With the mares we have we are set up for a Drum Horse breeding program. This beautiful horse is one of the newest breeds in the USA, I don't think I chose this breed, it just happened... providence I guess. As luck would have it a new Drum Horse registry, the American Drum Horse Association was started just as we embarked upon this new venture. There is another registry for them, the Gypsy Cob & Drum Horse Association which covers two breeds of horses. They do a fine job promoting both, but I feel that the Drum Horse will benefit from having it's own registry.



Our horse adventures all started late in 2004 when Rhianon [16 at the time] was at a friend's place in Missouri. I was home in Minnesota at the time and one evening I received a phone call from her, she started with "I'm alright but..." She had been thrown by her friend's horse, her foot caught in the stirrup and she was dragged along with her head banging on the ground repeatedly. I told her that she was never to get on that horse again, and at that stage I was convinced that I didn't want her on any horse again, but she and her sisters had a different plan.

When she came home the girls ganged up on me and informed me that not all breeds of horses had the same temperament, so I started searching on the Internet for "cold blooded" horses... that means that they have very stable personalities and are less likely to be spooked. I found Gypsy horses and something stirred within me, maybe because of my Great-Grandmother's Romany blood coursing through my veins. Anyway, I got sticker shock and knew I couldn't afford one, so I started looking into their history.

Dick said that if we were getting a horse that we should get a "draft horse", so that it would be more suitable for the work we had in mind for it. So we started looking for a Shire or Clydesdale since those breeds are a substantial part of the genetics of Gypsy horses. Luck was on our side, I found May, a beautiful purebred Shire mare at a price we could afford. She had been registered at one stage but I could not track down her breeder to find out her original name. I tried long and hard to see how I could get her back on the American Shire Horse Association registry, but eventually gave up, which turned out to be a good thing.

May with Madeleine and Stephanie on board

Without the Shire breeding program that I had imagined I started getting interested in Drum Horses, since that was one registry where May could be included. I procrastinated on getting her registered, still not sure of which course to take, until I found a Clydesdale mare Sassy along with her Drum Horse foal Zara for sale and knew for certain that Drum horses would be my new passion.

Madeleine & Stephanie meeting Zara and Sassy

My number one concern with horses is their temperament, and luck would have that I have found a breed of horses whose beauty is more than skin [and feather] deep. So we have the best of all worlds... draft horses with a purpose to make Dick happy, horses to make the girls happy and sound good natured animals to set my mind at rest... and as a bonus I discovered that I like horses after all.

When we bought May she was in foal to a grey Thoroughbred. Her foal Epona was born on May 7 2005. It was quite an event; Rhianon had slept in the barn for weeks before the birth because we really didn't know what signs of impending birth to look for in horses. One afternoon May's behavior made it very obvious that the event was very close. That night Rhianon took the cell phone to the barn so that she could call me when the water broke... I woke several times through the night, at 4 a.m. I was on the verge of going to the barn to see if she had slept through the birth but decided to just go back to sleep.

After waiting up all night so as not to miss the birth, Rhianon phoned me at about 5.45 the next morning, the cell phone doesn't work very well in the barn so she was breaking up, I couldn't tell from her tone if she was excited or distressed... so I rushed straight to the barn. As I entered the barn I saw May lying down with a two feet and a nose emerging, then the front legs and head emerged, still covered by the membrane as shown in the picture below.


Right after I took the photo above May stood up, then lay back down facing the other way, within seconds the foal was born, "it's a filly" Rhianon announced excitedly.


Rhianon got the foal of her dream... May is bay with four white feet and a white blaze, in my eyes she is beautiful, but bay is Rhianon's least favorite horse color. She loves white horses and it looks like the foal will be grey, and over time will turn white. She was born brown with the telltale rings around her eyes indicating that a color change is on the way. [horse color genetics are very interesting].




Rhianon with May & Epona


Madeleine & Epona, two barefoot girls"


Stephanie with May

Below is a picture of our Clydesdale mare Sassy and her Drum Horse filly Zara. Zara is a registered Drum horse sired by a magnificent Gypsy Horse Rock of Cashel . Sassy is registered with the Clydesdale Breeders of the United States and also registered as Drum Horse breeding stock, she is trained to ride and drive and has been driven and under saddle fairly recently, so she will be a better horse for us to learn the ropes than May, who hasn't been driven in about eight years. Once we are comfortable driving Sassy, we will hitch May up alone, and then work with them as a team.


Sassy & Zara at Whispering Willows Farm

Zara was a lucky find, providence in action again... After watching our Farm Collie working hard to get wayward animals back where they belong I decided to look around at different dog breeds to find a puppy to work with her. So I did a web-search for "English Shepherd puppies" and came across the Whispering Willows Farm website. To my surprise they had a Drum Horse filly advertised for sale, I couldn't believe my luck. Zara was the horse of my dreams, in just the color that I wanted and as an added bonus her mother was avasilable too. Thank you Jim and Teresa for these wonderful horses, I can tell by their personalities that they were very much loved at your farm. Jim and Teresa breed Dales Ponies and English Shepherd dogs.

If I get enough practice at driving we would like to give hay rides on the farm this coming Autumn and maybe next year we can take people on Christmas Light tours of the housing estate close by. There is also the potential for wagon rides around Lake Winona and maybe in time we could get a nice cariage for weddings and the like.

We also have another plan for the future where the horses will help earn their keep. Soon we hope to have a Green Cemetery here on the farm, it is a more environmentally friendly method of honoring the dead, while helping preserve open spaces. When the time comes for people to make their last journey on the farm it will be in a small horse drawn hitch wagon. We also have a larger hitch wagon to use as a people mover to take the friends and family to the graveside. Horse drawn vehicles will also be used to take people out to find the place where they would like to spend eternity.