My father was a horse man!

Sometimes I feel like an anachronism even more than my age would suggest. All of my grandparents were born in the eighteen fifties. My father was born in 1883 in Lac Que Parle County, MN, and moved with his parents by wagon in 1885. I remember a certificate displayed in our home that he received for being resident at the time South Dakota received statehood in 1889.
The oldest of four children he grew up on grandpa's homestead and lived there until 1962 when David came home to farm. Horses were his thing. His younger brothers were interested in mechanical things. Henry had a huge 40-80 Avery tractor he used for building roads, the rear wheels of which were eight feet high. Sam ran dads threshing machine during harvest.
Dad moved from horses to tractors reluctantly. In 1941 he bought an IHC B, a tiny little thing with 17 horse power. He was able to farm 160 acres with it, by spending hour after hour, day after day in the field. He may have upgraded to more horsepower but during WWII it was almost impossible to buy a tractor. When the war was over veterans received preference in buying tractors so it was either '47 or '48 (David says '47, I say '48) that he able to buy a Farmall H. That tractor is still in the family.
He kept one team of horses after he bought that first tractor. Their names were Bill and Daisy, gentle beasts, he used for mowing, raking and pulling hay and bundle wagons. Finally Daisy went blind and was sold. Her replacement was a bit cranky and kicked as she was being led into her stall knocking a hole in the barn wall.
Once I saw a picture of him with a dozen or more horses lined up in front of the barn. Oh how I wish I had that picture now. Dad died in 1969 at age 85.