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There are only a handful of farmers using working horses here in the UK. One couple flying the flag are Mike and Ellie Paddock, who’ve recently relocated their logging and training business, Hitch In Farm, to a new holding in Carmarthenshire. They are busy tilling their 52 acres and logging the woodland with the help of their sizeable herd of heavy horses. Verity Sharp visits the farm on a day when a pair of mares are being harnessed for a spot of chain harrowing. Mike and Ellie are passionate about working horses, breeding from their own stock to produce stout, wide animals that favour stamina and muscle over elegance for the show ring. They are very clear that they aren’t farming this way as some kind of nostalgic throwback. This isn’t about tradition; it’s about a sustainable future, using real horsepower over machines, in the name of doing right by the soil and passing on valuable skills and knowledge. They’ve only been at Pencaerau Mawr for three months, but their aim is to build up a traditional mixed, food-producing farm where horses live and work in harmony alongside goats, sheep, pigs, chickens and cattle.

Produced and presented by Verity Sharp