How to Sew Up a Horse with Buttons

On August 8, I interviewed Dave Dunn about growing up in St. John's. We talked about his early years in Georgestown (which, as Dave said, was "a bustling community, lively as heck"), his dealings with "longshoreman gangs" on the waterfront (who were always nabbing transistor radios, "the iPhones of the day"), and his later life in Makinsons, where he gardens, picks berries, hunts and forages for most of his food. Towards the end of our interview, Dave brought up the matter of tending to injured animals. "If a horse is in trouble," he said, "if they need to get a pill in them, you've got to get a pill in them. You've got to figure out ways to make things work." With that, he launched into the tale of the time he sewed up a horse with buttons.

Diagram drawn by Dave Dunn, showing how he stitched up an injured horse with buttons and a shoelace. The diagram shows the position of the cut, the shape of the open wound, and his method of repair.

When Dave's horse, Prancer, first received the injury, Dave initially called up the local doctor. However, the doctor didn't want to be known as a "horse doctor," and thus refused his services. Dave then took matters into his own hands, and attempted to sew up his horse with sutures, but the stitches wouldn't hold. After giving the operation a couple of tries, he recalled a story of the time that a Clarke's Beach cow had a wound sewn up with buttons. And so, a woman named Myrtle brought out her button collection, and Dave decided to give it a shot. He explained:

“I think it was about seven buttons—four on the bottom, and three on the top. One in the centre on the top, a couple of flanks, and then the ones on the bottom to match it. … The buttons held. And then afterwards, when the buttons were held, then I used a shoelace. Pulled it together with a shoelace, and tied it up with a little bow.”

Dave used orajel to ease the horse's pain, but as he said, "The repercussion of it was that it was a hot day, and while I was in there trying to do it, I was rubbing sweat off my head—and next thing I knew, my forehead went dead, and my nose went dead, and my mouth went dead, and my fingers went numb—oh, it was so funny trying to do it. That was the funny part. It just made it into such a lark."

Dave had called up a nearby vet to inspect his operation. After sizing up the job, the vet told Dave, "I couldn't have done any better." Dave cut off the buttons once Prancer had healed (after a week or so), and that was that. The cut was set at the very point where Prancer's black and white hair met, so nobody ever saw the scar.

Prancer the horse. Photo courtesy of Dave Dunn.

New Perlican's Goat Tea and Other Animal Tales

Did you grow up milking goats? Do you remember hauling wood by goat instead of horse? Do you have memories of keeping gardens or raising animals? Do you have old photos or items associated with the agricultural history of New Perlican? The Heritage Foundation NL, in partnership with Heritage New Perlican, wants to know!

We’ll be hosting the Goat Tea and Other Animals Tales in the Veteran’s Memorial Community Centre, Main Road, New Perlican on Friday, May 19th, 2017 at 7:00pm.

“We are looking for anyone connected to New Perlican with stories about goats or other farm animals, growing vegetables, or building root cellars,” says Heritage Foundation folklorist Dale Jarvis. “If you have memories or photographs of agriculture in New Perlican, we would love to hear from you.”

This innovative project is part of the Foundation’s Oral History Roadshow and will highlight the importance of oral history as well as traditional knowledge about animal husbandry, self-sufficiency, food security, and agricultural practices in the community. It will also connect the past to the present and showcase interviews with the current generation of goat-owners, and will demonstrate how goats are used in New Perlican’s older cemeteries today as lawn mowers to cut down overgrowth.

Come for a cup of tea, and bring photos, goat yokes or other agricultural objects to show off. There will be a digization station to scan or photograph items, so you can take your originals home with you. The information gathered will be used alongside oral history interviews and archival research to create a booklet about the goats of New Perlican.

Check out the Facebook event here!

For more information please contact Terra Barrett with the Heritage Foundation toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 5 or email terra@heritagefoundation.ca

Did you know? A Little Tidbit About Heritage Animals

 "The Newfoundland Pony has long been a proud part of Newfoundland's culture and history. These ponies interbred for over three centuries until the Newfoundland Pony that developed was perfectly suited to the rough Newfoundland environment." 

Did you know?

The Newfoundland Pony was the first and only animal to be given status as a heritage animal by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. In December of 1996, the province passed new legislation that calls for the protection of heritage animal such as the pony.This protection is seen through the support and breeding of animals that have been an important part of the province's history. For more information on the designation of the Newfoundland Pony please see the Heritage Animals site hosted by the Department of Natural Resources. 
-Lisa

The Cappahayden Pony Refuge

The Newfoundland Pony is an important part of Newfoundland's history and some people even refer to them as a "heritage animal." It is thought that without their labor, it wouldn't have been possible for settlers to stay on this island. Ponies did a great deal of our brunt work for many decades--they are hearty animals that could withstand difficult conditions, such as poor weather, bad grazing, and food scarcity. Traditionally ponies would be used for hauling fish, pulling lumber from the woods, turning soil in the fields, pulling stumps from the ground, and of course, for transportation. They helped the people of Newfoundland subsist on this land up until the 1960s and 70s when they were almost completely replaced with motorized vehicles. During that transitional era pony populations saw a major decline. When once there were 10,000 ponies, the population fell to around 50. Nowadays, some people recognize all of the work that the pony did to help us, and are working to protect the ponies we still have. This is done through breeding programs and by ensuring that ponies have good homes.

Liz Chafe of The Goulds has been working with ponies since she was a young girl. She now owns and operates a pony refuge in Cappahayden with her husband Peter. It is a great deal of work for them to house these animals. Right now they have 11 ponies, 1 cow, and a dog. This past weekend, myself along with HFNL staff member Dale Jarvis and volunteer Joelle Carey went to see Liz at the pony refuge to see how we could help with the workload. Joelle was particularly interested in visiting the farm because she will be working as an intern with the Newfoundland Pony Society starting in January. It was a good albeit rainy day, and we got a sense of what kind of work it takes to care for these animals. We hope to go back again soon with as many volunteers as we can wrangle.
-Lisa

Joelle (L) and Dale (R) hanging out at the pony refuge.

Liz Chafe talking to Dale and Joelle about her Newfoundland ponies (while she prepares pony feed).

Century Farms, Newfoundland ponies, a building floats to a new home, and more

In this edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update for Newfoundland and Labrador: the Seeds to Supper Festival gets underway with a workshop on culinary tourism, featuring Canada's Top Chef participant Todd Perrin; we celebrate our agricultural history with an evening of stories of farming past, present and future; a local woman keeps the tradition of Newfoundland ponies alive; news on the Culture, Place and Identity at the Heart of Regional Development conference coming this fall; a historic merchant's shop is hauled (and floated) to a new home; and, our root cellar roundup.

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