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Out of all the competition classes at the National Ploughing Championships last week, the one that always attracted a crowd was the horse ploughing class.
Coleman Colgan brought his two shire draughts, Ned and Ted, to the competition after taking it up three years ago.
“They’re lovely to work with, they’re like a pet dog,” Colgan said.
“He’s 18.1 hands high and the other guy is 17.2 hands high.”
In contrast to other ploughing teams, Colgan is a single-man operation, using voice commands to control the plough horses.
“I brought them out to the seaside and that’s where I train them in the sand, so I could let go of the plough and just lead the horses, but once I got them so they knew what they were meant to do, it was easy enough.”
“There is time pressure. You have four hours to do your plot. It’s slow work just to keep it right.”
The competition on the day was tough with a number of pairs competing, but Colgan put on an impressive display on the day.
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