when we are better they are better

I always said that the best broke horse is the one that’s finally finished with the spring plowing.
The truth is, if you’re working horses full time, you’re not making enough money to be sustainable.

@lynn miller 16 wrote:

……the best animals are those who are worked regularly and who are always in training. …….

The same thing may be said of us as farmers, only we are in charge of our own training. …….. Tedium will tempt us to cut corners, to court the more simply predictable at the expense of the magic that did and will and could motivate us.

I still choose to depend on draft horses as motive power for the farming. I never tire of them or the nature of my working partnership. It is always fresh and intriguing. ……..

This is at the root of what I find so attractive about using draft animals. I stopped a long time ago trying to “train” my animals. I am always trying to respond to the situation at hand , the moment. I don’t want to have animals that are without spirit or motivation, so I don’t concentrate on rehearsed expectations.

What I do concentrate on is communication. I expect that my animals learn to listen to me, and to trust me when I give commands. I never assume that they have any predictable coarse of action. Therefore I have to be completely alert and aware of not only the working situation, but also aware of them and their re/actions.

We are always working to improve communication as we are working. The work is being accomplished in the moment as I am appraising the situation, and then communicating to the animals the appropriate action. There is no room for tedium. It is always fresh.

This kind of experience can be had with machinery or tools as well. I know that many people, including myself, feel invigorated by the momentary mental and physical actions required to perform tasks with tools and machines.

There is a difference however when working with living beasts, as they have no gears, throttle, or key, and they do have sensitivity, brains, and heart. It may not be the measure of success, or sustainability, but it sure is intriguing and rewarding to be involved in that organic mechanism of communication.

Carl

The other day after collecting sap from our woodlot, I was letting a young woman who had come to “learn” about horses take them around the fields by herself a couple times. There were three of us perched on a bale of straw, and I was trying to answer her tough questions about driving horses. She was really putting me on the spot there. Actually I was realizing again after a long stretch, how much about teaming skills I can’t seem to verbalize. Things you do often , good or poor, are often taken for granted. Something you do over and over without thinking about too much, until someone asks why.
When I do work my horses, I don’t actually talk to them very much. Now and then, when I’m chatty, but as a rule not too much. But as I was chattering away like a magpie, everytime I said “go” or “slow” or “hello” or anything that rhymed with whoa, the horses stopped dead in their tracks. We got to laughing about it and decided to talk later and let her drive, but it gave me a moments incite, a little deeper into what it is that we do. They were listening again. They do it all the time, even when I think they aren’t. everytime something like that happens I get a rush out of it.
Lynn miller repeats that quote(above)by his friend lots of times over the years. I liked it and wrote it down with a crayon on the inside of my grainbox so I see it each time I pop the lid.