Horseboating - part 2

Article from the March 2025 newsletter by David Ray (all photos by Sarah Brereton)

It’s not as straight forward as just loading everything into the car and trailer and off we go…

The day before we normally give Flower’s mane, tail and feathers (that’s the long hair on her lower legs) a really good wash. This usually results in us being wetter than she is and covered in soap suds! She really enjoys it, but she tends to shake at the point that you least want her too. Anyone with a dog will know what it is like when a dog shakes when they are wet – well imagine a much bigger animal. Yes, you get the idea! After she has dried out, we give her a good groom and put a rug on with a hood which covers as much of her body as possible and keep her stabled overnight. Not only would she find the muddiest part of the field to roll in if we turned her out, but I always fear that she will lose a shoe, meaning that the horse boating would have to be cancelled as the farrier would be needed to come and put it back on. This would be a great disappointment to us and everyone else that is either involved or looking forward to seeing the spectacle.

On the day, it is usually an early start, depending on how far we need to travel and what time we plan to start boating. I get over to the boat yard and hitch up the trailer, then it’s back over to our cottage to load the car up with harness etc. (Elizabeth put together a comprehensive check list last Easter which we use each time we are preparing to go horse boating – we haven’t forgotten anything, yet!) and we head off to the yard where we keep the horses at Shebdon further down the Shropshire Union Canal.

First job is to hang new hay nets up for our other two horses, top up water buckets and skip their stables out.

We get Flower out of her stable and tie her up outside with a fresh hay net. It’s then off with her rug, usually to find a poo stain on the one bit of her body that hasn’t been covered with the rug. This results in us with a bucket of warm water trying to remove it! A quick brush all over and Sarah starts plaiting her mane and tail. She get’s spoilt that morning too, with an extra bowl of feed so that she starts the day with a full belly. It’s at this stage I think she realises that she is off horse boating!

Flower has such a long mane, which I threaten to cut, but Elizabeth and Sarah adore it, so it is there to stay… We plait it to keep it up out of the way and to avoid it getting tangled in the reins. Much the same with her tail too. I believe boat horses quite often had docked tails, but we find by just plaiting it, it avoids anything getting tangled in it.

Elizabeth then loads Flower into the trailer. She’s a good girl and walks straight up the ramp and into the trailer. She has a hay net hung up in the trailer too so that she can eat as she wants to.

Then off we go to a location. There’s usually logistics which we need to sort which have been arranged in advance. For example, when we horse boated between Chester and Ellesmere Port last Easter we needed to gain access (and permission!) to park the car and trailer in a suitable position to unload. We horse boated to Ellesmere Port and then Paul Tickle was kind enough to give me a lift back to Chester to pick up the car and trailer.

Once we have arrived at the agreed location, unload Flower, it is then that we put her harness on. We have a short briefing by the nominated Person In Charge to allocate roles and responsibilities and also discuss Health and Safety.

It’s then pick up the towline, attach it to the Flower’s harness, she leans into her collar and off we go. The boat soon accelerates and is travelling at the expected speed within about four or five strides – amazing! Flower could pull the boat a lot quicker, but we keep a nice steady speed to ensure that the boat remains under control but more importantly so that our own legs don’t get worn out!

Anyone that has seen horse boating in action will understand the true elegance of a boat being horse hauled. I welcome anyone that hasn’t experienced this to join us this year to see it for themselves. We truly are keeping history alive, but what a joy it is to be doing it!

We are looking forward to another busy year which will begin with horse boating between Chester and Ellesmere Port. Flower will be staying at the National Waterways Museum for the weekend, so please do come and see us – we will also be doing some harnessing demonstrations and lock demonstrations.