Hidden Force Multipliers: The Big Bays of Lincoln County by Ed Vande Voorde

book review by Paul Hunter

Watching a team of work horses pull hard offers a stirring and dramatic education. At any competition the crowd leans forward and holds its collective breath. We all know they can generate much more than two horsepower – there is a ghostly strength in their cooperation, a hidden force multiplier. Some teams work right in step, but as they tackle heavier loads they crouch, throw their weight into the collar, and make use of their big hip and hind leg muscles. Some pull better when they are deliberately out of step, like an engine with more pistons firing in a subtle sequence. And as the weight gets greater, especially in competitions, they seem to attack in unison to get the obstacle moving, often triggered by the sharp click of their steel doubletree dropped over the steel pin on the sled of concrete blocks. As always it’s a matter of training and timing and confidence, vastly more telling than luck.

It’s clear from his new novel, THE BIG BAYS OF LINCOLN COUNTY (ISBN: 979-8-9906675-1-8), that Ed Vande Voorde knows plenty about working horses. The book is a refreshing and realistic read about the pleasures and efforts involved in working draft horses, and competing in pulling contests with them that hold compelling moments for any teamster old or new. Yet the story begins with a flood around a bridge, and a human and animal rescue that depends on a team and teamster immersed in icy waters, being controlled and directed entirely by the teamster’s voice. Besides being realistic, Vande Voorde is also surprisingly frank in this story, about the motivations of Amish farmers, and their religious practice and beliefs, which ordain a life of hard work and devotion that keep the rest of American culture, that they call the “English,” at a distance. The book even has a rich Amish farmer as its “heavy,” a man who enjoys winning all the pulling contests held in this rural county. The story focuses on a young couple, Ira and Eva, who fall in love. She is the only child of an Amish farming couple, and he is a boy who is taken with the old-style small farming lifestyle and its modest daily challenges and rewards; Ira feels the calling to work horses and raise crops, and won’t be denied.

For horsemen the novel offers not just the raising and training of fine animals, but refinements in breeding and the results over time, that circle around the pair of the title. Snap and Cap are born to a pair of Belgian bay roan mares both bred to Hiram, a stallion that is a Shire/Percheron cross. The pair of bay colts are remarkable for their size, intelligence, early willingness to learn, and easy temperaments. The only differences that let some tell them apart seem to be that Snap likes people and is more playful, where Cap is smarter and more serious.

One of the special offerings of this writer is how he gives the reader a taste of the Amish conversational German throughout the book, starting speeches then translating them from the language that most Amish men and women use in everyday parlance. It is not just a matter of flavor, but gives the reader a terse and vigorous sense of a culture where matters are often seen and described as black and white, where for many of the devout the old language remains the one true language. The reader gets to feel how much effort it is for the young to learn and use that old language to remain connected with the roots of their faith in the modern world.

There is one other special dividend for the reader to mention. As a big competitive pull approaches, Ed Vande Voorde takes us behind the scenes with Ira and his team, and we get to hear from those in the know about refinements in equipment and psychology that will help a team pull their best – the special shoes and adjustments to collars and to the evener to balance the team, both the legal and accepted adjustments that can be made, and the issue of animal doping that some resort to, in an effort to win at all costs. Ira the young teamster holds his team after the doubletree is dropped on the pin, then signals the pull with his voice, which displays both his sense of timing and control.

THE BIG BAYS is a cleanly told, compelling and ultimately stirring story. This young couple confronts all the ethical and economic quandaries of small farming past, present and future, including the social difficulties and stigmas that occasionally attend such choices. And the young hybrid team of Snap and Cap – the big bays of the title – that grows up over the years of the novel reflects the steadfast character of Ira, his love Eva and their mentors, and remind us anew of how worthy the work is, how rewarding and compelling it can be to train and work alongside such intelligent, loyal and spirited partners.

To order your copy of The Big Bays of Lincoln County visit www.TheBigBays.com or write and send $15 plus $5 shipping to:

Ed Vande Voorde,
3204 Highway 95,
Parma, ID 83660