Suffolk Punch Horse: British Draft Horse Breed

Learn about the British draft horse breed, its physical strength and the farm capabilities of the Suffolk punch horse bred for work on the farm.

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by Kenneth Garrett Woodfin Camp & Assoc.
"To work all day with a well-broken and willing team is a pleasure as well as a job."—Wendell Berry

Learn about the British draft horse breed, its physical strength and the farm capabilities of the Suffolk punch horse bred for work on the farm.

Suffolk Punch Horse Farming

“Come up, gentlemen,” says Jason Rutledge. The two red draft horses heave forward into their collars. The field cultivator–called a rear-end wiggler–lurches into motion.

Rutledge proceeds into the cornfield, drawn unerringly down the rows by two Suffolk Punch geldings. As each tautly muscled leg moves and plants a round hoof in the soil, it presses 1,600 pounds into the ground. A prodigiously powerful step, but delicate as these things are measured.

Rutledge holds the reins firm. “You’ve gotta stay in touch with a draft horse all the time,” he says, and they move quietly through the cornfield while Rutledge tells them how well they’re doing. Three thousand feet up on Copper Hill in the mountains south of Roanoke, Virginia, where he lives with his wife. Sally, and two youngsters, Rutledge “orders up” all of his 76 acres with these chestnut horses. It is quiet on the mountain, and the team, plodding through the cornfield, evokes idyllic memories, old photographs, times gone by.

  • Updated on Jun 8, 2022
  • Originally Published on Jul 1, 1987
Tagged with: Draft Horse, horse breeder, horses, suffolk
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