David and Nancy Lively have been breeding, raising and training American Cream draft horses for more than twenty years. They call American Creams “the gentlest of the gentle giants.”
Often the color of cream that rises to the top of a milk bottle, American Creams are the only breed of draft horse to originate in the United States. All others are from Europe. For more information about American Cream horses, click here (outside link).
Dave is the principal trainer and manager of the horses, as well as the carriage driver for the Lively’s Livery Horse Drawn Carriage business. The Lively’s horses usually winter at their home farm on Chapel Road in Bennington. Their American Creams generally spend late spring through mid-fall in The Fund’s fields near The Mile-Around Woods.
Dave cares for the two barns on The Fund’s property. The “dryer barn” near the Moseley Bridge was once used to dry fresh hay with a blower system connected to an oil-fired furnace. Dave adapted the barn for the horses and some of his equipment. The other barn, near the northwest corner of The Mile-Around Woods, stores hay that Dave cuts on the property.
Dave is a familiar face to the many villagers and visitors who walk the paths among the fields. He has been mowing and caring for pastures on the west side of North Bennington for almost thirty years.