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Modern Horse Logging with Daphné Rose Courtés
363 Plays8 months ago
In our increasingly technology-driven and urbanized culture, who hasn’t fantasized from time to time about getting out of the hustle and bustle, moving to the woods, and reconnecting with the natural world? Today we’re joined by Daphné Rose Courtés a horse logger in rural Quebec who has done exactly that.
In this conversation, Daphné gave us a picture into the day to day life of her and her horse, Fred, which showcases a true agrarian lifestyle in 2024. She is an inspiring example of someone who has followed their own intuition and embraced difficult, but fulfilling work back on the land.
In this episode, we cover:
- How Daphné found her way from Paris to working as a horse logger in Quebec
- Finding the beauty in both rural and urban life
- Exploring her close bond with her horse, Fred
- The importance of finding a good mentor
- The ecological benefits of horse logging vs conventional
- The challenges of being one of the few woman horse loggers
- The horse logging community and how they welcomed in Daphné into their ranks
- How someone could get into horse logging themselves
- And much more...
More about Daphné:
Daphné was born and raised in Paris and she started riding horses at a very young age. After moving to Quebec, she did a three year program in growing organic fruits and this is how she met Paul Chaperon and his family during an internship. He became her mentor and gave her the opportunity to use horses everywhere on a farm. From doing loose hay, logging, seeding, plowing and much more, it revealed her passion for working horses. She started her own small-scale logging business after buying one of her mentor’s horses, Fred. Using a single horse, the goal of her new project is to harvest wood in an ecological and thoughtful way.
Interested in learning more about horse logging? Check out the Draft Animal Power Network's podcast here.
Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller, who also wrote our theme song.
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Transcript
Finding Mentors and Overcoming Challenges
00:00:00
Speaker
Like I've been told so many times, oh you will never make money with that. That's just a hobby, you can't do that as a living. You need to find mentors, like my mentor, who is like, if you keep thinking like that, you're never gonna do it. And he's just like, teasing you like, you think you can't do it, I think you can do it. You're just, you're not putting the effort you need to put, you know? So you need to find the right people to do this.
Introduction to Agrarian Futures Podcast
00:00:31
Speaker
You are listening to Agrarian Futures, a podcast exploring a future centered around land, community, and connection to place. I'm Emma Ratcliffe. And I'm Austin Unruh. And on the show, we chat with farmers, philosophers, and entrepreneurs reimagining our relationship to the land and to each other to showcase real hope and solutions for the future.
Daphne's Unique Lifestyle and Journey to Horse Logging
00:01:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Agrarian Futures podcast. Daphne, can you give us a little bit of an introduction of who you are? Yeah, I'm Daphne. I live in southern Quebec, near the border of Vermont, I would say. I log with a single horse named Fred. He's 21-year-old, so he's an old guy, but not too old. He's still got energy, so I have a truck and a trailer, two chainsaws, and
00:01:31
Speaker
I sometimes bring a sleigh on my job so I can not only ride him to the woods but have a container to put my stuff. We mostly do small scale logging so I don't take out all the trees in the forest. I choose wisely my trees every time and try to have the less impact as I can and leave the cleanest forest as possible. That's my business.
00:01:56
Speaker
And you said you grew up in Paris and then Montreal, so in two very big cities. How did you go from that to horse logging? Yeah, this is definitely a non-standard route for someone who grew up in Paris.
00:02:08
Speaker
Yeah, so when I was younger, my grandmother had a house in the country and we used to go all the time. In France, kids just run the street and never come back before supper. So I used to run away to the nearest farm and they had two Friesian horses.
00:02:27
Speaker
And they were letting me ride those horses. I was nine years old and just do whatever I wanted with them. And so I get this thing kind of, I was the horse girl by definition when I was a young child. And then I moved to Montreal and lost this connection with nature and horses and
00:02:47
Speaker
I was terribly sad. Someday my mother was like, you need to do some agriculture. That's what you were always meant to do.
Mentorship and Hands-on Learning with Paul Chapron
00:02:54
Speaker
And so I enrolled in this program for a three year program about organic fruits and I moved to the countryside.
00:03:02
Speaker
Through this program I had to do an internship which was supposed to be related to fruits but in one of our class we visited someone who had a dairy farm and was doing everything with his horses and I turned around to my teacher and I was like I can't do only the fruits I need to learn the fruits but I need to experience this.
