About Essentially, Drafts

Like David Copperfield, I was born. About two minutes later, I asked for a pony.

That was a pretty consistent theme for the next decade. I got my first horse at 11, and then life happened — as it does — and horses had to wait for the next 25 years.

The way back started unexpectedly. When my youngest daughter needed volunteer hours for graduation, I found a well-known draft horse rescue and fell into the draft world face-first. A few years later, we rescued our first two senior draft horses; Sophie Valland and Helene Dumon. Both girls came out of the Amish auction pipeline, and both came with physical and behavioral challenges that I will forever be grateful to my team for helping us navigate.

Sophie was a Percheron/Standardbred cross with that gloriously triangular head — broad forehead, wide expressive eyes, and a tapered nose. Halters that fit up top were far too big in the snoot. Helene was a 17.3 Belgian, and nothing fit in general. Like so many in the draft Facebook groups, we sold and resold tack to each other and frankensteined everything else.

Sophie and Helene were both laid to rest in Fall 2025. They are deeply missed.

Then I got Freda Benning.

In my “In Search Of” post, I put that I needed north of 16 hands. Freda is north. Way north. She’s so north she’s up near Barrow. She’s 19 hands. I got her in the last week of January, right as we were heading into a Polar Vortex weather event. I had an 88 blanket left over from Helene and thought sure it would fit. Oh, sweet summer child... I was able to find a 90, but she needed a 96. We frankensteined that up and sort of made it work. I kept promising her it was going to get better.

It didn’t.

From bits to bridles to blankets, it either didn’t fit, wasn’t in stock, or was of such poor quality I refused. In a bout of frustration, I made a joke in the car with the aforementioned daughter that I was just going to have to do it myself. She said “You could...” — and here we are. I filed the LLC a few days later and started contacting vendors.

Today, Essentially, Drafts works with vendors including Thinline, Dressage Sport Boots, Correct Connect, Kensington, Agador’s, Ovation, Perri’s Leather, and Triple E to provide a curated experience for draft owners. No stopping at Warmblood/Oversize. No “We’ll have to special-order that... I think we can special-order that?” And no one who makes jokes about your “monster” of your sweet angel baby.

Draft and draft-cross horses deserve quality tack that looks and feels as nice as what our lighter horses have. Owners deserve a quality shopping experience where their horses are the norm. At Essentially, Drafts, we are leveling the tack store experience.