One Man’s Horselogging in France 2008/2009

by Jean-Christophe Grossetet of Valiergue, France
photos by Nathalie Bugeat

Here we are recently working in Correze, France, to harvest some oak trees which fell down after a big storm at the end of December ’99. The trees were about fifty or sixty years old and they were falling down like in a “pick-up-stix” game. They are now pretty dry and good to harvest for firewood or to become lumber.

This collar is a very different approach appreciated by teamsters in France. Made by Camille Junien, a nice guy living and working in the Limousin country. This collar fits a lot of different horses because it has lots of point to change the width, length, and if you take care of it these are unbreakable and easy to maintain. Because of the modern materials they are not too heavy. They are made of aluminum for the hames and aeromatic foam for the collar.

We log a short distance to bring the trees to the side of the road where we cut them at a good measure and split them before taking with the tractor to bring them home for the next winter.

Indian is a Comtois horse, born in 1996. Comtois is one of the nine breeds of draft horses in France. he is not a big draft horse because he was first a “Cheval Ecole”. His job was to not frighten the students but to attract them. He is about 13.5 hands and his weight is about 799 kilos. He works really good and is ok to be in the reins (lines) with five different almost green pilots (teamsters) in the same day.

He wears a very primitive bridle with first one ear leather strip around the head and a soft (gentle) snaffle bit made in Hungary. We keep the headstall (rope halter) and lead.rope on to be able to quickly tie him if we need to. No blinders and no hard and heavy bit because we work more with the voice than with the lines which are here in case.

The equipment (harness) is also very light. We use the bells not because we could be in bear country (no more bears in France) but for fun. A modern collar with an old shape, but made in very high tech stuff. And there is nothing between the skin and the collar.

I am Jean-Christophe Grossetete. I was a teacher in a high school for forestry at Meymac and teaching how to log with draft horses to students who wanted to know the way and sometime to become horseloggers. Now I am retired from September of 2008 and continue to work with horses but now it is for myself.