Armour's World Famous Gray Percherons (1905-1910)

The Armour Packing Company's grade Percheron geldings were winners in the four-horse hitch competitions in the early 20th Century.  They later developed into a six-horse hitch in 1905 and 1906 showing at the Chicago International Livestock Exposition.  These beautiful geldings went on to the UK for exhibition and show in 1907.

Many of the big companies owned six and eight-horse hitches, competing at county or state fairs, and frequently in the larger, well-known shows at that time such as the International (Chicago) or Kansas City's Royal Show.  The teams were hand-selected to match in size, color, conformation and intelligence. The Armour Packing Company's delivery fleet used yellow wagons and dapple gray horses.

1910

Armour Packing Company of Chicago entered an agreement with the proprietors, Harry Tammen and Fred Bonfils, of  the Sells-Floto Circus, a big railroad show out of Denver. News covered by Billboard magazine's March 20, 1909 issue read, in part: "Armour Prize Team with Sells-Floto Shows announced that in addition to the horses and wagon, all of their trophies, ribbons and other prizes the horses won in show would be also exhibited." 

1910

Billboard magazine's story went on that the horses would be dressed in gold-trimmed harness in daily parades, exhibiting stunts and were under the hands of Bill Wales, an expert whip at the time for the tour.

The Sells-Floto Circus traveled on 30 railroad cars and opened that year in Denver on March 29, 1909. Newspaper ads mentioned "The $25,000 World Famous Prize Winners, the Armour Greys" added to the media frenzy while the troupe was on the road until October 30, 1909, when they returned to Denver.  Newspapers always pulled the Armour greys into their stories, often times stating "The famous Armour Greys were a great hit.  The cups and prizes won by these renowned horses were on exhibition.  Letters of admiration were displayed from King Edward of England and Emperor William of Germany."  The 1909 tour was so successful that it was repeated for the 1910 circus season.

The Sells Floto Circus went on to feature Buffalo Bill Cody in 1914-1915.  By 1929 it had become a part of the American Circus Corporation consisting of four other circus production companies.  

John Nicholas Ringling ultimately purchased the American Circus Corporation for $1.7M creating a monopoly of traveling circuses in America.

1894

Date Unknown

The Armour "Star" is still seen today, only with 
the name Armour and a "star" image.

1910

Present Day Packaging

W.T. Walter's Victor

W.T.  Walters Company's auction advertisement for Victor, an import from 1881 to Baltimore, Maryland.

Taylor & Jones (1909)

Keiser's Percherons (1909)

19th Century Romulus

This late 1800s bookplate of Romulus is from an old veterinary reference book.

Pabst Brewing Company World Champion Percherons

Capt. Frederick Pabst and his son, Frederick, provided an influential presence in the Percheron business in the United States in the late 1800's.  Best's Brewery was one of the predecessor companies of Pabst that utilized three working horses to grind malt.  In 1847, Best contacted his family in Germany desiring to purchase another horse to make deliveries in both town and country.  In 1859, Capt. Pabst married Maria Best, sold his shipping interests and took a partnership with Best's father in the brewery in 1863.  Best retired in 1867 and Capt. Pabst and Schandein (sister-in-law's husband) transformed the company into one of the nation's largest breweries.  

Pabst Brewery capitalized on the devastation of the Great Chicago Fire that destroyed 19 Chicago breweries.  By 1870,  Best Brewery had more than 20 horse-drawn wagons.  Best would "flash mob" the streets of Milwaukee, parading all the wagons loaded with beer at the same time to the shipping depot for a big visual marketing impact.  After the death of Shandein in 1889, Pabst, as president, changed the name from Best Brewery to Pabst Brewing Company. 

                       

In 1906, Fred Pabst purchased the entire stud of the Little Missouri Horse Co. located in North Dakota, bringing along approximately 1,000 suckling colts that carried three or four fine crosses of Percheron blood.  There were also 150 purebreds with more than 30 mares retained in the stud, proving to be good breeding stock.  Pabst also purchased horses from Hagemeister Stock Farm, H.D. & F.A. Reed, the Hartman Stock Farm and other small breeders in Wisconsin.  

