Welcome to Macina Island Moments, hosted by lifelong islander Jason saint Ande. Through conversations and interviews with Foe Island locals and residents, Jason will bring you the real stories and characters that the final life on the island. Whether you're a seasoned visitor, can you to Macna Island or even An Island or yourself, You'll be sure to learn firsthand about the island with Jason on Macan Island Moments.
And welcome to another edition of the mac and Island Moments podcast, the only podcast brought to you from Macan Island by an actual year round islander folks. This is episode number nine, Lucky number nine. You know, the weather's been kind of fickle lately to gets you brought up to speed and how
her spring is going. It's been pretty cool. In fact, this morning when I woke up, the temperature was sunny, but the temperature is only about twenty nine degrees and that's a little on the cool side for late April. Of course, it's not raining day in and day out, so we'll take it. So it's been a cool It was a very mild winter and it's been funello up by a very cool spring, and we'd prefer to have a real winter, at least I would in a real spring. But this
is a handw're dealt this year. We can't control it, so we'll just move forward. So today, in this episode, it was inevitable we're going to have to talk about horses, and of course we have to delve into this area. And I think something that I should mention is that the horses are here year round. While a bulk of the herd is shipped thirty miles north to farms for winter pasture, a small amount, maybe twelve to twenty or so, they remain here on the island to keep the deliveries going and
the taxi service. You know, the dres still deliver you know, goods and food year round and construction materials and such. So there are twelve to twenty and maybe I'm off there. There could be twenty four, maybe pushing thirty horses. I'm not one hundred percent sure. But in the summer, you know, there's upwards of five hundred horses. So when I say a small amount, twenty or twenty four would still be a small out. Why do they ship the horses in the winter. We get that a lot.
Well, it's easier to take the horses to their feed than to continue to ship the feed to the horses, if that makes sense. You know, all the hay for the that the horses eat all year is grown adjacent or on the farms where the horses spend their winter, and so of course it's easier to send the horses up there for the winter. You know, just because the horse is done working on the island, it still has to get you know, three hots and a cot, as they say, it needs
a place to stay and it needs to be fed every day. So it's easier to send the horses once in the fall up to the farm and then feed them there, as you know, as opposed to trying to bring the hay here. And and of course with the winner, you never know what you're going to get, if the fairies will be laid up early or there won't be sufficient ice, so overall is just an easier move to operate that way. So let me disqualify myself about any horse talk here. And that's
right, I said, disqualify myself. I'm not qualified to talk about horses, as believe it or not, I haven't been on a horse since nineteen eighty one. I can't ride them, drive them, hitch them, talk to them. I'm just I'm a big fan. I give horses their space. All I know about horses is you put gas in them and they go. I sure appreciate the men and women who can, you know, drive them and rope them and ride them and wrangle them. But that's not me.
I'm not a horse guy. I ride my bicycle, which I referred to as my iron horse. But you know, later in the podcast, we're going to be joined by a guy who can do all that and more, and he helps look after the operation here in the island. In fact, he's an expert in his field, and he's a fun guy to talk to, and he's gonna tell us all about the operations of what is known as the largest commercial livery service in the world. So you know, it's
kind of exciting. So stand by, we're gonna we're gonna have deal with us here, Dale Peterson here with us. Shortly. I was also asked, you know what becomes of all the horse exhaust you or the pooh I'm sure you know. Mike Rowe when he was here doing dirty jobs, he handled that question quite extensively. It was probably fifteen years ago or so, and you know, he summarized it pretty well and how the whole system works, and you know, just to kind of brush on that. You know,
the downtown, the downtown streets are swept manually. You know. You see these guys with the wheelbarrows or the bicycles with the hopper on the back, and they sweep and shovel it and it's a tough job and they work all day every day. You know, cleaning up behind five hundred horses is no small affair. And then in the outer burrows they use a horse drawn
sweeper machine. It was kind of developed by a local guy here, and they drive around every day all day and they ride over it and it sweeps it up into a hopper where you know, it goes to central collection. We'll get to that in a second. I should also mention downtown. Every night, in the middle of the night, while you're all sleeping, a crew goes out with hoses and flushes down the streets because the the other byproduct
of horses can't be swept up, and so they flushed the streets. So there, if you ever noticed there there isn't any stain or residue from horse urine from the day before, because every night it gets its flushed down with hoses, so the streets are fresh. And those guys work really hard too, and that's not an easy job, and but it's it's certainly appreciated. So the you know, the the manure is essential. It's you know, picked up and then and then put into these large wagons called manure wagons,
and then that's brought out to the island recycling center. And let me tell you that operation out there is a whole other episode. We'll we'll probably have to go out there and talk to the guys. Uh. The island does not have a landfill. All of the waste is shipped off the island in the summer pretty much daily. But we do have a recycling facility out there.
