The Return of Draft Horses to Champagne: Sustainable or Simply Symbolic?
Words by Lucy Edwards Few images are more romantic than a draft horse walking slowly between the vines of Champagne. Leather harness creaking, chalk dust rising in the morning light, hooves pressing gently into ancient soils. The Champagne-Ardennes region is, after all, home to the Trait Ardennais , one of Europe’s oldest draft breeds. Before tractors and mechanisation reshaped viticulture in the 1960s, horses were essential to the region. Today they are almost extinct. But since the 2010s,...
by Lucy Edwards · source ↗