Kielder Forest-based Danny MacNeil is now working with his three heavy horses at Monteviot near Jedburgh, and anyone interested in the team’s work is invited to join them next Saturday (May 17) or the following Tuesday, as they extract up to 500 tons of Scots pine over the next few weeks.

Danny learned to work logging horses with his Newfoundlander father 40 years ago. But horses were replaced by machinery until, in Danny’s case, he was asked to work a horse again in 1993. He has included them in his forestry contracting business ever since.

“Forest managers like horses because of their low ground pressure, where they don’t want machines to disturb the root system of trees that are there. I work on picnic sites, sites of special scientific interest, anywhere where they don’t want the ground disturbing,” he told TheSouthern.

His equine team are 19-year-old Saracen, a 16.1hh old-fashioned shire horse, and Scout, his 15.1hh, 16-year-old black and white cob, who came from a sale in Ponteland aged three, and Jake.

“I’ve had Saracen since he was three. He had been broken to the collar before I got him but he came from Dublin and he wasn’t used to going on any sort of ground, never mind the forest.

“The workload for Saracen was getting more and more so I got Scout so they could swap around, so one horse was resting. The horses will work a full day but it depends on the terrain.”

Jake is the relative youngster at six and is a Clydesdale cross Irish Draft and Danny has had him for four years.

“I’m training him to take over when Saracen retires. I think Saracen will let me know when we wants to retire but I think he will be well into his 20s.”

Training logging horses takes about two years, from letting them get used to the forest, with the noise of chainsaws and activity around them, to doing the job itself.

“They have got to have a good, quiet temperament. Patience is the biggest thing – and I’ve got to have the patience of a saint. They have got to learn to stand quietly, and to know that when I’m telling them to do something they have got to do it – otherwise it could end up hurting the horse or myself. They have got to listen.”

The horses pull up to about half a ton: Danny says they can pull more but that it would tire them too quickly.

Danny’s three sons work with him – Scott and Craig on the harvester and forwarder, with Danny and Sean on the tractors. Sean, 29, is also learning how to work the horses.

Organiser Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) hopes the event will attract interest from a wide range of people.

Operations and development manager for Forestry Commission South Scotland, Iain Laidlaw, said: “The demos are not just for the public. I would encourage forest managers and woodland owners to see why modern horse logging is often a viable option for timber harvesting, particularly on sensitive sites.