00:03:25
Speaker
The funny story is that I didn't have a car back then, and I lived 50 kilometers away from this farm. And I was supposed to do an internship of two, three days. And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to walk there. I'm just going to take my dog, my backpack, and my tent and walk there. And so I walked. I knew it was going to be life changing. So I walked there and knocked on the door.
00:03:53
Speaker
Hi, my name is Daphne. I'm supposed to be an intern for two days. Can I stay a little bit longer? And they took me in and they're like family now. That's incredible. How old were you when you did this? Must have been around 18 or 19, not too young. And then I bought a car and went back. But it sounds like you fell in love with the horse logging right away. When you saw that, you knew you were meant for it.
00:04:21
Speaker
Yeah, there was something about it. Actually, the first horse I ever drove and ever horselogged with is my actual horse now, which is kind of special for someone who's starting this. I happened to meet this amazing person who's my mentor, who's kind of like a father to me now.
00:04:41
Speaker
He's a little bit rough and tough, and he's from the countryside. Also, he has a really strong Québécois accent, and I'm very French. My first interactions with him, I didn't understand anything. It's like if we spoke two different languages.
00:05:00
Speaker
He was like, get on the horse and we'll go into the woods. I remember taking a picture of the horse and it's still my phone background. It hasn't changed. It really stuck. You obviously knew how to ride already, but horse logging is very technical. How did you learn all those other skills and the logging aspect of it and the machinery?
00:05:23
Speaker
I was highly dedicated, I think, or just passionate. I did this two days, three days internship at their place and then I had to do a summer internship. So I went back and then he being my mentor whose name is Paul Chapron, he taught me how to drive a horse and he didn't explain anything.
Challenges in a Male-Dominated Industry
00:05:42
Speaker
He just gave me the reins and
00:05:44
Speaker
told me to go on and he's really watching learn and experience and he does the wisest thing i've ever seen in a mentor he allows me to do all the mistakes i need to do to learn that's just amazing that's like no one does that anymore
00:05:59
Speaker
He's plainly seeing that I'm doing something wrong and then he'll wait a day or two and be like, you know, the last time in the woods when you were doing this, did you see your horse reaction? Did you sleep on it? Did you think about it? So that's how I learned the technical stuff with him.
00:06:15
Speaker
It can be quite challenging because you have to have a strong ego because sometimes you're like, oh, I didn't know I was doing something wrong. Why didn't you tell me at the time, you know? But it really teaches you very well. And then for the chainsaw, he was actually he was the one telling me you need to learn chainsaw skills because I was really bad. I was scared of hurting myself and I could really get better, much better. But I'm average now, I'd say.
00:06:42
Speaker
I did a class, but that doesn't teach you how to run a saw properly. That doesn't teach you how to be a logger. And so I did this class. I had my card and I was like, can I get a job? Is anyone looking for someone? And as a woman, it was it was tricky. I was scared. I was really scared. You don't know who you're going to find on Facebook. And so I did find someone who hired me.
00:07:04
Speaker
and I spent a year and a half with them but I was only doing three days a week and yeah and then like two years ago my mentor was like okay I'm gonna lend you my horse my truck and my trailer and you're just gonna take this job over there and do it and I was like you're sure yeah we're visiting it tomorrow like you're just doing it you have your saws you have everything you need do it and so I did it and it was really fun so that's how I learned
00:07:32
Speaker
And for someone who maybe doesn't know a lot about our slogan could you describe a little bit what would a typical day on the job look like and also you mentioned some of the tough decisions you have to make between sustainability and finances.
00:07:46
Speaker
I have a different experience too from other horse loggers, especially in the US. Most of the loggers in the US use two horses, so I don't know if they have the same routine as I have. I'm very much in a dialogue with my horse all day long. It's really intimate. It's really my horse and I. It's not like two horses and me.
00:08:05
Speaker
I've worked with that and it just doesn't suit me. In the morning, I have to wake up two hours before leaving to feed my horse for his breakfast. So let's say I want to leave at seven, I have to wake up at five and feed my horse at five to be off at seven or seven fifteen, you know, just because I don't want to intrude in his breakfast. Food is really, really important for this horse.
Daily Routine and Financial Challenges of Horse Logging
00:08:27
Speaker
I have to keep things in check. So I let him eat. I go take my coffee. It's really nice because it's like five in the morning so I can drink my coffee. I read. I like to read. I do homework. And then I get ready so I file my saws before going because it's really important you have to file your saws at least once a day.
00:08:47
Speaker
And then I make sure I have enough gas, I pack everything in my truck, and I pack a lunch for my horse too. I feed oat and hay, and that's the food my mentor has always told me to bring with me. And then I'd make my lunch too. I always bring tea because it's the warmest thing you can have around, have a thermos.
