Tuesday, April 15, 2014

A horse is a horse, of course

I mentioned that Clos Roussely (the winery I visited on Sunday) is an organic operation. One of the things that means is that they don't use herbicides to keep the weeds down in the vineyard. Organic growers will either mow or more commonly plow the rows in between the vines. Plowing helps control the weeds but probably also helps by aerating the soil.

Munching on a bit of spring grass. The plowman is standing behind.

Most growers plow with a tractor. But Roussely works with a guy who uses his horse to manually plow up the rows. Apparently he hires his services out to other local vintners as well. I asked him what breed the horse is and naturally forgot it as well as her name. But I do remember that she's a young'un at four years old. She was having a well-deserved break while we tourists had a look.

Pointing the way to the horse (but the drawing looks like a donkey). "Hee-haw! Come give us a hug!"


9 comments:

  1. It doesn't look big enough for a Percheron...
    but it is certainly a haulage beast...
    there is nothing refined about those legs!

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  2. . The feet look like Shire to me. Yesterday the farmer up the hill from us was using a tractor that could easily be 60 years old. If it was dood enough for Granpa, it's good enough for me! P.

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  3. At first I thought your sign was saying "Hi!" to someone named "Han". Then, I thought it was one of those signs in more than one language, and I was wondering if "Hi han" was Chinese. *LOL*. All of this bright thinking went on in about 3 seconds, and I figured out it was, heee hanh. Heh heh :)
    Nice horse.

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  4. That's a beautiful draft horse of some sort- just look at those hoofs! When my dad was a kid he got paid a nickel to ride a horse while it plowed- this was in the early 1900s- I doubt if the animal was as beautiful as this mare.

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  5. Hi Han is the sound a donkey makes... in French! :D The second syllable ("han") is a nasal voyel that is difficult to represent to english speakers.

    I've always had a preferrence for those gorgeous draft horses. They are usually kinder and more gentle than their warmblood counterparts - given they are treated well by their owners. This one has a beautiful coat.

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  6. That is one muscular horse. The first shot looks like it could be a painting.

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  7. The horse is beautiful. And I'm so excited. Now I know how to say "hee haw" in French.

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  8. Just now took a look at the crochet and sewn hat- someone loves this animal enough to protect its ears from flies. Sympa!

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