It's a pretty extensive and and we have a compost wasting system. And I'm probably not using the correct terminology, but the guys out there do composting with food scraps from the restaurants and hotels and then they mix it with the manure and then they you know, they let it sit for I'm guessing about
a year. And anyway, the byproduct becomes really rich, great soil, and the gardeners love it, and the grounds crews and the various hotels that have you know, extensive grounds, they get that soil and they use it. And so it's really kind of a I don't I don't want to say circle of life, but because it's not life. It's manure. But you
get what I'm saying. It's you know, the stuff gets reused, turned into compost and then they grow flowers and such with it, so you know, it's pretty neat, and that in a nutshell, is what happens. Like I said, well, we'll probably have to head out to the solid waste handling facility and talk with those guys before the summer's up. And it's pretty fascinating actually, and how much work they have to accomplish. But that's
what happens with the manure. Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, you know, a lot of the lot of the old farmers they say it's you know, it's good to put on the strawberries, but you know, I wouldn't know because I prefer whipped cream online. So you know, back to Mike Rowe when he was here that was a fun time we had with him. He has to be to date, the most down to earth
celebrity I've ever encountered on the Island or anywhere else. And if you'll notice, if you follow his show, the or the reruns of the show, and even sometimes when he's doing the roundtable on Deadliest Catch and these are all on Discovery Channel, every now and then he wears a Mac and Island Fire Department T shirt and on the air. And the story behind that is while
he was here doing his big show on the island. You know, he was here for three or four days, and we got to be friends, and we'd meet up at night and sample some of the local fair at some of the island taverns. And one night we were sitting at the bar in the Yankee Rebel and sampling out some of the local fair and he said, how does a guy get one of those Mac and Island Fire Department T shirts? And I said, well, you're in luck. I know exactly how
a guy can get one. So I ran up here to the Market Street fire station and grabbed him one, brought it back and he said, can I get one from my girlfriend too? And I said, this is a smart guy. This is a smart guy. He's he's going to remember to bring home a souvenir, and on top of it, one he doesn't even have to pay for. So anyway, that's how we got our t shirts that when you see him wear those on the air and or at least mostly in reruns, I haven't seen him do it lately. That's a story behind
that. So a good guy, a lot of fun everyone on the island really enjoyed. And he was here. He was visible, hung out with the locals, hung out in the bars, just real approachable, down to earth, down to earth guy. So our special guest today, Dale Peterson. This guy knows everything you need to know about horses and then some. And we welcome him to the show. All right, Dale Peterson is on the show on the podcast with us. Dale, Thanks for being here,
Oh, thank you for having me. It's great. I know you're gonna answer a pile of questions. You know, first and foremost, can you just kind of introduce, you know, how long you've been here, and what's your official title and what is it you do here in the day. Well, right now, my title is Barnes Supervisor. I arrived in nineteen eighty four. I come for one year to really party, and well, I haven't left since really met my wife ten years later and I'm still here
for forty one years. What's been a hell of a party. It was pretty fun. Yeah, So you know, we're going to talk about what goes on. We're up at the big barnes up here. That's what most of the locals call them, the big barnes. It's where the central hub, if you will, of all of the carriage to our McDonald cariage to our horses, kind of congregate or work out of Dale. There's people in these barnes twenty four hours a day, I presume. And when does the
lion's share the employees start to show up in the morning. Generally they start coming in about seven o'clock, seven to eight o'clock, depending on what they're driving for the day. Okay, and then so there are people around the clock though, oh absolutely, we have a night crew that feeds the horses, takes care of them, cleans the manure. Right. I gotta ask this question everybody that's not in the know with horses. You have roughly five
