Make no mistake about it: horse logging is serious, dangerous, skilled hard work. And it’s also a fact that loggers enjoy making a game of it when they can. They take great pleasure in producing a jaw-dropping exhibition of what their teams can do. And Jason Rutledge, a sort of green missionary for the use of draft animals in what he calls “restorative forestry,” loves to preach the horse-logging gospel.

Horse logging is smart physics. The horses actually pull an “arch,” a rubber-tired sulky-like contraption that is rigged to actually lift the forward end of each log slightly off the ground. The teamsters, looking for all the world like Roman charioteers, stand high on the arch, leaning back against the seat for stability, bouncing through the forest. When the horses get it under way, the log rides on its rear end, front end raised, lessening the drag and damage to the ground.