fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: March 01, 2007 06:25PM
Moose logging story
Lew and the rest of the gang- 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 want 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 with 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 Lerouxs 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
Dirkmonger2 Report This Comment Date: March 11, 2007 10:41AM
Haha, nice try, but you can see the evidence of some slick photoshopping.