Pit horse

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Replica of a pit horse in the Deutsches Museum

Pit horses were used in mining, both in open-cast and underground mining, to pull carts to the shaft or other reloading points. They have made a major contribution to the industrial boom in the mining regions.

historical overview

Drawing of the abseiling process of a pit horse underground

In the German opencast mine pit horses were probably used in Europe from the 1st century onwards with the use of the collar . It has not been established whether horses in opencast mines outside of Germany were also referred to as pit horses. In German underground mining until the middle of the 19th century, the transport of materials and mining products was carried out exclusively by people, so-called tugs . With increasing sales due to industrialization as well as faster transport above ground by horse and later by railways, the need to increase the transport capacity above and below ground grew. In England horses had been used for underground transport since 1790, and in Germany for the first time in 1835. The use of cable and chain railways and locomotive transports underground meant that their use as buddies in Germany ended in the early 1970s.

British mining

In County Durham , horses were first demonstrably used underground from 1790. The peak of the British effort was reached in 1913 with 70,000 animals. The last horses were taken out of service in the British mining industry around 2000.

Saar mining

In 1835 in the Gerhard pit and in 1842 in the Ensdorfer tunnel of the Saar mining industry , underground horse transport was introduced for the first time. In 1875, 600 horses were used in the Royal Coal District of Saarbrücken. By 1904 the number had risen to 1660 animals. Most of them were used underground.

Ruhr mining

In the Rhenish-Westphalian pits, horses were used underground from 1840. From 1850 onwards, horses were used at the Hannover and Amalie collieries and from 1853 at the Victoria Mathias colliery . From their first use, their use increased rapidly. From 1878 on, the Dahlbusch colliery grew to 100 animals in eight years, which were housed in stables underground.

Number of horses used underground

  • Great Britain
    • 1914, 70,000 horses
    • 1937, 32,000 horses
    • 1957, 11,000 horses
    • 1980, 100 horses
    • 1984, 55 horses

The actual population is likely to have been much higher; In the small hidden private pits this was hardly recorded.

  • Oberbergamtsbezirke Dortmund, Breslau, Bonn
    • 1913, 11,788 horses
    • 1920, 5,257 horses
  • Upper Mining District Dortmund
    • 1913, approx. 8,000 horses
    • 1920, 3,712 horses
    • 1942, 1,005 horses
    • 1963, 22 horses
  • Ibbenbueren
    • 1916, 98 horses
    • Ibbenbueren (Ostfeld)
      • 1922, 52 horses
      • 1936, 25 horses
  • Saarland
    • 1875, 600 horses
    • 1910, 1,634 horses

Races

There were ponies used with a calm temperament, good bone and deep and closed the trunk. In the beginning these were mostly descendants of regional wild horse populations like the Emscherbrüch or partly the fjord horse . The height at the withers should not be more than 1.50 m. Smaller ponies were also used in the lower stretches.

Use and conditions in civil engineering

In the early days of mining, the goods were transported in carts, hunts or troughs . With increasing distances were in the 1850s to haul promotion horses used.

Accommodation and meals

Underground horse stable in the United States

The horses were first taken at the beginning of the shift to the pit and at the end of the shift to above ground transported. For this purpose, conveyor baskets were used and the horses were hung in slings in narrow shafts. Later, underground stalls for 30 and more horses were built in which the horses were kept after the end of the shift. These had a fresh air supply, electric light and water pipes. A mixture of oats, fodder bread, hay and litter was fed. As a rule, green fodder was not used. The pit water was not suitable for watering the animals. In disused stretches there were auxiliary or emergency stalls in which the animals were cared for and in order to accommodate them as close as possible to the workplace in case of double shifts. These stables had neither light nor fresh air or water pipes. The climatic and spatial conditions were extremely bad here. The stables were strewn with sawdust from working the pit wood. Cats, including terriers in England, were used to control mice.

equipment

To protect them from electrical wires, the horses wore rubber earmuffs. In many, often shallow mines, a leather cap was put on them as head and eye protection. Simple towing gear was used. Because of possible methane gas explosions , horseshoes had to be forged and adjusted above ground. The horse was then shod cold underground.

