s. At that time, it was owned by her parents and operated as a dairy farm, she said.
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