00:09:10
Speaker
I know it sounds weird but I think most of the loggers would tell you they bring tea in the woods or coffee or something warm. Because this is happening in the winter, right? Yeah, most of the time it's in the winter. So it's pretty cold. It gets really, really cold.
00:09:27
Speaker
I've been out at minus 40 easily. I don't know if that's Fahrenheit for you or Celsius, but that's Celsius for me. But usually it's minus 25 or minus 10, 15. But you keep your actors, you're not that cold. You can't stop.
00:09:44
Speaker
Okay, and then I bring my horse. I put a cover on my horse every time when I trail him. Then I put in the trailer, then I leave. I usually have jobs like 10, 15 minutes away from my house. I don't want to go too far. He's old. I don't want to say I'm lazy, but I don't want to go too far. And then I stop at my contract and I unload the horse. And that's where I usually have a sleigh. And so I hitch the horse on the sleigh and then put all my equipment in the sleigh.
00:10:13
Speaker
I have to admit that most of the time my sleigh is so heavy to bring on contracts and I'm alone so putting it on my truck, I've done it with my roommate but it's a huge job so it has happened in the past that I just put every equipment on my horse and he looks like a mule and he's not happy about it. I have like two saws, my gas, my oil, helmet and then I just hop on the horse and then we go to the woods.
00:10:39
Speaker
And I always bring my dog too, so that's a cute picture of us walking into the woods with like our head loads. And then I cut from eight to four or five and I take a break in the middle. I usually take 30 minutes. I force myself to take 30 minutes because it gets cold. So I usually want to go back to work, but it's really important to take a break or else you just don't see the end of the day.
00:11:05
Speaker
My horse needs an hour and a half break, so he gets to eat his lunch very happily. And I can't forget lunch. Like, if I forget the lunch, I have to go back to my house and bring the lunch. Like, that's just not allowed. And that's also animal cruelty, I think, for him.
00:11:24
Speaker
And then I go back and then around four or five, take the horse out of the trailer, take him in the barn, unharness the horse, put a blanket back on him because I always put a blanket when he comes back to work just so that the sweats just dries off. Then feed him, water him, and then I have my night for me.
00:11:45
Speaker
I imagine it must be pretty exhausting physically by the time you get back. Yeah. What is it? Like eight hours of cutting down trees at negative 30 degrees? Yeah, that's well, negative 30s are the hardest days. It is exhausting. I sleep very well. So Daphne, what you seem to be describing is really kind of an intimate partnership, like a very strong connection.
00:12:12
Speaker
between you and the horse like you guys are partners going out there doing the logging you've described how you really need to take care of him first and foremost making sure he's fat making sure he's water making sure he's well cared for and only if you do that will he also take care of you so there's a very close reciprocal relationship going on here
00:12:33
Speaker
It sounds like horse logging is, it's not for someone who doesn't love animals. It seems like that, that you need to have a passion for it. If you're just trying to make money, you probably just have a tractor, leave it in the woods and you don't have to wake up early in order to feed it. You don't have to.
00:12:51
Speaker
trailer back to your place every night. You don't have to give it plenty of water in the evening. It just sits there and it's ready for you to go in the morning. But you really have this relationship going on with Fred, right? Yeah. It's a very, very strong bond.
00:13:07
Speaker
There's actually a funny thing is the way I charge some clients, I have two types of clients. I have contracts that I sell the wood. So I'm not paid hourly or anything. I just sell the wood. I get a certain percentage of the wood at the end. And the other goes to the owner and the person who takes the wood out of my lot. And then I have other contracts where I get paid hourly.
00:13:33
Speaker
And so when I break down the prices to my clients, I have to explain there's $30 for me and $15 for the horse. And so that's just how it works. You know, if I was here alone, it'd be $30, but I'm here with a horse. So it's 45 and that's his pay. That's like, that's what he needs to like, I'm not the one making money. If he wasn't there, I would not make money. You know, it's kind of a funny way to see it. So that's the way my mentor always told me to see it. So.