Illnesses and injuries

The in no way appropriate to the species, the high stress caused by double shifts, the alternation of cold and warm weather currents with sweaty fur and the exposure to dust all had an impact on the animals' immune system. The most common diseases were glandular , snot , numbness , colic , mange and connective tissue inflammation. The horses often suffered from injuries from drooping wires, nails and splintered wooden beams, as well as bruises and abrasions. An accumulation of diseases of the black lung or blindness through the darkness or the coal dust could not be proven. Blindness in horses was mostly caused by injuries to wires and nails. Horses that became sick and that could not be adequately treated underground were sent to the pasture of contract farmers to rest. In order to get used to the daylight again, they were put on special glasses that let a little more light into the eye every day.

owner

In most cases the horses were not owned by the pits but belonged to rental companies. These provided the animals necessary for the operation. In the 19th century, the Bischoff company from Gelsenkirchen had a population of 13,000 animals alone. The mines paid for injured, lame and sick animals. Deaths from epidemics and some illnesses were compensated by the state. The fight against snot was a matter for the mines. The lender provided dishes, food and medicines. The animals' working hours were contractually agreed. This should be one shift a day and 27 shifts a month. Since the mines were responsible for the supervision and the number of animals used was very large, a comprehensive check was hardly possible. In Saarland, horses were transported through the pits from 1893. As a result, abuse of the animals was reduced, double shifts were reduced, and premiums were paid for the health and good looks of the horses. In return, the horses remained able to work for a longer period of time.

Animal welfare

At the beginning of the 20th century, mountain police regulations for the promotion of horses were issued. As a result, ten commandments for accident prevention for horse handlers were drawn up in many collieries, regulating the handling of the animals during work. In 1933 a new animal protection law came into force. According to this, every horse should have been changed after two years or given a day of recovery. Implementation was rather questionable, at least during World War II. The underground work processes and production processes for humans and animals cannot be compared with today's standards of labor and animal welfare. The working conditions of the miners were hardly better.

Food bag

In the Ruhr area and the Lower Rhine, the feed sack was shortened to a feed sack . Later on, the phrase "there is food bag on it" arose from this for tricky situations. If something didn't work, if there were unrest or problems in the shaft, the pit horses were given the feed sack to calm them down.

The last pit horses

Reconstructed pit horse stable in the German Mining Museum
Memorial of the last pit horse of the Hugo colliery in Gelsenkirchen

In the mines the animals became superfluous due to the progressive modernization.

Great Britain

When production ended in the pits, up to 30 horses were sometimes shot underground before the Second World War. The National Coal Board established a recreation center for horses in Pontypridd in the 1960s; in 2003 around 10 horses were still housed here. In 1994 the last four ponies left the Ellington mine near Morpeth in Northumberland , and in 2000 a few pit ponies were released from private mines .

Germany

In 1955 the last horse left the Westerholt colliery , in 1957 the pit horse Hugo drove “above days” in Ibbenbürener Westfeld and in 1959 the mining operation with horses was stopped at the Ewald colliery . On June 22, 1966, Tobias left the Recklinghausen colliery General Blumenthal after twelve years of service as one of the last pit horses in the Ruhr mining industry . The gelding lived on a farm until his death in 1970. Since 1995, a model of the animal in the exhibition mine of the German Mining Museum in Bochum has been reminiscent of Tobias , who has become a symbol for the pit horses.

As the last pit horse in the Ruhr mining industry and in Germany, the gray gelding Seppel left the Bochum colliery Lorraine two months after Tobias , without any media involvement. Seppel received his bread of grace in Lüdinghausen.

In some of the smaller pits in West Germany, horses were used in daytime mining operations until the early 1970s. B. on the pit cloud hill in Bad Lauterberg in the Harz.

How long pit horses were used in opencast mining is currently not documented.

Influence on literature, music and film

Selection:

literature

  • Ulrike Gilhaus: buddy on four legs. Pit horses in the Ruhr mining industry . Klartext, Essen 2010.
  • Karl Starke: About pit horses, coal hunters and steam horses. On the history of coal transport in the Hausruckbergbau. (Association Bergbaumuseum Hausruck. Vol. 2). Kilian, Vöklabruck 2006.
  • Josef Reding : The fate of the pit horses. From underground animals and other obedient servants . In: Jahrbuch Westfalen .NF 56. 2002 (2001), pp. 208-213.
  • Emil Stöhr, Emil Treptow : Basics of mining science including processing . Spielhagen & Schurich, Vienna 1892, ISBN 978-1-142-95003-3 .
  • Joachim Huske: The coal mines in the Ruhr area . 3. Edition. German Mining Museum, Bochum 2006, ISBN 3-937203-24-9 .

Web links

Commons : Pit Horses  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rheinhausen mining terms. Archived from the original on January 2, 2011 ; accessed on December 31, 2012 .
  2. ↑ a b Tobias is retiring. June 23, 1966 The last shift of a German pit horse. WDR 2, June 23, 2011, accessed on March 13, 2013 (episode: WDR 2 reference date: June 23, 1966).
  3. ↑ Joachim Huske: The coal mine in the Ruhr area. 3rd edition, self-published by the German Mining Museum, Bochum 2006, ISBN 3-937203-24-9
  4. ↑ Ulrike Gilhaus: Buddy on four legs - pit horses in the Ruhr mining industry. LWL-Industriemuseum presents a new book about the life of four-legged friends underground. LWL-Industriemuseum, accessed on March 4, 2012 (book review): "Seppel" was the last pit horse "