leading during work

That is a complicated question with a somewhat complicated answer. Why do we not just lead them all the time? To some extent it is more convenient to be behind them. To some extent it is safer to be behind them; and behind the load. As to your horses training it is unclear to me why he is not ready. You said you have already made a dozen trips. Is he not relaxed? Not standing well? These skills will only be developed when you start to ask for the work to be done in that fashion. By leading the horse you may never ask for this behavior. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but some times folks are unsure of what to do to get the behavior they want. Without a clear idea of how you will make this animal behave the way you want; it may seem like an unnecessary loss of productivity to continue driving.

I take an approach that never places the work productivity before the behavior of the working partner. This doesn’t mean that ever moment with every animal is perfect, only that I am always aware of how my animals are reacting to what we are doing and how I can make them better. 99% of the time it doesn’t mean quitting doing what I was doing; perhaps just going a little slower and paying more attention to how the animal / animals are responding to what we are doing.

Folks will think I sacrifice productivity to do this, but in reality I may give up a little productivity for a moment now and then, but over all, having animals that act the way I want, when I want, provides the greatest productivity possible.

@JaredWoodcock 37293 wrote:

It seems like if I am not ready to make a lesson out of the skid then Im not gonna skid. I am pretty stubborn and I seem to have a hard time “working” my horses when the work isnt necessary. But if I am ever going to prove to my wife and myself that I “need” a draft on our farm then I will have to keep “working” him for the sake of training and being together.

Jared

Every day is a training experience with the horses. When my mare was starting out she wouldn’t step out alone. I ended up driving from behind and having help leading her, (no talking or encouraging) then once under way fading back and out of the scenario until I failed to start her up again. She came around shortly there after but that’s how I started her ground driving. Your words above struck me a little bit though.

If your horse needs training then production isn’t the work, the training is. I think everyone can agree then that training is necessary. I would view the training as more of the reason to have the horse near term with production in the longer term. There is plenty of work that can get done while training. It is all in your perspective of what necessary work is and how it can be accomplished. The important thing is that you get him to start drive and stop at your command consistently while driving from the rear. After that I would add weight such as a scoot or tire etc. then skid the full length logs. In the mean time buck the logs and load them onto the scoot for added weight when he is ready.

The one thing he will learn while you lead him, is the fact that he can pull the logs. He will think he can pull the world. Good for thast kind of mind building,but don’t want to go to the point he thinks thats the only way its done.

I had a mule one time like that. Pull anything you hooked her to. If it was to much, I’ev seen her on her knees grabbing at brush with her teeth, trying to get leverage to move it. If you led her….I almost had to cross tie her to hook up. Would spin around to face me. So I hooked while she was turning, pull the traces up between her legs and hook with her looking over my shoulder. when we turned around, she would get untangled.
I ask the guy I bought here from about it and he said ”we never had any trouble with her,,led her for years in the garden. never stepped on anything” Leading was all she knew !!!!