This is quite interesting - take the time to read the story below the picture.
Moose logging story
We
had been trying to keep this under wraps as we knew this would happen
once folks found out that with some effort you can train moose to
harness. Once this picture got out, it's been E-mailed around like crazy
but no one has bothered to fill in the rest of the story so before any
rampant rumors get going, I better write down what I know. I folks wan t
to extrapolate on that, then Lord only knows where this picture and
story will end up.
The man in the picture is Jacques Leroux
who lives up near Escourt Station and has always had work horses, first
for actual work and then for show at Maine's' many summer fairs.
I
think he had two matched pairs, one Clydesdales and the other Belgiums.
He would turn them out to pasture each morning and then work them in
the afternoon dragging the sled around the fields.
Three
springs ago, he noticed a female moose coming to the pasture and helping
herself of the hay and what grain the work horses didn't pick up off
the ground. Jacques said he could get within 10 feet of the moose before
it would turn and move off.
Two springs ago, the moose
foaled(?)at the edge of the work horse pasture and upon getting to it's
feet had not only the mother in attendance but the four horses. The
young moose grew up around the horses and each afternoon when Mr. Leroux
took the teams for their daily exercise the yearling moose would trail
along the entire route next to the near horse.
At some point,
the yearling got so accustomed to Mr. Leroux that, after he had brushed
each horse after a workout, he started brushing down the moose. The
moose tolerated this quite well so Mr. Leroux started draping harness
parts over the yearling to see how he would tolerate these objects. The
yearling was soon harness broken and now came the question of what could
you do wit h a harness broke moose.
As you may or may not
know, a great deal of Maine is being bought up by folks "from away" and
some of them understand principles of forest management. Well the folks
buying small parcels of land up in the area of the Allagash have it in
their mind that they don't want big skidders and processors and
forwarders on their small wood lots. Enter Mr. Leroux with his teams of
horses.
Every morning, when Mr.. Leroux loaded the teams into
the horse trailer to go off to the days job, the yearling moose got
quite riled up and one day loaded himself right into the trailer with
the horses. At the job site, Jacques unloaded the horses and as the
moose stayed right with them, he would take the Clydesdales and his
brother Gaston would take the Belgians and off into the woods they would
go with the moose trailing behind. They would put the harness on the
moose in case they encountered someone who they could kid with the
explanation that the moose was a spare in case something happened to one
of the horses. The work required them to skid cut, limbed and topped
stems to the landing where the stems could be loaded onto a truck for
the pulp mill.
All morning long the two brothers brought out
twitch after twitch of stems with the moose following the Belgian team
for the most part. At lunch break Jacques had the bright idea of putting
trace chains and a whiffle tree on the moose's harness and all
afternoon the moose went back and forth following the Belgians in and
out of the woods dragging his whiffletree along the ground. As there
were no stumps in the skid trail, the whiffle tree never hung up on
anything and that first day in harness went great. So next day, they
hitched on first a small stem and the moose brought it out just fine
following the Belgians.
Mr. Leroux told me they were up to
four small stems now and the moose was doing just great. He cautioned
however that there were a few problems with using a bull moose. Come
June, when the new antlers start, the new bone is "in velvet" and must
itch like crazy as the moose stops every once in awhile and rubs his
rack against just about anything to appease the itch. Once, before the
brothers learned to tie him of by himself while they had lunch, moose
was rubbing his antlers against the hame on the Clydesdale called Jack
and got it wedged there for a bit. Jacques said he wished he had a
camera as it looked like moose was trying to push Jack over.
The
other problem is the rutting season. The brothers learned quickly to
leave moose in the barn as he was constantly on red alert in the woods
during this time. The brothers are also considering trying this with two
females to make a matched pair which would become an instant hit at the
Maine Fairs. The trouble with the bulls is their racks. They would be
constantly rubbing and hitting each other and yes they would have to be
gelded as I just couldn't imagine getting the two bulls anywhere near
each other, let alone in harness.
So now that this picture is
going all over the place, the surprise has been let out of the
proverbial bag. The Leroux's want to continue the work of trying to get a
pair of females in harness but they may have to end up breeding moose
to do this and that's where they will run into trouble with the State of
Maine IF & W. I'm sure they don't like the idea of the brothers
"keeping" wild animals.
Thought you should know the rest of
the story. If any of you doubt this please contact Tom Whitworth in
Ashland, Maine. I think he said was a second cousin to the Lerouxs and
has seen this anomaly many times.
Regards from your frozen Northeasterly most state, PL
++ While this is entertaining, it is unfortunately, an Urban legend. Read about it all here.
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