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LillianH55 t1_j7azm7k wrote

Reply to comment by Huffy_too in I’ll never get tired of seeing a horse & buggy at the grocery stores in Amish country. by TyeDyeAmish

A very accurate analogy. Some owners spend tens of thousands of dollars on a high end horse and devote lots of time and money to maintenance - chiropractor, massage, specialty diet supplements. Others run their horse ragged on minimal care and their horse is the equivalent to an '89 Chevy Cavalier. Some horses also just hold up better physically to the demands of the job.

Source me. I've been retiring and recycling ex buggy horses into new careers for over 20 years in central PA. There are good and bad in their community just like ours. Im not a fan of generalizations about whole groups of people.

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labdogs42 t1_j7b03cp wrote

Oh cool. I didn’t know there was such a thing as buggy horse rehab/rehoming. That’s awesome that you do that!

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Hazel1928 t1_j7bys0j wrote

Is there any crossover between Amish horses and the rich people horse farms in southern Chester County? (Doe Run on to Newark) Maybe they get Amish to shoe their horses?

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anuhu t1_j7clewm wrote

Not really. It's very, very rare. Sometimes the "English" will get a former plow horse as a pasture ornament/steady eddy type for kids/visitors to trail ride. And sometimes regular/non Amish farriers don't want to work with the big drafts who aren't as good about keeping their hooves up for farrier work so in those cases I suppose someone might use an Amish farrier with stocks. And I suppose some people who like driving horses might get harnesses from the Amish harness makers, but very few non-amish drive horses.

Gnerally the non-Amish in southern chester county are looking for a much, much higher quality of care than the amish provide.

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Hazel1928 t1_j7dmtkf wrote

I live just south of Coatesville and I have a daughter in Hockessin and a daughter in Wilmington. Plus two on call jobs in Wilmington. So I drive through the horse farms and just general beautiful landscape and very old houses often. Such a lovely drive. We (my husband and I) call it our Jane Austen land. And consider these two daughters used to live one in Manyunk and the ither close to the art museum. So we were on the Schukyll to visit our grandchildren. But new jobs, both sons in law ended up in Delaware within a year of each other. One is a lawyer and the other is a scientist. So lots of business in both those fields in Wilmington.

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