hundred horses up here. How do you how are you able to tell them apart once they're bridles and all that comes off and they're out in the pen. Well, most of them are pretty easy. I used to know them all, but anymore I just let the girls worry about it, right. But there is somebody on staff who can walk into a corral full of horses and name them right off. Absolutely, Judy's really good at it. Judy Bishop. Oh, she's a legend. Yes. How often do you have
a horse? I just can't cut it here? You brought it to the owlnd of work and it just it's not right for the place. Has that ever happen? Absolutely? We get about thirty to forty new horses here every year, and anywhere from six to eight of those will not work out. Really, Yeah, some of them just too high strung, so they just go back to the farm try to rebreak them. Or they either rebreak them, send them to charm school as we call it, or they just peddle
them off to somebody else. Oh excellent. And you know one thing I should mention there are other other horse companies on the owner's private horses, and then there's there's golf Livery of course, which operates the riding stables and one thing I want to mention is there's no rivalry amongst these employees. When there's an issue with a horse, they all come running, they all come to help. I don't think you see that in a lot of other businesses.
I wonder if McDonald's deep friers went down, I don't see burger king holler and bring your stuff over here and we'll fry it for you. But boy, you horse folks sure help each other out. And it's pretty neat. Yeah, And there's trouble with any type of horse, it doesn't matter whose horse it is. You just go and help, right, that's pretty amazing. So you get in in the day, Give me a day in a life of a typical day of life in the big barns here. Okay.
Well, I arrive usually about six thirty in the morning, and now I will talk with the night crew about any problems, sick courses, plumbing issues, everything is okay there. Then I will check the forecast, communicate with the farm crew to decide on what type of hey we want to get that day, check our oats, see if we need to order any from the feed meal At Pickford, we go through about three hundred tons of oats per season. Wow. Forty thousand square bales and two thousand round bales. Wow.
So does hay come every day? Pretty much? Usually five or six days a week. And what's a daily shipment of hey look like? Tonnage wise or bail wise? Usually we get three to four wagon loads and there's about seventy bails per wagon. Wow, that's amazing. So let me ask you this question. We post it up on on our Facebook page that we're going to be here today and we ask folks for questions. They could ask, is there a chance you'll do a little Q and A with me here?
A little rapid fire Q and A certainly? All right? So we've got these rapid fire questions that came in off social media Facebook. What does it take from James? What does it take to keep the herd content? Keep them well fed and they like to work, they'd be happy, I think like everybody else pretty much. So April asks from the photo I posted,
is that a Clydesdale And is that your favorite breed? No, that is not a Clydesdale, and my favorite breed would be Pertrons, okay, And what is the primarily what are the breeds pertrons and Belgium's mostly here with our draft horses. Sure that makes sense. They all get along. Or do they have to watch who they can work with? Absolutely, you have to watch. Some of them are pretty contankerous and they will only work with
certain horses. So again like people. Absolutely, okay. Jane who asks how often do the horses get their shoes changed and what kind of shoes do they wear? The shoes are changed four to six weeks, depending on the horse, and we use some steel shoes, also some rubber shoes. Oh okay. Julius Stern says, do you breed them? Well, only when we're lonely. You made me lose my place. Dale bo Bolinski wants to
know if you know the name of every horse. I think we covered that, and he wants no, whin's the last time you actually drove a horse? That would have been last summer. I drove a horse. Well there several times actually, but there you go. Bo car carry Out wants know how many there are? I said, five hundred. What do you think is the actually five hundred probably total on the island. We have about three hundred and fifty here at the peak of the season. Okay, here's the
important question, Cindy asks. Are the ferriers, which for you folks who don't know, those are the folks who put shoes on horses Blacksmith's farriers kind of one of the same. And the vets veterinarians are they on staff twenty four to seven and right here on the island, absolutely there is. We have three full time failures here that live on the island, and then we have rotating veterinarians that are always here. Wow. Our buddy John Durosia,
