| 1) How old are the Draft horses? Currently our horses age range 9 to 11 years. |
| 2) What kind of horses are they? Is this a Morgan? No Morgans are not Draft horses. Draft horses are commonly called plow horses. These are the big boys for the big jobs. They were bred to pull. Draft horses, also known as "The Gentle Giants" as they are very quiet animals. This is why they're used for our Seattle horse carriages. |
| 3) How long can they work and live? Depends on the individual horse. They can live between 30-40 years depending on health and care. Usually horses can work until their mid to late 20's |
| 4) Are carriage horses regulated? Yes. Seattle's Animal Control monitors all the carriage horses while they work in town. Horses pass a physical every year by a licensed veterinarians. No horse is allowed to work if the animal is in less than perfect condition, ill health or lame. No horse is allowed to work greater than 5 straight days without a day off. |
| 5) What kind of shoes do they wear? how often are they shod and what's the cost? There are two styles of shoeing for the Draft horses. One is a two part shoe of metal and rubber. The rubber is bolted to the bottom of the drilled and threaded steel. The second style is a regular steel shoe with a rubber pad under the hoof. It then has borium melted to the bottom of the shoe for traction. Costs run between $150/250 per horse every 6 to 8 weeks. |
| 6) Where do the horses live? Horses are hauled into Seattle only the days they work. Our horses live in Redmond, on 5 acres with a 6 stall barn. Average days will find them out playing in the fields. |
| 7) How do the horses get into town? Our horses are hauled in a 24 ft. horse trailer. Carriages are stored in Seattle. |
| 8) How hard do the horses work? Hardly at all. The carriages are easily pulled, empty we can pull them. The carriages have rubber rimmed tires, bearings on the axles, and roll on usually smooth concrete. We do monitor the hills we pull. We will never ask our horses to pull very steep hills. |
| 9) Can we pet the horses? Yes you may, thank you for asking and please pet the horses on their backs or shoulders. As they don't like people in their face. (think about it...would you like someone petting your face all day long???) |
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| FAQ's |
| Emerald Country Carriages |
| At the farm....... Our farm is located on Union Hill, in Redmond, Wa. The horses have a 6 stall barn and turned out on 5 acres. The days you don't see our horses in town working, they are playing hard, turned out, and "free" to do as they please. Our horses have a very light schedule, never exceeding city regulations. In summers they average a 2 days of work a week and during Christmas they average a 4 day week. "What union do they belong to???" |
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| Come on down to the Seattle waterfront and visit with us. Children may feed the horses carrots, |
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| We hope you've enjoyed our FAQ's page as we've answered most of our standard Draft Horse, Gentle Giants and Seattle horse carriage questions. If you need more information just give us a call. We're in love with our Gentle Giants, we hope you are too.! |