GOULDSBORO — It was Cynthia Thayer who found the two Haflinger draft horses, Archie and Andy, for sale online at a farm in Kentucky.

She and her husband, Bill, were looking for two horses to replace three lost in a pre-dawn fire May 7 that leveled their 153-year-old barn.

A widespread fund-raising effort following the fire has raised $100,000 toward rebuilding the barn.

A concrete pad was poured and logs are now being prepared for construction, which is expected to begin in a few weeks.

Bill said the owner of the two horses was changing to larger Belgian draft horses, so Bill flew out to Louisville to give the pair — both about 10 years old — a try.

He spent the afternoon working with the horses, paying particular attention to how they would respond to sudden, loud noises.

“I tried anything that might make a horse spook, such as a noisy implement,” Bill said.

Satisfied the two would do, Archie and Andy crossed the country in a large, well-equipped horse trailer that was ferrying other horses as well and Bill picked them up at his daughter’s farm in Cape Elizabeth June 8.

Bill uses the horses for haying, to pull the manure spreader and to give wagon rides and sleigh rides around the farm.

“It sorts of rewards your psyche,” he said of the animals. “They have relaxed with us a lot.”

Bill, 75, said he opted for older horses because he didn’t want the unpredictability of geldings.

“I don’t fall off a wagon as easily as I used to,” he said.

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