Shrimp-Fishing Horses of Oostduinkerke (Belgium)
Text & Photos by John Tickner
Reprinted with permission from the Spring 2004 issue of Heavy Horse World
published in The Draft Horse Journal, Autumn 2004

The first record of horses being used to haul trawl nets on the Belgian coast dates from 1502. The monks in the local monastery fished for shrimps, which among other things they would spread on their vegetable patches as manure. They also used shrimps and other fish to pay for goods and services in place of cash.

In the days when horses were in regular use in agriculture, most of the farmers within reach of the coast would do a bit of shrimp fishing to earn some extra cash. Often mules were used as they were cheaper to buy than horses. Even the milkman’s horse was pressed into fishing duty once the delivery round was completed.

In Belgium today, just three families continue to use horses for hauling nets. They have become minor celebrities, and are frequently featured as examples of Belgian tradition. A large picture of them greets arrivals at the Brussels airport, the first image of Belgium that visitors see. School parties regularly come from all over the country to see the horses at work. Strictly speaking, the horses should not be there at all now. They live in a very built-up area, and there is a law in Belgium that horses should not be kept within 100 meters of a house, but the authorities turn a blind eye in the case of the fishing horses. They want them to continue for the publicity they bring to the town.

Twenty-five years ago, King Boudewijn of Belgium recognized the work of the horse fishermen, and representatives of the men were invited to an audience with the King, and to present him with fresh shrimps. This became an annual tradition which continues with King Albert II today, though in practice they only get an audience with the King himself every fifth year; the other years they see a representative. The numbers of fishermen has now so much reduced that they all go each year, with their wives and families. (If the weather is so bad the day before that the horses are unable to fish, the men go and buy fresh shrimps caught by the conventional boat fishermen in nearby Nieupoort, and present those to the King–but don’t tell anyone!).

The season for shrimps is May/June and September/October, sometimes running into November if the weather allows and the shrimps remain. It is only possible to reach the shrimps for two hours before low tide and one hour after, as they do not move inshore with the tide. The working season is extended by the tourist board, who pay the fishermen to go out during the summer months for the benefit of the tourists, even though the shrimps they catch may be barely enough to fill a sandwich.

One of the fishermen is Eddy D’Hulster. Sixty-one next year, he no longer goes to sea outside the shrimping season, but he continues his work with the horses, for the time being at least. He is frustrated that shrimp stocks have been decimated by too many large trawlers fishing too close inshore. With one exception, the last six years have all been bad. In a good year he will catch over 1,000 kilos. He says, “I am a fisherman. I am only happy when I am catching fish. I am only happy when I can catch 10 to 20 kilos of shrimps in a session.”

The horses used today are Brabants, a Belgian breed of heavy horse, strong and well suited to the work. The smaller animals used in the past could only pull correspondingly smaller nets. Finding good horses has been a problem ever since they disappeared from agricultural work. Eddy’s horse, Fanny, is 17-years-old, and has been fishing for nine years. Horses do not take naturally to water, and only about 30-40% of those tried will make the grade. The others have to be sold on for other uses.

The horses have no understanding of depth, so do not fear it. If directed they would simply walk straight out to sea, out of their depth. What they particularly do not like is the waves, but in time they learn to turn to face or back into the larger ones. In rough weather they can be lifted off their feet by large waves. Says Eddy, “I have regularly had horses shifted about a meter by a big wave, but have never known one to lose balance.”

Each fisherman will have his trawl net made to his own specification. Eddy’s works well in about one meter of water, others are better suited to water a little deeper. Boards keep the mouth of the net open, and floats keep the top up. The shrimps caught are taken home and boiled immediately, then sold locally. As a bonus, other fish will turn up in the net on occasions, sole being the most frequent.

The future of the fishing horses is uncertain, though there are one or two younger men working with the fishermen, who may be prepared to continue the work full time. Interest in the tradition means there are a few individuals keen to take it up as a hobby, but Eddy questions whether they will have the time and patience to develop the depth of knowledge and skills required.

Frustrated by the poor fishing, Eddy keeps threatening to retire. The extra cash from the tourist board and the school parties helps to replace that lost by the depressing catches, but that is not what makes him carry on. He carries on because he loves the combined challenge of the horsemanship and the fishing that he has known all his life. Perhaps more pertinently, Fanny can only have three or four more years fishing in her at best. “She will know when the time has come, “says Eddy, “and she will find a way of telling me she has had enough. We both will know.”