00:14:02
Speaker
If most of your days you're only going 10 to 15 minutes, there must be a whole lot of opportunities for you to work in your area. Yes and no. It's a hard business because everybody wants a horse logger in their forest, but no one's really ready to pay for that. And especially like they hear, oh, a horse logger in the region, that's really nice. And then they
00:14:25
Speaker
me on the phone and oh it's a woman oh do i trust her like that has happened in the past recently i made an ad and lots of people called me and when they heard my voice i just heard it in the in the phone like oh are they still interested i don't know and also i sound very french which is kind of off putting for kibbit cross sometimes so i don't know maybe a mix of like this and like they didn't realize it was going to be this price and
00:14:55
Speaker
I don't charge a lot. People expect to have free work sometimes, especially from voice loggers, because we do it as passion. We're passionate about our work, so why don't we do it for free?
00:15:09
Speaker
But you need to make ends meet. So it sounds like the landowners, some of them have had an issue with it being a woman or just it's not what they expected. How has it been among other horse lockers being a woman and being accepted in a world that I'm guessing is extremely male dominated?
00:15:27
Speaker
Yeah. I think there's three others in the U.S., three other women. Among horse loggers, especially in the U.S., I mean, there's absolutely no problem. They're very well welcoming and some of them texted me this winter to be like, you know, we support you. We love you. You're part of the family. I wish we could call you bro, but I guess you pick a sister.
00:15:50
Speaker
That's so cool, you know, and there's a lot of support. I find it's more with the other conventional loggers in my areas that I have a hard time. I started everything with like a fruit thinner, like I don't know how you call them. Like a pruner?
00:16:05
Speaker
to chop the small branches. Yeah. Like a hand pruners? Yeah, a hand pruner. I started with that and I did my first contract fruit pruning to buy my first saw. My first saw was an echo and it's not a brand that people like and respect because it's not a skill for us, Verna. And so my first contracts, when I started, people were like, you using echoes and a horse and you're a woman?
00:16:30
Speaker
Get out, you know? And you're from France and... But it works. Everything works fine when you use it well, I think. So it's not the best saw. It's not the best way to make money and probably not the most efficient
00:16:46
Speaker
You know what? I'm still trying. It still works. And it sounds like this is a lifestyle that you've chosen and the logging is enough to cover the lifestyle. You're not going to get rich off of it anytime soon, but hopefully it's enough to cover your needs. And there's some real value that the horse logging and the relationships bring to your life is what I'm hearing.
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, money wise, I'm always surprised when I get a check and I'm like, I made money out of this. And it's usually fairly good, but it's not, it's not a lot. I've only done this two winters, so I'm not extremely good at it yet. And so I make money, but not a lot.
Balancing Horse Logging with Education and Future Aspirations
00:17:28
Speaker
Like I would, I would have a small job and it would be the same. I still have a small job. I actually mow cows two days a week so I can afford also my living and my studies and
00:17:38
Speaker
everything, but I think if I did that five days a week, it would pay the bills for sure, but I don't want to do that. So you're milking two days a week and horse-hogging three days a week. Have you ever been tempted to go get a much easier job just working in an office, back in the cities, all the modern conveniences? Oh. No.
00:18:02
Speaker
I mean, I still go three days a week also. I know that all of the days adds up to eight, but it works because I log in milk in the same day. But I go to school three days a week too. These were my days off. I love going to school, so that helps. I use my brain a lot when I log, like a lot, but different parts of my brain are used when I have to do equations and chemistry and science.
00:18:28
Speaker
Yeah, and also dressing. I'm still from Paris, so I like to dress like a lady sometimes. And I like to go to school with my skirt on and, you know, no, I don't wear heels because I'm pretty tall, but I like to have this moment in my life where I can be a lady. And then I go to chainsaw shops and I'm like, hi, I'm here with my skirt and like, hi, I've hit this chainsaw bar. Oh, it's for your husband. Oh, it's just for me, you know.
00:18:58
Speaker
You like to break all the stereotypes, don't you? I like that. It's fun. But I'm also very stereotyped in the other way. So would you say that there are good opportunities for others to get into horse-dogging? If someone listening to this said, boy, this sounds like an interesting career path or something that I might love, would you say that there's opportunity to get into this?
00:19:23
Speaker
You definitely have to make them. It's a path you have to forge, shovel through. I mean, there's a lot of effort I think to put in and finding the right mentor. I would never ever been able to do this without my mentor. He's done everything for me. He's fixed my harness, fixed my every equipment I've had and has given me so many insight and advices.
00:19:48
Speaker
I think finding a mentor is what everybody needs to do if they want to start this and then finding work is different depends on the place where you start in Quebec. There's a lot of opportunity and also sacrifices. I don't have kids. I have responsibilities, but I don't have like a house. I don't own a land.
