Along with the oxen, horses provide much of the power to get the farm work done. Unlike oxen, horses typically work individually in row-crop fields. A horse and a horse hoe, or cultivator, is guided through the kitchen garden rows early in the spring to dig out the young weeds in the vegetable field.

Not all of the work for horses is done in the fields. A team of horses walk in a two-horsepower treadmill to power a grain threshing machine. Book farmers like Kelley used horse power as much as possible to improve their farm production and make more money.