THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 25, 1995 TAG: 9504250282
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHOWAN COUNTY LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
Deep in a pine thicket along a rural stretch of U.S. Route 17, barely visible from the two-lane highway, Jerry and Lace sweated in the morning sun as they hauled a 1,000-pound log through thick underbrush to a waiting timber truck.
They dragged the 30-foot tree steadily, cutting a wide swath through the leaf-lined forest floor. Saplings fell in the wake of the heavy load. Jerry and Lace swatted at gnats with their long, tangled tails as they pulled.
Fred Inglis may own the antique cart and the timber company that clears trees throughout the Albemarle area. But Jerry and Lace are the real work-horses of the business.
``They're really rearin' to go this morning,'' Inglis said as the coffee-colored team approached a tire-sized tree trunk, snorting and high-stepping over tangled branches. ``They like to work. They really do. They can pull 60 logs a day or more.''
Tenacious, tireless and strong, the horses may seem an anachronism in our modern world of massive machines. But they're able to work in quarters that can't be entered by powerful tractors. And they're easier on the environment, and cheaper to maintain.
``Sometimes, when they've been going extra hard, or have an extra-long day, I'll give them a reward,'' Inglis said. ``Apples, usually, if they're in season. That seems to be their favorite form of payment.''
A barrel-chested mare with a coarse, black mane and a white diamond on her forehead, Lace is a 1,900-pound Belgian-Percheron mix who has been with Inglis since she was a filly.
Jerry, her partner, is a blond-maned Belgian who weighs 1,800 pounds. Both horses are 11 years old.
They live on a Chowan County farm with Inglis and spend most days hauling trees. Aside from clearing logs, the horses help Inglis and his family plow fields for organic produce. Sometimes, the broad-backed animals take their owner for a ride.
``They'll let you ride them around. They're real gentle. But they're trained to work and that's what they know best,'' said Inglis, 34.
``I used to have an old mule to pull the logs. Lace worked alongside her and learned real young. She's much easier to handle than Jerry. I didn't get him until he was seven. It took awhile for him to get used to logging.''
Hitched to a hand-hewn neckyoke attached by metal bands to a 60-year-old wooden-wheeled wagon, the horses step side-by-side, almost matching their wide strides. Inglis talks to his team constantly - easing them back to the timber, then coaxing them to wait as he attaches chest-wide iron tongs to one tree at a time.
``Easy, girl, easy, whoa . . . now, back a bit,'' says Inglis, his hard hat and red flannel shirt flecked with pine bark. ``You got it. OK, now. Git-ap.''
A lifelong logger, Inglis has been clearing lumber with horses since 1979. Last week, he was helping a friend cut wood from a right-of-way, between Hertford and Edenton, that the state planned to take over. With the horses' help, he can remove specific trees - and leave the rest undisturbed.
``These guys are great for anywhere you want to get lumber out - but don't want to clear cut. They create a whole lot less disturbance to the soil than heavy, motorized equipment. And they don't damage as many young trees,'' said Inglis, one of a half-dozen loggers in eastern North Carolina who uses a horse team.
``They can get back in thickets where machines can't go. Plus, they're quiet. Their best advantage to me. I don't like working with the noise of big engines.''
For more than two hours in the mid-morning heat, Lace, Jerry and Inglis walked the woods, dragging timber and loading it for market. Except for the logger's softly spoken stream of instructions, the only sound was the heavy breathing of the horses - and the crunch of half-ton logs being pulled across dry leaves.
On average days, the horses work about six hours and haul three or more truckloads of trees. About 20 logs fill a flatbed. Each trunk is 12- to 30-feet long.
``They're patient. They're slow. So I gotta be, too,'' Inglis said. ``They force you to go at their pace. They're like people. They've got their strong points and their weak points.''
Inglis, of course, cuts all the trees. Sometimes, after the horses have hauled lumber from the forest to a clearing, assistants use a fork lift to load logs into the waiting truck. But when other people aren't around, the horses are all the help Inglis needs.
A former part-time Outer Banks waterman who worked on a shrimp boat several summers, Inglis devised a block and tackle pulley system - similar to those commercial trawlers use for hauling nets - for his horses so they could load logs. Ropes are tied 40 feet up the trunks of two pine trees, with a huge hook hanging in between. Inglis walks his team to the make-shift lift, attaches a log to the hook, then leads the animals away from the supporting trees until pulleys lift the log off the ground. When the log is high enough in the air to get over the side of a truck, the horses back up a bit more and lower it into the flatbed. That way, forklifts are never needed.
``I rigged it just like we used to rig shrimp nets. That way, we can work alone out here and still get all the loading done - just me and the horses instead of two extra guys,'' Inglis said. ``I get to know them pretty well out here, I guess. Like a dog. The animals sure get to know you, too. We're all creatures of habit. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
DREW C. WILSON
Staff photos
Jerry, left, a blond-maned Belgian, and Lace, a Belgian-Percheron
mix, can haul 60 or more logs a day.
Fred Inglis follows Lace and Jerry. Horses are easy on the
environment, he says.
by CNB