00:20:06
Speaker
So it depends where you start from. I had the opportunity to do it. I found the right place in my life, but I don't know if I had kids. I don't know if it would have worked. But I want to believe it would if you
Community, Mentorship, and Preserving Traditional Knowledge
00:20:19
Speaker
wanted to. And you're on the board of DAPNET, which for people they don't know is the Draft Animal Power Network. Did they play a role in supporting people that want to get into horse logging? Definitely there. So I say I'm on the board, but I'm not extremely active
00:20:36
Speaker
these days because of university but they are here to answer questions it's a huge community of mentors and people who want to learn so they connect people with mentors knowledge if you have questions you can ask them there's a forum we have also dapchats that are educative
00:20:54
Speaker
Zoom meetings and then we have the draft animal power field base where you can be there in person and ask a lot of questions to different people and very knowledgeable teamsters. Teamsters are people who drive a team of horses, I don't know. So you get to meet a lot of people and if you need to start
00:21:14
Speaker
and you don't know where to start that's a good point and if you started and you have questions and you know that's just a very good source of information and it sounds like a really good network of women also right that are running that net.
00:21:27
Speaker
Oh yeah, there's a lot of women on the board. Very strong, kind, independent, that drive horses and oxen. Very cool people. I find they're so inspiring and I'll mention her because we're not super close but we've been in contact and
00:21:45
Speaker
There's Julia Ramsey that's in New York State, logging with Don Hughes. And sometimes when I have a hard time in the world, I'm like, I know there's Julia somewhere logging too, and she's doing it too, so I can do it too, you know? Yeah, it's just a nice community of people who encourage each other. We have posts for logging jobs, internship opportunities. There's so many resources available through DapNet.
00:22:12
Speaker
So Daphne, you mentioned that most of your logging happens during the winter. What does the rest of the year look like then for you? That's an interesting question because I have an old horse, so I have to keep him in shape. That's a very important thing for me. It's hard sometimes. But this year I've decided to take contracts the whole year round. I'll see for the summer, but right now I have contracts, even though snow is melting.
00:22:40
Speaker
They're just hourly contracts, so they're different. They're not as big and important. I mean, they're big and important. They don't require a whole bunch of other people involved in the project for taking the wood out. They're usually smaller projects that require my horse and I to be on site and move logs around.
00:23:02
Speaker
This summer I got a new job as a research assistant and it's three kilometers away from my house so I've decided to ask the farmers next to the place where I'm going to work if I could put my horse there so I could walk.
00:23:18
Speaker
go buy a horse to my job every day so that would give him something to do. We also have gardens here so we have a bunch of equipments to use in the garden and I will forget all the names because I know them in French but not in English. But anything to read the garden and till that's pretty much the equipments I have. And then I move bales of hay with the horse. Everything that I can do I do with the horse.
00:23:46
Speaker
Anything that you can do in order to keep them active, keep them fit, is what you're going to be looking for during the other times of the year, huh?
00:23:53
Speaker
Yeah, and keep a smile on my face too. We do it everything we can. We do it by horse on our road. We have a family that just had a newborn and they have two kids. Usually I would go by on Sundays and drive the horse there and take the kids for an hour just to give them a break. You know, that happens sometimes because we like each other. We all love each other on this road. So we help each other out.
00:24:17
Speaker
And looking forward, it sounds like you're building a lot of skills, farming, horse logging. You also have your degree that you're getting. What do you hope your life would look like, let's say five, 10 years from now? Would you continue to do all of those things or would you want to focus more on the horse logging? Oh, I think they're very complimentary. I would love to work for the government or teach horse logging.
00:24:42
Speaker
But I've come to realize that without horses in my life and forests, that it's just hard. I like it better in the forest with my horse. So I think it's necessary for me in my life to have both because we need to keep that knowledge. I think it's so important and it's the future of our forest. A lot of people say it's the past, but I think it's the future of our forests. So we need to keep it going and teach whomever we can.
00:25:11
Speaker
That'd be my goal, to have a little bit of research and a little bit of logging, or a lot of both, but depending if I have kids or not. And so what you're saying is you're envisioning a future where you're able to find balance.
00:25:26
Speaker
Yeah, I personally need that balance. And it's also a financial balance. Some contracts, I'll make mistakes and I'll take contracts that are not good. And I'm not extremely efficient. I only have one horse, so small mistakes can easily become big mistakes. Therefore I need to have a backup, if anything.
00:25:48
Speaker
What I've found in the last two winter is that I usually make more money than I expect to, but I don't want to base everything on that and I'd rather be very conservative with the horse logging and have another job filling the needs.
