Dani has worked with horses on farms for 15 years but their love affair with ponies goes way back to riding at Hazelwild Camp in Virginia as a kid.

In early summer of 2025, we brought two young draft horses to the farm. Dot (or Dorothy, for long) came from Dani’s mentors Donn and Maryrose at Northland Sheep Farm in Marathon, NY. Donn taught Dani to drive horses in 2013. Donna came from John Hammond in Cornish, NH.

Horses are an incredible form of traction for a farm. We plan to pull logs and firewood with them in the winter and use them as part of a mixed-power hay-making system in the summer. Plus the odd sleigh or wagon ride here and there.

They also fit in beautifully to our pasture rotation as they are a dead-end host for the parasites that afflict small ruminants like sheep. Adding them to our rotation is part of our parasite-management plan on the farm.