KETTERING, Ohio – Jack and Jim are the main business at Hagemeyer Homestead. While Angela and Eric Hagemeyer own and operate the business, which also features chickens, geese and garden vegetables, the two Belgian draft horses are the big attraction.

“We do a horse-drawn carriage ride business,” Eric Hagemeyer said. “We do rides, parades, holiday events, birthday parties, picnics, but also, with me being a firefighter (chief of the City of Kettering Fire Department), we do antique fire apparatus. We go to shows, pull steam engines and horse-drawn antique equipment with them. We have an 1896 horse-drawn fire-hose cart.”

It was while Hagemeyer was volunteering at Aullwood Farm in Dayton that he learned to drive and farm with draft horses. Charlie Wiltrout, a long-time volunteer there and Hagemeyer’s former fire chief, taught him how to work with the big critters.

When the Aullwood Belgians were ready to retire, they moved in with the Hagemeyer family. That was the start of their business. The team had done public relations and been around children for 20 years. But eventually, they got too old.

“Nothing would scare them,” Hagemeyer said. “Kids would climb on them, under them, it was the sweetest team. It was difficult to find a team to replace them that was trained that well.”

Then Hagemeyer met an Amish gentleman who trained police horses for a hobby. He found a team that had been exposed to the public on an agritourism farm in the Mt Hope area. The Belgians, Jack and Jim, were broke to ride and drive.

“We wanted a young team so we could keep doing this for a long time,” Hagemeyer said. “It was a big investment for us, but these horses were ready to go. We exposed them to being around steam engines, fire trucks, sirens, all of that.”

The horses had been trained similarly to police horses, Hagemeyer explained. They had already been exposed to all of that, plus gunshots, air horns and more. Because the couple interacted with the public a lot, they needed horses that were calm, no matter what.

Jack and Jim are calm, and they are big, even for Belgians. They weigh 2,500 pounds each and stand 18.1 hands tall; a hand is four inches. Standing 6-feet, 3-inches tall himself and a firefighter, Hagemeyer needed horses with some size.

The Belgians each eat a bale of hay a day, plus grain, which includes their vitamins and nutrients, twice a day, when they’re not on pasture. They have free-choice stalls attached to a paddock. This time of year, they are being slowly reintroduced to pasture. Hagemeyers rotationally graze them on multiple pastures.

Of course, they have big feet. When they’re not busy with carriage work, they are barefoot. Then, Hagemeyer trims their hooves with an angle grinder. But when they’re on the road a lot, they need shoes. He trailers them to an Amish farrier in Berne, Ind., every 6 weeks, to be shod.

They’re on the road a lot at Christmas – that’s their busiest season. The business is booked a year in advance in November and December with Christmas events, mostly carriage rides and parades, often pulling Santa Clause. They are also frequently booked for fire house events, pulling antique horse-drawn fire equipment.

Jack and Jim get hauled to these events in style. They go in a big trailer with room in front for a wagon, or for the 1896 horse-drawn fire-hose cart they often pull (Hagemeyer pulls the wagon or apparatus out, then winches it back in). The cart, originally from Anaconda, Mont., was restored by Bob McCarroll. He had the apparatus, the Hagemeyers had the horses, so they teamed up.

“We have traveled from Indianapolis to Columbus to Cincinnati,” Hagemeyer said. “This weekend, we are going to the Loveland-Symmes Fire Department in Cincinnati, where they are moving their restored steam engine into their new firehouse. We are going to pull it with our horses.”