Pennsylvania Game News - June 2023 - 22

HORSE LOGGING
Make no mistake: logging is dangerThere
were 91.7 fatal injuries for every
ous.
100,000 workers in the industry in 2020,
according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. That ranked only behind fishing
and hunting - think people on crab boats,
for example - as the deadliest profession.
Fishing and hunting workers experienced
132.1 deaths per 100,000.
By comparison, the fatality rate for
all jobs nationwide, combined, was 3.4
per 100,000.
Steve Perrine has suffered his share
of injuries.
He completely snapped two bones in
one leg, an injury that required doctors to
put in a steel rod that runs from the knee
down, anchored with bolts at each end.
He cut an artery that had him convinced
he might bleed to death in the woods.
And he was nearly crushed by a widowmaker
- or falling tree limb - that hit his
helmet, sending it flying 75 feet.
That's not a matter of logging with
horses versus machines, though.
" I don't know that logging with horses
is any more or less dangerous, " Perrine
said. " It's a give and take. If you fall off
a skidder, it's not going to say whoa. A
good team of horses will. A good team
will look out for you. But at the same
time, if you're logging with horses you're
not in a protected cab. You're exposed a
little more.
" But the biggest danger is cutting trees
down anyway. And that doesn't discriminate
based on equipment. "
That's why Perrine never leaves home
in the morning without looking at his
family and praying he'll come back to
them. But he has no plans to quit either.
Perrine lives on the same farm where
he grew up, has been around horses his
entire life and remembers well the first
time he spotted a Belgian.
" I was hooked, " he said. " So when I got
out on my own, I wanted to accumulate
teams of horses and it just meshed. It's a
hard life, but it's my passion, so I do it for
a living and always will.
" You can't think about the danger. You
just have to love what you do, and horse
logging is my passion. "
22
an elk and on the way out, for example,
he's constantly talking to Friday, telling
him he's a " good boy " and patting him
on the shoulder.
" Logging with horses, living with these
horses, it's just a passion of mine, " Perrine
said. " And hauling elk, it's just fun. I'm
usually real busy on Monday, and Tuesday.
I'll have elk. But I might not pull an
elk on Wednesday. Then Thursday I'll be
busy again. It's hit and miss. You can't
really gauge how it's going to go.
" But that week, unless someone's
dying, it's elk camp. I'm available 24/7. "
Lest anyone worry hauling elk is hard
on his horses, know they're made for this.
Perrine owns six of the animals. Four
regularly work at logging.
Friday, at 19, is the oldest and probably
slowest, but also steady. The three
newer members of the " fleet, " as Perrine
calls them, are Archie, a 9-year-old gray
Percheron who's also moved elk; Willie, a
5-year-old black Belgian-Percheron cross;
and Jake, a 10-year-old Belgian.
His other two are Cheyenne, a 22-yearold
purebred registered Percheron who's
retired, and the baby, Jase, a 3-year-old
Percheron. He's currently in training.
Friday and Cheyenne are the " little "
horses of the bunch. The bigger ones are
as tall, but broader - Perrine says they
look " real tanky " - and go 2,200 pounds.
All are incredibly strong.
When logging, Perrine is cutting and
felling trees in addition to driving the
horses. So they get some rest at times.
But on a good day, it's nothing for a
pair to haul up to 10,000 pounds. They
can even do some incredible individual
pulls; one pair once moved a red oak log
that later weighed 6,330 pounds.
" It wasn't a long skid, just short, " Perrine
said. " They'd slam it and I'd shut
them down. They'd slam it and I'd shut
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2023

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