Over 800 geldings were employed at the Pabst Brewing Co., of Milwaukee.  Fred Pabst had proven that Percheron geldings were the most satisfactory heavy horse workers in the cities.   This photo (above) was taken in 1901 in front of Pabst's home.

                         

Practically all the horses purchased by Pabst were high grade Percherons, and it was decided that a four-horse hitch would be exhibited at the 1904 World's Fair Draft Horse Show in St. Louis.  The Pabst wagon was navy blue, drawn by dapple-gray Percherons in gold-ornamental harness, with a large coach dog riding as a mascot.  Pabst Brewing Company of Wisconsin won the competition, and the teamster circled around the arena, making figure-8s and exhibited other serpentine patterns. After the four-horse demonstration, two more horses were added and the six went though a similar series of movements for the awestruck crowd.  In 1906, the Pabst six won the championship at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and at the International.

To commemorate the win of the 1904 World's Fair, Pabst created a large textile forever documenting the company's victory.

Here is an interesting envelope that touts the Pabst Brewing Co.'s world champion six-horse team of Percherons and their use of Wilbur's Stock Food as feed for the show season.

The 1500 acre Pabst Farms remains in existence today, providing more than a 100 year legacy of farming and land conservation. "Our philosophy is to build to the land, not on the land, carrying on the spirit of conservation begun by Fred Pabst back in 1906."

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A.F. Algoet Percherons (1915)

Durandal

Durandal, Imported Percheron Stallion

Winner at London & Ottawa, Ontario and West Michigan State Fair (1908)

Celebrating "The Father of Railways" (1880s)

The George Stephenson Centenary celebration at Newcastle-on-Tyne, celebrating the "Father of Railways."

Open Freestyle Driving - Docking Maneuver for Draft Horses

Draft horses and their hitch wagons, before the 20th century, were the means for delivery of goods and freight.  Teamsters were the persons driving horse teams with their wagons. In modern American English, truck drivers have been referred to as "teamsters" for years.

Maneuvering horses and wagons in close, heavily-traveled streets required that teamsters were skilled in loading and unloading the wagon in a timely fashion and with ease.  Not impeding traffic flow in the cities was of paramount importance.  The teamsters made sure their horses took up the least amount of space in the roadway, by "parking" more curbside while the load/unload occurred.

This photo above from the 1910's does not depict a large hitch, however you can see the slight

swing of the single horses, opening more room on the roadway, as well as the
swing to the right of the four at the bottom.

Modern day docking

The Lloydminster Colonial Days Fair Draft Horse Show in July offered a six-horse hitch class called the Open Freestyle Driving Competition.  Brian and Colleen Coleman competed the Thiel Percheron geldings in this class, and performed the docking maneuver in their repertoire.  We appreciate J Ann Brodland's photos to help describe this maneuver in detail.

The hitch arrives at its location curbside for delivery:

The horses and their positions:  leader team, swing team, 

and the wheelers which are the larger, stronger horses 

nearest to the wagon.

The horses work together with the teamster, backing and maneuvering the hitch wagon to the foot of the loading dock. The wheelers lean into their britchen, the strap you see that runs under their tail across their lower rump, allowing support to power the movement of the heavy wagon backward.  The swing and lead teams follow the backward movement, adding little horsepower to the effort.

The wagon would be loaded/unloaded while the 

horses waited patiently curbside.

The delivery is over, it's time to go, and the teamster wants to return in the direction they came from.  The leaders now have the job in pointing the hitch in the direction they need to go.  They swing out as the swing team and wheel team fall into place behind them.

This photo below captures the job of each hitch horse.  The leaders work together redirecting the hitch and have the most ground to cover.  The horse in the right swing position (teamster's right) has slightly more ground to cover in the maneuver than the left swing horse who simply steps to the side, following the leaders. The job of the wheelers is two-fold:  the right wheeler side steps in the new direction, but is somewhat anchored (as in no movement forward) keeping the wagon still, while the left wheeler is busy moving sideways with the team, turning the wheel of the wagon.

The wheelers are last to fall into position curbside to 
move the wagon away in the new direction from 
the loading dock and onward to their next destination.

We are so proud of these horses working so well together this year, and are very pleased they won at Lloydminster in 2014.

