MTFCA Forum

“The horse is through.” - Henry Ford

It’s been recounted over the years that Mr. Ford “hated” horses. Perhaps his disaffection for the equine race didn’t extend to a specific gut-wrenching animosity, but there is little doubt Ford’s massive incursions into personal mobility and on the farm resulted in a rapid transition from flesh and blood horse power into the motor age.

If, indeed ol’ Hank did harbor seething rancorous emotions for horses in general, it’s interesting to consider he may well have been their greatest benefactor, saving scores of them from the cruelties of owners whose mentality considered them no more than machines, and replacing them with actual machines insensible to abuse.

A newspaper cartoonist known as “Condo” regularly visited the topic of animal cruelty circa 1906 and on, illustrating in the “Outbursts of Everett True” what SHOULD happen to the unjust. Here’s a couple:

Thanks Rich for posting the never seen by me era cartoons. Henry may have hated horses and was no doubt a benefactor to them in the long run. Interesting to consider how many horses were liberated through the years with Model T and Fordson tractor production.

Henry Ford's contemporary Henry M. Leland, founder of Cadillac and Lincoln. Both he and his son Wilfred kept thoroughbred horses and Henry enjoyed riding even when he was approaching 70 years old. Source: Cadillac the Complete History by Maurice D. Hendry.

I have to wonder if Henry Ford actually hated horses. I suspect that he had a practical attitude toward them. He made the case that power farming was more productive than horse-powered farming, which it was. I've never come across any tales of his having abused horses, or of his having been abused by a horse, or any number of them. It's evident that he spent most of his life working with combustion-powered machinery, not horses or other livestock. I believe that he often hunted and fished with Firestone, et al, but as far as know they did not hunt horses. In his later years, he demonstrated a powerful nostalgia for 19th Century rural and small town life, which does not suggest any antipathy toward horses or livestock in general, which were central to rural and small town living in that period.

BobD wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 04, 2024 11:52 am

Thanks Rich for posting the never seen by me era cartoons. . . . Henry enjoyed riding even when he was approaching 70 years old . . .”

My pleasure, Bob ! Aren’t they fun ? “even” ?? at 76 I still throw a leg over. Not sure which is more fun - my horses or my Model T !! I hope I can continue to enjoy both for a while yet !

The T was to horses as AI is to humans. Artificial horses and can go faster than a real horse. However, sometimes needs a live horse to pull it if it gets stuck!
Norm

TXGOAT2 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 04, 2024 1:14 pm

. . . Henry Ford . . . made the case that power farming was more productive than horse-powered farming . . .

That is true. Mechanized farming led to surpluses, higher efficiency, producing more for less return, a deadly spiral. When I was small, we had a neighbor who still did some of his farming with a team. I recall his visits with my granddad, waxing nostalgic, once he noted that the tractor was convenient, didn’t require feed when not working, no worry or sorrow if it broke down - just expense. Of course we couldn’t grow its feed, and the tractor couldn’t replace its self either. In short, he said life was pleasant on 40 acres under horsepower. A tractor required another 40 to support the tractor, and that’s the spiral we’ve been on ever since.