SANTA PAULA : Clydesdale Team’s Star Calls It a Career

After hauling hay, pulling wagons and taking children on rides for the last 12 years at the Faulkner Farm in Santa Paula, Amos the Clydesdale is being put out to pasture.

Literally.

The time has come for the 16-year-old draft horse to give up the 8 a.m.-to-6 p.m. daily routine and enjoy lazy, sunny days in the hills with a view of the Topatopas and lush orange and avocado groves.

Retirement at the 100-acre pasture promises to be an adjustment for Amos, who has grown accustomed to being the star of the Clydesdale team at the popular Faulkner Farm.

“We don’t think of Clydesdales as working horses, but Amos loves to work,” said Lin Ayers, who owns the farm with her husband, Allan. “I think he gets bored when he isn’t working and I don’t know how he will get used to retirement.”

Amos, who is a native of Manitoba, Canada, joined seven other Clydesdale horses at the Faulkner Farm in 1983.

Every year from early September to December, Amos spent his days hauling hay, pumpkins and Christmas trees or pulling wagons filled with adults and children seeking the excitement of a Halloween hayride.

Throughout the year, Amos worked in the fields, helping with sowing and harvesting. During the weekends, he would pull wedding carriages for ceremonies at the Faulkner Farm mansion.

“He has worked really hard all of his life,” said Ayers’ daughter Alison, 14. “But now, he must learn to relax.”

Amos will be replaced by another Clydesdale horse, Tony, who is expected to arrive from Canada early next week.

But Amos will always be up on the ridge above the farm, keeping an eye on his old domain. “Once in a while,” Alison Ayers said, “we will bring him down so he can be petted.”