Photo Credits:  J. Ann Brodland, in color

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March Viking

March Viking

Foaled in the U.K. in 1929, H.H. Truman of March, Cambridgeshire.  Before he was imported into the U.S., March Viking took first place and was champion of the British Percheron Society's Stallion Show in 1935, 1936 and 1937.  We honor this champion here, on our blog.

Photo From:  BPHS Stud No 3 - b. 4th March 1929

McLaughlin Percherons of 1924

Another "Broadside" from years past.  The "broadside" was a printing usually on card stock weighted paper which was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, produced by local printers.

Here we have an example of James B. McLaughlin's 1924 Percheron advertisement from The Annington Farm Co. located in Hagerstown, Maryland.  At one time, it seems Mr. McLaughlin had a healthy stud operation as he imported 68% of the prize winning stallions from France.

Circus Percheron of 1908

A Circus Girl in Massachusetts 

With Her Beautiful Vaulting Partner (1908)

Horse Breed 101 - The Belgian ~ Colleen Coleman & Marjorie

Percherons Can Do It All!

At Eaglesfield, we drive AND ride our horses.

 

Thank You, Don Taylor for the SAM Centre Opening in 2016

Click above for a great video talking about this great addition!

Long live Sam Taylor, Don Taylor's father.  The SAM Centre will be a western interactive educational museum for children and adults.  Thanks to the Calgary Stampede's archives, there will be permanent and temporary galleries and educational classrooms to tell the stories of Southern Alberta embracing all people, whether of agricultural or urban descent.  We cannot wait to step foot back into the wonderful regional history of our home with our children.

John Lopez's Black Hawk

Scrap iron sculptor, John Lopez, is a genius . . . plain and simple truth.  After the death of his beloved Auntie Effie, Lopez moved in with his uncle on his ranch in South Dakota to build a family cemetery. Uncle Geno opened his home and more importantly, his welding shop to Lopez.  The rest is history.

Photo Courtesy: John Lopez Studio

While attempting to complete the fence around the family cemetery, the closest town is 35 miles away and Lopez ran out of material.  Thus, his imagination kicked into gear and he began to dig in scrap iron on-site to complete his work.

Photo Courtesy: John Lopez Studio

All visitors were amazed at his efforts; re-use gave Lopez such new-found personal satisfaction.  Lopez was already a successful commissioned bronze sculptor, but the excitement of the hunt and sculpting from scrap causes him to never be bored.  Scrap iron to Lopez brings forth a totally new direction for his work that piques his imagination and talent to a whole new level.

Photo Courtesy: John Lopez Studio

Over the past 10 years, Lopez has been working on The City of Presidents project in Rapid City, SD.   Bronze presidents reside on street corners through the town.  He has sculptures scattered across the country and in traveling exhibitions.

Photo Courtesy: John Lopez Studio

All the while sculpting presidents and other commissions, Lopez has been able to build a career in sculpture without leaving his rather isolated prairie home in South Dakota.  Lopez grew up on a ranch; he knows horses and he knows cattle.  It's no surprise that is what he loves to sculpt best.

Photo Courtesy: John Lopez Studio

Lopez's most recent work is a draft horse pulling a plow.  What I find so interesting is that the longer you look at the piece, the more items you discover being incorporated into the mix.  This brings forth curiosity at a whole new level as a spectator of Lopez's magical interpretations.  

Photo Courtesy: John Lopez Studio

Sure, it's metal.  Sure, it's scrap.  Sure, it's rusted.  However, Lopez's beautiful feathered work horse manages to capture your heart when you look into its seemingly kind eye, which brings a soulful feel to this magnificent piece named "Black Hawk."  

                                                                             Photo Courtesy: John Lopez Studio

                         

Photo Courtesy: John Lopez Studio

Photo Courtesy:  John Lopez Studio

Black Hawk made it's way over to the east coast this spring, but not before Lopez had a little fun with him in a photoshoot.   As of April 24, 2014, Black Hawk now resides at a community-governed, 7-day/week farm store called The Farm at Eastman's Corner (Est. 1737) in Kensington, New Hampshire.  

Please enjoy the John Lopez Studio Blog HERE to see his other works on display.  Also, click HERE to visit the world of Eastman's Corner on Facebook.