For three years Larry Landsiedel has cut and raked approximately 20 acres of grass and alfalfa for his hay crop without buying a drop of diesel fuel.

He accomplished the job with Pride and Joy, his Percheron draft horse mares.

"I didn't buy any gas this summer," Landsiedel said one evening last month from his small farm 15 miles north of Bismarck.

Landsiedel harnesses the sister team for several farm and recreational purposes from pulling a sickle bar mower, hay rake, plow and manure spreader to pulling a wagon or a two-person cart.

The 72-year-old retired farm implement mechanic has nothing against machinery, but he knows mechanical breakdowns are common in the field.

"If you don't keep those (tractor) wheels turning, it's a sin. And you break down three times as much. This is a more relaxed schedule."

If the team gets tired in the field, Landsiedel pulls on the reins to give them a rest. "They get the speed on. They're always in high gear. It makes the sweat drip from their bellies."

Although he still needs a tractor and hay baler to finish the hay crop, Landsiedel hopes to one day have the team pull a small square baler with a self-contained engine.

Landsiedel first began working with a draft horse team when he was a teenager on his dad's farm operation north of Washburn.

"Back then it was hard work, but I didn't mind it.

At 13 years old, Landsiedel was eager to drive a team and with his dad's permission he was soon pulling a threshing machine with a team during the grain harvest.

"Every chance I had as a kid to find an excuse to use a team, I did."

Landsiedel enjoys the slow pace as he sits atop the antique iron sickle bar mower easily guiding Pride and Joy around a field of waist deep pearl millet grass.

"It's just relaxing. I love the outdoors. Just sitting out here … it's so beautiful."