Horse ogger once | made $3.20 a day BREAKING UN- DERBRUSH, revving engines and the constant roar of ma- chinery are the sounds you'd probably hear if you visit a modern logging show. But back in the 1930s and 40s, you’d be more likely to hear soft cries of ‘‘gee,’’ “thaw”? or ‘easy boy,’ Before the arrival of powered machines, horses were an invaluable part of the logging industry, “Those horses had to be very well trained,”’ says Car] Muller. He drove a number of different horse teams in the 1930s. “They were hauling a lot of weight, and when you said ‘ho’ they had to stop,”’ he says. “‘When you said ‘easy _ boy’ they'd take one step, then wait for you to tell them what to do next.’” He and his father and brother used horses to log the area “Nearby what is now Beam Sta- _ tion Road, and along Krumm Road. “Scotty and Jimmy were both Percheron/Belgium ~" crosses,’’ he says. ; They weighed approximately 1500 pounds and stood 18 - hands high, or six feet tall at the withers — the part where the neck joins the back. They were big enough in fact to haul logging trucks through snow or mud, whenever the truck became bogged down, Of course logging trucks were substantially smaller back then, **Those horses knew every- thing,’’ says Muller. “‘When they had to haul a truck aut of the mud, they listened to the “engine and could tell exactly when the truck was free, Then _ they’d stop pulling.’’ During regular logging a ‘horse would occasionally stop pulling and try to bluff him, giving Muller that I-just-can’t- do-it look, Muller would have to determine whether the horse had given ‘up because the log was. too heavy, or whether he was trying to avoid work, Logging was an ongoing learning experience for both him and the horses. But Mul- ler had an early start, getting into the business when he was 15 years ald, “T got hell because I left school,’’ he says. At that time loggers didn’t even have power saws, and used two-person saws to fell trees. - That proved particularly in- convenient when one horse ‘from his father’s team fell off a small bridge into a creek. The horse couldn’! get free of the water because dense bush grew too close to the water’s edge, Muller and his father had to saw a path through the trees. ' TERRACE STANDARD FEATURE SECTION. have more conveniences, but they, share many of the prob- lems faced by horse loggers. For instance, bears still pose a hazard. Although Muller admits bears were an issue for more nervous horses, his teams were more inclined to chase them off, than be chased. “One team I was driving then was Snort and Pepper. They really knew how to look after themselves — and they sure didn’t have any use for a bear,’’ he says, “Once a bear. got into Snort’s oats, and Snort kicked up a huge fuss. He chased that bear out of his oats and out of the barn... He hated bears.’’ - Muller hasn’t used horses for logging since 1942 and says he would never go back. “There’s so many things you have to do with horses to avoid hurting them,”’ he says. ‘Horse logging is too much work,”’ But despite the extra work Before the arrival of powered machines, horses. were an | ‘invaluable part of the logeing industry, ~ - ° “That horse knew what we were doing though. As soon as we had a path, he was out of that river,”’ he says, In addition to logging with his father, Muller also drove teams for LH&K and Clarence Giggey. He made $3.20 a day. “One of the best jobs I had was hauling freight while they were building the road be- tween Terrace and Usk,” He brought up groceries and bales of hay, while three other horse teams worked on building the toad. That entire stretch of road was built using horses. Modern-day loggers may load, horse logging has been revived locally. Logger Lars Reese-Hansen decided to selectively log a portion of his woodlot last winter, and hired Mark Chap- plow and his team of Clydes- dales to do the job. Reese-Hansen decided to use horses because they don’t damage the soils, or create compaction around tree root systems, This environmentally friend- ly style of logging may create a new demand for heavy horses in the future. CARL MULLER, with Chester, a Palamino, cherons to log in the bush, Scotty and Jimmy were names given to two of his Percherons, each one weighing 1,500 pounds and standing six feet tall. They were s out logging trucks stuck In the mud. Chester's owned by Muller's son, James, harkens back to the days when he used teams of Per- 0 strong they were used to pull MOVING? ESYSTEMS LTD= COMPLETE MOVING SERVICE Terrace 635-2728 Kitimat 632-2544 t — ——. fa, on SINGE 1955 —— Li “FORESTRY MEANS JOBS IN TERRACE” The Inno eWest 4620 Lakelse Avenue Terrace, BC VB8G 1R] 638-7933 Fax: 698-B999 Dediluke Land Surveying Inc. 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