A question for all you horsemen & horsewomen of the world

Same here. Saddle horses (showing, training etc) up until now. I’ve been reading and watching a lot of videos. I had an elderly neighbor come and assist me with the proper adjustments on my harness. I may ask him for some ideas and help from time to time. I feel pretty alone in my voyage. 🙂 I’m green and my horse is green, but we’ll get there. 🙂

when I was young,not that long ago, there were working horses all over maine. Not expecting any change, I took it for granted, and they started disappearing. tools and machinery were still everywhere, mostly free. I took that for granted, and that all disappeared too. The old farmer teamsters were still around. I thought they would always be there, but of course, they are all gone now too. Even then they were really too old to lend much of a hand. And they were a different breed of cat, compared to us today. Very reluctant to offer much advice unless you asked. Made you feel the same about asking. They were happy you were using horses, and would come out to watch. And of course would answer all your questions if you knew what to ask and when to ask it. They were just different. It’s hard to explain. I think offering advice was impolite before it was asked for, does that make sense? Pretty soon they were gone and there you were wondering “ what’s that button for?” And you had to push it to find out.

I have had some great mentors, and still have some today. I hope everyone starting out today will find some way to connect with a mentor in one fashion or another. There is no rule that says in order for someone to be your mentor they need to be X years older than you, or have 50 plus years or draft horse experience. Some might give you one solid lesson that you can refer back to many times, some might just give a little encouragement from time to time. As it will take a life time to learn this craft, mentors can be a great asset.

Much has been said about the older timers that were mentors to many of us and are dwindling in numbers, if not in spirit, now. In thinking back on it, I believe they said more than we ( or I at least) realized. They usually did not try to EXPLAIN how to be around a horse, they modeled it. They were not quiet and not saying much to keep the secrets of horses from us, they were demonstrating what a horse responded to and how and why.

Many of the young folks, and not so young, starting out today come from a culture that rewards multitasking. The ability to have your fingers on lots of keys and pay a little attention to several things at one time is what is being valued. Our old mentors could not and would not have done this. I think when living in a natural environment, as opposed to the technological one, the ability to relax and be acutely aware of what is immediately in front of you at the same time are what is needed and valued. Think of hunting all day, or even weeding a garden, or working with animals. You need all your senses and awareness, but you also need to be calm and relaxed. That is why they seemed so quite; they were talking to the horse, not you.

Big long ramble but I loved my first mentors and wish I could spend a day working horses with them today. I wouldn’t have to say a word.

My mentors were family that had drafts as I was growing up. My mothers uncle lived down the hill from the farm and had drafts. He would drive by and ask if I wanted to go for a ride. I still remember riding on that wagon with the slow breeze and him handing the lines to his big team to me. That was a start of driving. Then I got a donkey and had to figure out how to get him to pull a cart on my own as Uncle Russel had passed on. I was about 10 or so at the time.
My grandfather on my mom’s side lived across the street and would shake his head as we were trying to get that donkey to move with bribery. My sister in front with a carrot and me on the cart with the reins.
At 14 a wonderful thing happened, I started going to my dad’s Uncles house in the summer for a couple of weeks at a time. He didn’t own a tractor so everything was done with his horses. That first summer I picked up hay with a team, and did all sorts of things from working on a stone boat to learning how to hook them up all alone.
Over the years the tasks went from just raking and tedding hay to mowing and baling. Then we started logging with the old team and I remember being there for two weeks and loosing a bunch of weight, as I would only ground skid. He would cut and I had to pull out every hitch.
When I moved here to the current farm I wanted drafts so I tried to remember every thing I had learned and I have made plenty of mistakes along the way. With phone calls to my uncle and books I have always muddled through though I am sure that I still have a lot to learn before I would be comfortable teaching others.

Sorry for the long post,
Joshua

Well, its not hard to find teamsters who know more than me so I set about being a sponge whenever I am around someone working with horses. So there are folks out there I guess I would consider ‘mentors’ but they don’t know it and probably would disagree 😉

On the other hand I have a handful of people, I ‘go to’ when I need help and they aren’t 80 years old either, lol. Most of them are on this board…so you know who you are….all worth your weight in gold. Luckily they are mostly small guys…with the exception of Carl who is a bit more pricey if you get my drift. 😮

All kidding aside, I just don’t see how you can go from zero to working a horse or a team without a mentor….of some sort. Jennifer.

I had one great mentor, but he was a mentor in natural horsemanship – hands-on roundpenning stuff, and a little driving. I am very grateful to him.

The great majority of the time it was me alone on the farm with my new drafts and my Lynn Miller books. It was a bit hair-raising at times – they weren’t the best horses. One of those situations that you wouldn’t recommend, but having lived through it yourself, wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, either.

Getting through some hard stuff like that early on gives a person some resilience fast, and makes the easier days that follow seem like a dream. I don’t have to wonder what it’s like to work more challenging horses – I started with ’em!