Surprise by Wim Romijn

About "Surprise"

by Wim Romijn

About the artwork

It just has to come to it, the farmer is taking the plunge. Two 2-year-old draft horse mares are being harnessed today. For the first time, they are harnessed for the cultivator (implement to break up the field soil); in the middle, 4-year-old Vanessa walks in the role of instructor. Even though the young horses are still walking with unsteady legs, cultivating goes smoothly. These mastodons with their unimaginable body forces, remain calm and make no attempt to break loose. Hooks are struck at random, with the lead mare pushing and pulling the twenties in the right direction. Crossing or stepping over, as gracefully as only skaters can. After half an hour, the horses are unhitched and come to stand in front of the plough, which is deeper and therefore offers more frictional resistance. In the hilly terrain, the horses and a hare surprise each other. At this overrun, the hare sets off at a run, the young horses hold their pace for a moment before continuing unperturbed. I observed similar scenes with other teams of draft horses. When out in the field, there was nothing that could throw them off balance; not that hare in cover that suddenly dashed away right in front of their hooves, nor that pheasant cockerel that emerged from the field vegetation with cackling, clapping and snorting almost perpendicularly in front of their noses. Another trio towing along a farm ditch completely ignored the exaggerated startled reaction of a pair of mallards that took to their wings from behind the ditch reeds, snapping loudly with swishing wing beats against the water.