Have not been into Poland recently but the last time on the train we saw plenty of horses still tilling the fields.

Q- is that the case now? Or are horses now in the glue factory or perhaps shipped to France for French meals?

thanks

I always thought it neat to be seeing horses tilling the fields.

???

No idea, but I do know that they are increasingly using heavy horses for forestry work here in the Netherlands, and a few farmers are using horses for some ploughing here too.
It would be nice to think that they are still used in Poland and other former Eastern bloc countries, but I suspect that EU subsidies make it unlikely that such inefficiencies are still allowed.

I hope, for the sake of the Polish farmers, that they have all got tractors now.

We can get the picturesque images from old photographs, from paintings, and from cinema.

Padraig - i echo that sentiment, but at least as of 2003 the following report says that is not uncommon to see horses working in fields on smaller farms.

Six Months in Poland with a Maryland County Agent
Horses are widely used by Polish farmers, but did not seem to have an important role ... very small and diversified, often still using horses for plowing. ...
www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/poland.html

Hi; Just two years ago, we did see horses helping in the fields. But we also saw people with 'hoes' working very large fields of vegetables. The tractors we saw had plenty of milage on them. Don't recall seeing any new tractors. ENJOY Iris

Don't remember seeing that in Poland, but in Northwest Romania (Maramures) horses were still in use for transport in '06.

Year: 2005 Place: Slovakian Tatras
5 miles from ski lift.
Scene: 30 yr old leading a horse which was pulling a car with wheels that were cross section of tree trunks, a body made of tree limbs, and a load of logs.
Looked like a scene from 1805

Typo: I typed car, I meant cart.

We have a lot of horse carts and horses working the fields in my state - Amish are flocking in and buying up previously unproductive farms

quite a treat to see old-fashioned buggies on the dirt roads - on Sundays they all head to someone's house to observe the Sabbath - a horse and buggy stampede kind of