of course, had to ask why the long face? That's an old macin a joke. Folks, You guys, you're all going to get exposed to all these hundreds of years of Mac and Island jokes, and we sure like we have a fresh audience, we get to spring them on everybody. So Teresa wants to know what's the human to staff horse ratio? That is about three to one. Okay, that's three horses per per individual. Yes,
wow, that's an amazing amount of overhead. Susan wants to know, how do you know which harnesses go to which horse when they all come back in the spring. Is there a marketing of sorts? Yes, we tag the horses with paper tags in the fall left right horses names also some identified identifying marks. That way, it makes it so much simpler in the spring. Wow, these have been great questions. I'm sorry we couldn't hang on for
more, but Dale's a busy guy. Is there anything you want to tell us about the operations here that a lot of people don't know, well, that you haven't already told him in the last five minutes, I should say no, I can't think of anything off the top of my head. Okay, And here's questions I've been asking all of our folks we've had on the podcast this talk about the island being haunted. What are your thoughts on the
island being haunted? I'm not a believer in that. Yeah. And and of course I have to ask your favorite celebrity and your time here on the island that you've met her encountered. Well, we touched on it earlier there, Mike Rowe. That was a fun time with him. I guess I met Charles Woodson down there at the yacht club several years ago with the are you hoyding Toyd down at the yacht club? Dale? Yeah, somebody gave us tickets, so that's Sir Charles Woodson. Yeah, I guess, Sir
Charles woods And then the other one was George Bush Senior was here. I was put on with some other people as horse detail just for safety purposes. Sure, that's that's pretty uh, pretty good crew of celebrities, that's for sure. And you know you mentioned the safety aspects. And one thing I did want to mention is that your company employs people downtown that are in planes close, just there to keep an eye on the horses in case any issues
arise. And the reason, folks, those guys are in planes close is if they were any sort of uniform, they would get bothered with questions like where are the bathrooms, where should we eat, where's Fort mckinae, and that sort of stuff. So these guys are down there just keeping an eye on everything in the horses, and they do so kind of disguised, if you will, just so they can pay absolute close attention and not get interrupted
with the questions. So that's why we're up here in the barnyard talking to Dale, because we close the door and put the shades down so he's not able to look out the window for a few minutes while he answered these questions which has really helped. And I can't thank you enough for being here at Dale and I hope you had some fun I did. This was pretty neat. And once again, folks, I'm Jason saint IM's with the mcland Moments
podcast, brought to you from mcin Island and everybody, good day. Well left my dear rule to feed home in the ear of sixty four, went to work as a carriage boy on the back Inas shore. We go to work at eight o'clock and work from there to find at supper time you'll see us come with horship in our ride, will it when we are hungry and we'll drink clearly, I ride back when we want to smoke at heaven when we die. If ever I say on mccinclock, it'll have to be my
I'm just a plain old mousie. I'm a closin us home well and then Baker run mc and coll and like very well. The evening we went for a walk up to the Grand Hotel. She ordered up from all Champagne with grou Johnny Rye and when I looked over she had horse in her eyesquent me, you're huy, and we'll drink when me I drive tobacco. When we want to smoke. It's heaven when we die. If every rice day on mccanna, you'll have to be my on, I'm just a prain or the
v I'm a dozen mouths. Over one evening after supper time and all her work was done headed for the most time, but there we had some fun. I brought her to our table in his way shirt and his time. And when we looked down over he had horses in his eyes slowly quenty are hungry, and we'll drink when I drive tobacco when we want to smoke. It's heaven when we die. If every rice day on mccanna, you'll have to be mile on. I'm just a plain, or to see I'm as
well. Now my song is ended. Friends, I leave you with glad joy. Never let your sons or daughters work. Gone back in the aisle to see us coming off from work. When make her girlfriends crying with her hard hats and our glasses and horse our