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April 10, 2006
Horse power
Introducing Poppie, a descendant of French immigrants.
Poppie is a working horse, though that is not often apparent.
She has a few days’ work in spring, every year, when she pulls a plough between the rows of our oldest vineyards, too narrow to navigate by machine.
Poppie is an aristocrat. Her Percheron ancestors carried French knights in mediaeval battles, both mock and serious. When the French Crusaders left Europe to go crusading they went mounted on Percherons.
Heavily muscled, with stout legs, these exclusively black or grey horses were also the choice to pull the mail coaches over steep and stony ground when the French started writing to each other.
When not pulling a plough, Poppie has a hard life in our orange grove, drinking spring water and eating grass.
Posted by graham knox at April 10, 2006 10:40 AM
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