Steady Animals

I wasn’t sure where to put this, but I think it’s a topic that can’t be hammered home enough.

The other day we were heading out to a hay field with the wagon for another load of hay. As we were heading down the driveway (downslope) towards the road, I hear a crack like a gunshot and the horses started acting all upset. The reason became quickly obvious. The front rack of the wagon had rolled up into the horses’ asses, and the end of the tongue was on the ground. The tongue had broken less that 15 feet from a busy road, and the wagon was rolling up on my horses. They were caught somewhere between bolting and holding back, and scared as hell. I hauled back on the lines and hollared “whoa” over and over, interspersed with “easy’s”. They managed to keep us out of the road despite it all and I was some how able to steer us to the shoulder parallel to the road.

My point here is, if I had a team that didn’t get regular work, I mean daily work, who knows what might have happened. A truly steady team needs regular work. Hard work. The phrase is said here over and over again. “Sweaty collars”. If you want steady, been there done that animals, you have to make time to work them. And if you truly can’t make the time, then adjust your expectations accordingly.

I’m not trying to discourage anyone from working animals. In fact I encourage it. Often. Just understand what you and your animals can handle and be safe.

By the way, right after the tongue breaking incident, we hitched to the forecart, got the wagon out of the road, and headed to the hay field to rake some hay. I think I needed to “get back in the saddle” as much as the horses did.