WOODS around Scotland's hills are resounding to the sound of man and horse working together again, nearly 20 years after the Forestry Commission paid off the last of their horse logging contractors.
Allan Thomson, who refused to admit defeat in 1978 when the commission decided to stop using outside contractors, is at last being being rewarded for his persistence.
Mr Thomson has worked with horses since his boyhood days on his father's farm in Perthshire. When he took on the tenancy of Tullochville farm, near Aberfeldy in 1956, he continued to use horses to work the timber out of the woods.
By 1978, he had built up the business to the point where he employed nine men and six horses on forestry contracts alone. Then the Forestry Commission stopped sub-contracting to private firms.
Now, growing environmental awareness and concern for the land have made Allan and his horses, Ben and Harvey, forestry favourites once again.
His most recent contract is to thin woodland on the banks of the Backwater Reservoir in Glen Isla in Angus. The reservoir, owned by NOSWA, is essential to the water supply for Dundee and the sur-rounding areas.
A NOSWA spokesman commented: ''There can be problems with silt being washed into the reservoir, but the use of a horse minimises soil erosion.''
The Sitka spruce thinnings on the reservoir bank are felled by woodcutters who leave the trees for Allan to collect. ''I'm taking out about 7-10 tonnes a day here, but if you look around the woods, you would never know they had been worked,'' he explains,.
''Not only does the horse do less damage to the ground than a tractor, but a horse is much more versatile at moving between trees and over stumps. The tractor needs a 'rack' or road cut out for it and that can open up the forest to wind damage.''
The logging horses require special training. Allan uses traffic cones to teach them to manoeuvre around obstacles, to step rather than jump over ditches and to control their speed for a steep descent.
The horses work an alter-nating, 'one day on, one day off' rota. ''It is hard work and you must understand what the horse is capable of'' Allan added.
Allan is Scottish co-ordinator for The British Horse Loggers Association, which now has around 60 members UK wide and a dozen in Scotland.
qThe Scottish Horse Logging Championship takes place at Inveraray, Argyll on July 26-27.
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