00:26:03
Speaker
You know just not to be too stressed it's not we can't work in the forest with a horse if you're stressed it just doesn't work out. The horse is going to tell you at least my horse is going to tell you. I'm curious something you said around the importance of transferring that knowledge that comes with horse logging.
00:26:22
Speaker
looking at all the practices and tools that we have across earthsogging, but also farming, other kind of more traditional forms of knowledge and the role it can play in helping us cope with the future and environmental crisis and other crises like that. Doing what you do and seeing what's happening around you. Are you hopeful around our ability to keep intact this knowledge as we go from generation to generation? It's a very good question.
00:26:51
Speaker
I get a lot of message on Facebook and text about people who are willing to learn or are learning or are searching for opportunities. I can't really tell because I wasn't there 10 years ago, but what I'm seeing is that there's a lot of people interested, but is there a lot of people who are ready to make all the effort behind it? Because a lot of people are like me from the city. And if you're from the city and you want to do this,
00:27:20
Speaker
There's a lot to do to get there. I'm not saying it's impossible. It's so possible. It's so doable. But there's still a lot of steps to do and a lot of these steps can disappoint or not be as expected. And I think that's a challenge that we have as a society is that
00:27:36
Speaker
If you're not making money, if people don't believe in your project, it's hard to keep doing it. Like I've been told so many times, oh, you will never make money with that. That's just a hobby. You can't do that as a living. You need to find mentors like my mentor who is like, if you keep thinking like that, you're never going to do it.
00:27:54
Speaker
And he's just like triggering and teasing you like you think you can't do it. I think you can do it. You just you're not putting the efforts you need to put, you know, so you need to find the right people to do this. But also like the more I talk to people about it, the more I realize that there's horses and people driving horses almost everywhere. So you have to find those people and
00:28:15
Speaker
Most of the time, these people are so eager to speak to people who want to hear about horses because they've talked their friends out about horses. My roommate won't hear anything else about horses, I think. And when people talk, for example, to me, but I'm not a mentor at all. But if people talk to me, I'll take hours and respond.
00:28:36
Speaker
Oh, I have an exam tomorrow, but I'll just talk till midnight about horses with this random person I don't know about. That happens. So I think there's hope. It's just we have to keep doing it. Our connection and knowledge has been so severed.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:28:52
Speaker
I mean, we've gone from growing up in towns where everyone had some basic working knowledge of animals and agriculture and equipment and living off the land to
00:29:02
Speaker
a world where most of us live in cities and really don't have pretty much any skills whatsoever. Like we have a long way going back. It's a really, really steep learning curve because we're undoing potential generations of unlearning that we've gone through.
00:29:19
Speaker
coming from a city at first I had such a strong feeling about cities and I was kind of disgusted and the more I do what I do the more I realize no it's so important that we have city and we have culture and we have people who don't know how to do these things
00:29:36
Speaker
Because sometimes these people are the ones that put light on us, you know, that they're like, oh, you're doing this. That's so cool. You know, and you're talking to your neighbor and they're like, yeah, you do this, whatever, you know, I've seen this before. So there's something about cities and it was a whole dap chat about horse carriage in New York. The person who was invited was a horse carriage driver in New York.
00:29:59
Speaker
She's like, you know, it's so important to have horses in the city. She said, we're kind of the ambassadors of farmers using horses, but in the city, I thought it was so beautiful way to put it because we shouldn't lose hope in the cities. And I think cities are here for good reason too, you know. You need to have the city to enjoy the country and you need to have the country to enjoy the city, I think.
00:30:23
Speaker
Definitely. I love the perspective that you bring there of coming from a whole other country, growing up very different from where you are now, coming from the city, coming from France into Quebec and being a young woman getting into this field very much out of the ordinary. But you bring a really interesting background and very, very unique perspective. And you give us hope that if you can make it work, that a lot of people can make this work with a dedication, with
00:30:52
Speaker
passion that you've shown. So I just wanted to thank you very much for joining us here this evening and for sharing of your story and sharing about your passion for this and being an inspiration to us and hopefully to others as well. Thank you. It was so nice talking to you and learning about this project that your podcast is such a good initiative that we need for farmers and city folks. Thank you very much. Thank you.
00:31:22
Speaker
Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexander Miller, who also wrote our theme song. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and leave us a comment on your podcast app of choice. As a new podcast, it's crucial for helping us reach more people. You can visit agrarianfuturespod.com to join our email list for a heads up on upcoming episodes and bonus content.