[1ecofarmer]

Speaking of work to do with my team, I’d like to be able to move round bales, which we currently roll out by hand. Does anyone know of a way to attach some kind of jack-up spear to the back of my forecart? If so, any idea where to get it or what it’s called? I couldn’t find anything on google, but I wasn’t sure what search terms to use. Thanks!

[1ecofarmer]

Thanks for letting me know, Donn. I’ll see if I can work it out. I guess we look pretty close to NY from Idaho, Geoff ;0)

Billy, I certainly don’t intend to mow most of my land most of the time. Thanks for your suggestions. I’ll check them out. I’m a big fan of letting the grazers do the work. However, my husband wants to keep the (very long) driveway edges cut down and there are certain other times and places that I want to be able to mow. I have goats I plan to use to help and we rotate the cows daily which is supposed to help. I am also a little familiar with Voth’s work from reading Stockman Grassfarmer. However, if I’m going to do some mowing, I’d much rather do it with my team than on some machine!

[1ecofarmer]

It’s good to know you can disengage the sickle bar cutters. For some reason my one friend who has mowed with one didn’t mention that. We have 85 acres. We graze 50 of it, mostly with cows. Right now we just need to clip the weediest acres, probably not more than 7 total. In the long run we’ll want to try making some hay too, although we clearly can’t do that with the swisher. It does seem like it might be good on some ground we have that has a blackberry problem. We don’t own a tractor at all, so will need to do everything with the team or by hiring someone with a tractor. Thanks!

[1ecofarmer]

Now we want to get to mowing with our team. I can’t find a type of mower that seems like it would work. The Reel mowers only cut short grass. The sickle bar mowers jam up a lot and are dangerous to clean out I hear. Is this true and are there any that can be disengaged from the ground drive part in order to clean them out while in use?

I found a Swisher brand mower that is like a little bushhog that is self powered with a motor on top. It’s local and cheap, but the noise and pollution would be a pain and I’m not sure if flying sticks or the noise could scare my team. Thoughts?

What do you all use to mow if you get weeds in your pastures, etc? Surely some of you must mow with your teams. Thanks!

[1ecofarmer]

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone! We did two trees on the second day and we were all less anxious. Horse-powered farm, here we come!

[1ecofarmer]

I switched my team over to a dr. cook’s bitless bridle for riding only. I want to try it driving, but I’m less confident there, and so haven’t done it yet. They really hated their (snaffle) bits, which is what got me to try it. They go great with the bitless and seem happier. We’ve had some significant spooks without incident (mounted). I first tried a cheapo sidepull off ebay and they hated that. A halter wasn’t really enough. I considered the nurtural, but happened to find a dr. cook’s used on craigslist so went with that. Am planning to ground drive them as a team in their riding bitless bridles and see how that goes. Figure that if they’re not hitched and in an enclosed area, it can only go so badly. The transition only took about 10 minutes before they got the idea. Not a big deal for us. Good luck! leah

[1ecofarmer]

Hmm, interesting. Thanks for the advice. Doc and Whiskey – I’m glad yours did settle down. Hopefully mine will do likewise!

I can’t actually keep them in a real walk at all. The one jigs at the same pace as the other one walks and that’s been the best I can get some of the time. I don’t want to damage their mouths and I’m already worried about how hard I have to pull to hold them. After ten or fifteen minutes my hands are numb.

The mare also jigs while riding and I can deal with it a lot better there as I’m more experienced, only handling one horse, and have my seat to help. I’m hoping that training will carry over, but I want them trained to ride better in any case. I ride them a little more than I drive as I don’t need a helper. I would be in danger trying to hook these guys up alone at this point. I was thinking that having weight would help slow them down. An old-time teamster in my area told me to hook a big tractor tire to drag behind as that would, “take the starch out of them.”

I wouldn’t have thought about hard pulling hotting them up more. Is that true just for really heavy loads or do you all think that even a tractor tire would have that effect?

They turn really well and I notice that they slow down and focus more while doing so. Therefore I’ve been doing lots of turns and figure eights and driving mostly in a fenced smallish paddock. Does that seem helpful or do you all think it would be better to go out on a long straight road? I’m a bit concerned that my strength wouldn’t hold up for keeping them back on the way home. I did try stronger bits and it upset them, not in a good way. They already hate their (snaffle) bridles so I’ve been reluctant to make it worse.

Here’s a pic. By the way, we have raised and shortened the pole after this first drive.

Thanks for the input, Leah

[1ecofarmer]

I don’t know the answer to your question, but I just logged on to ask a question about blinders, which relates to part of yours. So I guess I’ll tag it on here. I used to drive ponies single in open bridles (without blinders) before I even knew I “should” have been using blinders. Now I’d like to convert my team, which is used to blinders, to open bridles but I’m not sure how much re-training is involved. Does anyone drive that way? How much retraining did you do? My ponies are new to me and haven’t been worked in a year. Therefore, I’m reviewing with them anyway and thinking that this might be a good time to switch bridles. On the other hand, maybe we should get used to the program before making a change. Any thoughts? Also, anyone on here drive bitless? I’ve been checking out this bitless bridle: http://www.nurturalhorse.com/ My ponies absolutely detest their (snaffle) bridles. I’m generally into doing things as “natural” and minimalist as possible, so these things appeal to me. Thanks!

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