Farming with horses in Romania / Equine welfare in Romania

The Romanian NGO Organizatia Pentru Cai de Munca (OPCM) is collaborating with the British NGO World Equine Organisation (WEO) to assist farmers and their horses in Romania. OPCM is run by a British engineer based full-time in Romania. WEO is an international equine welfare charity employing specialists in veterinary medicine, farriery, nutrition, and policy.

Horses are vitally important to the Romanian rural economy. Not only are they widely used in peasant agriculture, they are also more cost effective than tractors. An American journal has just published the results of a study that shows that Amish farmers are growing maize profitably at a cost of $50/acre using horses, whilst "conventional" tractor farmers require nearly $400/acre (and heavy subsidy) to achieve the same yield. Even if the Amish figures are increased to include normal American living costs, they come out at only $150/acre. The lessons for Romania are obvious - keep using horses, and introduce better implements for them to pull.

There are two problem areas. First, that horsedrawn farm implements are outdated and limited in scope. Horsedrawn logging implements are ineffective too. Second, farriery (horse shoeing) as practiced in Romania is poor, which reduces the working lives of horses and, on occasions, causes equine suffering.

OPCM has put into service a number of horsedrawn implements that are suitable for row crop work cultivation. The implements carry out ridging, weeding and potato harvesting, and are suitable for reproduction by village blacksmiths. For information, please contact OPCM at the address below. Work during Spring 2002 will focuss on disc harrowing and ploughing with horses. Haymaking is a major deficiency in some parts of Romania, with manual labour (scything and turning hay by hand) reducing the volume and quantity of the crop. This reduces the milk yield of cows (an important cash crop for many rural families) as well as impacting on nutrition of other animals. WEO and OPCM are working on the development of horsedrawn mowing and hay turning implements that are suitable for Romanian conditions. Subsidiary areas of work include improved harness for farm horses, and more effective horse logging equipment based on Scandinavian prototypes. The emphasis is, wherever possible, to provide solutions that can be realised using resources available in rural Romania.

A further joint initiative is the development of a farriery training programme. This is commencing with training of a Romanian farrier to serve as an instructor. Given the skilled nature of the trade, and the appreciable amount of training that the instructor will requre, this is a longer term initiative. It is hoped to start offering training courses to Romanian farriers within 1-2 years.

With up to one million farm horses at work in Romania, donated second-hand items often have little overall impact. Some items are useful though. Snaffle bits in good condition (not curb bits) are useful prototypes for local manufacture by blacksmiths. Farriery equipment may be given to trainees on future courses. (Romanian and British farriery equipment can differ, so simply handing the equipment out without training is inadvisable.) Certain veterinary items are useful, an example being Hausman gags for vets to use when rasping teeth.

A few types of second-hand horsedrawn farm machinery may be worth collecting and shipping if in operable condition. These are: finger bar mowers (both ground and PTO-driven - the latter can be made to work Amish-fashion with an auxiliary motor), hay turners (the Vicon Acrobat is best), and hay rakes. One item of machinery may be used by many peasant farmers, perhaps by a whole village.

Experienced farriers can usefully visit to help with training, and experienced harness makers can help with training and development work. Given that harness is manufactured in Romania at local prices, and that proprietary leather oils for restoring old harness are unavailable, there is little sense in importing old British harness. Traditional British harness collars also require to be fitted individually to the horse, and the necessary skills no longer exist in Romania. Romanian breastcollar harness is much easier to fit, and is interchangeable between horses.

Riding is a luxury activity in Romania, so supply of saddlery is of secondary importance. OPCM collaborates with two Romanian youth organisations to provide riding activities at low cost, and has a limited requirement for second-hand equipment. Saddlery is manufactured in Romania, and can be bought at "local" prices. Second-hand riding clothing and other goods are imported from Hungary.

Given the nature of the work, finance is needed to fund development of equipment and training of Romanian staff.

We would also like to hear from other individuals and organisations involved in agriculture in Romania.

A general site dealing with the various activities of the NGO and its associate trading company is: www.riding-holidays.ro