Lacombe’s distillery has teamed up with a local group of hobby farmers who train Percheron draft horses just west of Nova’s Joffre plant to harvest barley to use in their spirits.

Old Prairie Sentinel Distillery have collaborated with 24-2 Draft Horses who will harrow and seed 15 acres that will include oats for their horses and barley used for the alcohol.

Vintage equipment from the early 1900’s is used for all the farming, something Head Distiller Rob Gugin said is really special.

“It’s just a great way to appreciate how things used to be done.”

“Farming is still hard work and stressful I’m sure, but this is definitely a way to appreciate how it used be done back at the turn of a century with all this equipment from the 20’s and 30’s.”

The process will take anywhere from 90 to 100 days between the time they seed to the time they harvest and Gugin had the chance to get out to the farm and get his hands dirty.

“The smells of the earth as it was being plowed and the wind, it was just amazing,” said Gugin.

“It was just an awesome experience where it’s kind of a once in a life time thing that hopefully I can do again actually.”

For the fourth straight year, the public was invited this past weekend, to come watch them in action.