COVINGTON, Ind. — During harvest, massive tractors and combines litter fields of the rural Midwest. But on a farm in Fountain County, Ind., retired carpenter Ray-Bob Abernathy is methodically cutting his hay with an antique mower and only 2-horsepower: 13-year-old geldings Achilles and Paris.

“I do everything with the horses that I have the equipment for,” Abernathy said, recently finishing his last hayfield. “I guess I do it for the same reasons some guys climb mountains. I just enjoy doing it.”

Aside from mowing and raking hay, the horses’ main job is logging some of the farm’s wooded acres in the wintertime. When Abernathy and a neighbor decided to experiment with planting four acres of potatoes for a cash crop last spring, Achilles and Paris also pulled the disk cultivator and planter.

“Anything you want to do with the horses takes about an hour per acre, on average. They can do a little bit better than that on days that aren’t hot,” Abernathy said.

He grew up in the area and has had horses since he was 11 years old. He and his wife, Bonnie, moved to their current location, about 10 miles south of Covington, after he retired as a union carpenter six years ago. 

He’s had Achilles, a mix between a Belgian draft horse and a Percheron, and Paris, a purebred Percheron, since they were weaned, and broke them himself.

“It’s not that hard to get draft horses to do what you want them to do,” he said. “You just need patience.”

Working horses are few and far between on farms in Fountain County and even in neighboring Parke County, which has a sizeable Amish population, it’s rare to see a hayfield mowed the old-fashioned way, according to Abernathy. “Most of the Amish use motors on their mowers, probably because they (non-motorized mowers) are so hard to come by,” he said.

In Abernathy’s shed his fondness of yesteryear equipment is on full display. Here, a 1911 horse-drawn buggy that was built in Rochester, Ind., sits next to a combine from 1942.

“It still works. I cut oats and barley with it this year,” Abernathy said of the combine. But nostalgia for the old ways is not the only reason why he works horses on his 59-acre farm: “Every time I hitch them up, I feel like I’m sending OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) a letter saying that ‘I don’t need you guys.’”

In recent years, Achilles and Paris have made regular and well-received appearances in the community. Abernathy has built a wagon he uses for hayrides on the farm every fall, and for the past three years, he has volunteered his and the horses’ time to provide transportation for the annual Cemetery Walk in Covington.

“He’s been really gracious and donated his time, helping make the event successful,” said Carol Freese, president of the Fountain County Art Council, which co-sponsors the Cemetery Walk. “We operate on a shoestring budget, so what he’s done has been very valuable to us. He likes doing it, too; he really enjoys the old ways.”