Draft Horses Are Helping Upgrade Cell Towers In Wisconsin (npr.org)

Companies that provide cell phone service are constantly racing to provide the most reliable signal. In Wisconsin, one of the providers has turned to a surprising option to get the job done: draft horses. From a report on NPR: The horses are helping U.S. Cellular upgrade equipment on about 200 cell towers in Wisconsin, some of which are served by hard-to-navigate access roads. "We call them roads. They're more of a path," says Brandi Vandenberg, the company's regional planning manager for engineering. "So when you don't have a firm structure to travel on, any type of inclement weather can make it a challenge." Wisconsin's deep snow and heavy rains can make the access roads all but impassable for trucks. Vandenberg says with construction planned at so many tower sites, the company has a tight timetable for delivering equipment and scheduling technicians to install it. Jason Agathen, a driver for CH Coakley, the logistics company hired to coordinate the tower upgrades, knows how tricky the access roads can be. Agathen has delivered thousands of pounds of electronics gear to the cell tower sites. One trip, he says, involved snow so deep it blew the transmission on an ATV. So the company hired farmer Jason Julian of Medford, Wisc., and his draft horses to keep the tower upgrades on track.

Comments

What's a draft horse?

[cayenne8]

I've heard of a horse....

But what is a "draft" horse?

Re:What's a draft horse?

[Snard]

It's the status of the horse until it is approved, at which time it becomes a final horse.

Re:What's a draft horse?

[avandesande]

RTFA will set you free-

Julian uses draft horses to do much of the work on his organic dairy farm and for a horse logging business during the winter. His Belgian Brabant are the type of working horses that were common on Wisconsin farms before motor vehicles took over much of their work.
"They're short-backed, heavily muscled. They're easy keepers, very calm-minded, very easy horses to be around. Very easy horses to train," he says.

Re:What's a draft horse?

[will_die]

They are large horses used for work, primary farm, hauling, etc. the most common example are clydesdales.

Re:What's a draft horse?

[hey!]

The following terms are all etymologically related:

Draftsman -- someone who illustrates.

Draft horse -- a plow horse.

Draft beer -- beer on tap.

These all descend from the the Old English dræht, meaning to pull or drag. A draftsman drags a pen across the page. A draft horse pulls a plow. You draw a pint from the tap.

Re:What's a draft horse?

[Deadstick]

That's one that didn't want to join the Army but had to.

Re:What's a draft horse?

[ShanghaiBill]

Draft horses are bred to pull loads, they know what to do, and require minimal effort to direct them.

Another advantage of draft horses over tractors is that they reproduce. So by the time one wears out, the next generation is ready to go.

And getting them home is even easier...

Yup. Horses have built-in GPS. At the end of the working day, you can harness up the team, shake the reins, and then go to sleep in the bed of the wagon. The horses know the way home.

Re:What's a draft horse?

[DarkOx]

Right, my experience with log pullers and the like is they have such a strong instinct/training that as soon as they feel a load they tend to want to pull, often before you are ready.

Re:What's a draft horse?

[mjwx]

Draft beer -- beer on tap.

These all descend from the the Old English dræht, meaning to pull or drag. A draftsman drags a pen across the page. A draft horse pulls a plow. You draw a pint from the tap.

Sorry, but I have to be pedantic, in correct English (En-GB), it's spelled draught beer.

Your entomology is mostly correct, the draught part comes from an old English word meaning pull, this refers to the way a keg beer is poured by pumping the handle in long pulls as its a mechanical pump rather than an electric one as seen in modern pubs. English pubs still carry the traditional draught taps for serving real ale.

Re:Sometimes technology can't deliver

[turkeydance]

the US military uses pack animals in Afghanistan. mules, horses, etc.

Who's surprised by this?

[TWX]

When I was an adolescent we had ATVs to ride, and it was common to ride the rural powerline maintenance "roads". These were little more than two-track ruts that followed the path that the power lines took, and for those few times we saw maintenance trucks out there, they were always 4x4 or 6x6 and specially built for the application.

Even the municipal radio towers for city services used 4x4s, they had an older '90 or so Dodge Ramcharger that had upgraded transfer case and differentials for climbing to the top of the various buttes and mountains to allow a technician to service the radio equipment. A friend of mine ended up buying it after they surplused it, makes for a nice offroad rig.

It's no surprise that in even worse terrain they'd resort to animals, as lacking drive wheels the animals can cross terrain that would thwart wheeled or tracked vehicles without entirely destroying it in the process. So long as they don't need heavy equipment for what they're doing then it's probably cheap. I expect even helicopters would cost more.

Re:Sometimes technology can't deliver

[PopeRatzo]

An old low-tech solution works best in some situations.

Don't kid yourself. They're using draft horses because draft horses won't unionize.

Re:Without a horse work permit?

[rickb928]

There are few reasons for a farmer who relies on his draft horses to abuse them. While non-union workers are plentiful in many cases, good horses may not be.

They need fewer regulations than you might think.