PLOUGHING WITH HORSES
‘TWO’ THE FINISH LINE
By CharleySnowdon
Paul Brook-Nolan and his three impressive Shirehorses, Wotty,Titan and Spartacus. Paul and his treasured steeds arewell known on the ploughing circuit and form aformidable team that areall about ‘keeping traditions alive’.“Icame from the cityoriginally,and Iremember walking intothe local pub when we firstmoved hereand feeling as if we were part of a Western film!” laughs Paul. “Everyone looked up and fell silent. We decided right then and therethatweneeded to take up acountrypursuit to tryand fitin, and horse riding landed at the topofthe list.” Paul discoveredanatural infinitywith horses
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even though therewas seldom alarge enough mount to carry his frame.“It wasthe farrier at a yard we visited whilstonholidaythatsuggested Igoand meet Anne Williams, aprestigious champion plough woman from Devon”,says Paul. “I went and spent the mostincredible morning with Anne and her two 19hh Shire horses, Lupin and Leo, andIremember saying to myself ‘one dayIwant horseslikethis’.” Paul’sequine journeyproperly began shortly
after his visit to Anne’s, with the precarious purchase of a17hh, five year old, unbroken stallion called Brickell What’s Wanted, akaWotty. Now, nineteen yearsyoung and still entire, Wottyisthe schoolmasterofPauls team and together they have learnt and developed their skill set to get them to wheretheyare today. “I bought the field beforeIbought the horse because awise man oncetold me,‘that onceyou have horses, you’ll have little time foranything else!’,and he wasn’t wrong!” laughs Paul. “Wottyhad akind eyeand waswell bred but he also wasslightly lame from being put to stud from ayoung age,so we slowly worked at building the musclesupcorrectly and overtime,I am pleased to say, he became sound.” The next horse to join ‘TeamBrook’ wasthe
wild and fenroaming Spartacus, an impressive, then three year old, 17.3hh ShirethatPaul recalls ‘jumping off the ramp’.“Theyhad rounded him up intoapen when Iwent to see him, he wasprettyferal and hadn’tbeen handled very much”,saysPaul. “He wassharp and still is, but he’sagood furrow horse because of his height, youdon’twant anything much bigger than him because ahorse that’s toobig will just pull the plough straight out of the ground!”
appily residingand embracing village lifeonthe outskirts of Towcester,lives the very talented, yetverymodest,Mr
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