A Role for the Working Horse

introduction, by Lynn R. Miller, to William Castle’s new book

This book is a remarkable and insightful gift to the future from a consummate craftsman and teamster. Working Horses, in powerful and closely held ways, points to a brighter horizon for small farms anywhere.

We are here, deep within a destructive and cancerous period in human history. Our planet, our climate, our communities need calm, certain and determined messengers, workable examples, prophetic voices, artisans, teachers, janitors, coaches and caregivers to show us better ways forward. William Castle – Luthier, Farmer, Horseman – fits that bill appropriately and with tool-rack and table-top intrigue. This book applies to our general need of good hope and, along the way, we, some of us, may find this volume be larger than its subject. I do.

Should you be one who has an interest in the immediacy and application of the teamster’s craft, this book may well be essential. And if you happen to be someone already invested in learning the ropes, so to speak, William Castle’s Working Horses will be as if a godsend, it will make the journey easier and more enjoyable, it will give your work animals a better chance at a pleasant, defining work existence

And all of that is because this book comes from an ideal wellspring. For thirty plus years Castle has operated his soft step ‘holding’ with a dependence upon, and enjoying the benefits of, truest horsepower.

My own relationship with working horses gifted me a character-shaping string of epiphanies and gratitudes. ‘I know the feeling’ at the end of a long day spent in union with working equine, how in those many, many moments I am thrilled by what has been accomplished and by how it was done. I read of that feeling here in this book – this manual – throughout William’s writing.

William Castle is a craftsman. As such he is steeped in the traditions of work process, of the fit and effectiveness of tools, of the grain of each circumstance, of the integration and protection of heritage, of the next earned comfort. All of these things and much more go into the assessment that here is a man who is best suited to step up as guide and instructor of this way of working. In an artisan’s manner Castle accumulated, over his long service with work horses, measurements of the appropriate and of the transformative, tools and fittings. He presents those here in careful order and, ultimately, in a form that allows intelligent pilgrims access to the wondrous craft of working horses and mules in harness.

Though Castle’s purpose is to share the how to’s; the clarity and usefulness of this book also serves as an answer to those who might feel compelled to say ‘Working horses aren’t viable. Working horses do not belong in the future.’

Working horses are a viable motive power source. And working horses not only belong in our future, they may help to define it as an improvement.

The words are different, the outward expressions vary, but in 2026 many people spread across the planet’s arable lands pine for a landed venture the scale of which suits their temperament, their resources, their goals. ‘Scale’ defines these dreams, Human scale and a pace that matches the heartbeat. Synchronicity of pace multiplies capability in ways that defy normal accounting. Work alongside horses or mules and you will come to feel that your aggregate numbers are less than your combined strength and vigor. You want it. It wants you. The way to get there is with information you might trust and believe in. William’s book offers this in spades. LRM

Order your copy or copies direct from the author at working-horses.com