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Gabe Ayers
KeymasterI agree that 10/1 seems reasonable for that dues date. Can’t think of any timing that makes more sense from a budgetary point of view…
-BradKeymasterCarl,
Load up the horses and cart in the am and come on down! I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of hardwood to go around here. Looks like we are on the windy side of this. Spent the last two days putting all the projectiles away, but we own the high ground so we should be ok. Thanks for the kind thoughts from everyone, keep ya posted. KevinKeymasterI, too, thought we had a great event in South Deerfield. Not sure if we want to do things that same way next year, but glad that we tried it there with NOFA. I agree with you, Donn, that there was less of a community feel than the old Tunbridge venue, but that site did have some advantages as well. Thanks also, Donn, for your wisdom in the no pressure driving workshop – I have changed bits on my Bob horse and am aiming for less pressure driving to start with. Always good to get a little extra incentive to try something new!
-BradKeymasterCarl is right on there with his observations. Having the cross lines 2″ shorter now allows me to hold Bob, the near horse, to the outside of right turns, coming gee, so that he does not rush and leaves Pete the space he needs. What a huge difference that little adustment has make. It also gives me much finer control when backing, as Bob can’t push Pete over with little line pressure from me. I tried fiddling with the line settings before but did not go far enough to make the needed increase in pressure for Bob. Guess I should have fiddled a little more…
-BradKeymaster@VTWP 27672 wrote:
I have added in a new Photo management feature to the site. In the Navigation bar is a link to Gallery. From here you can add photos and photo albums. I am looking for a solution to move the photos from the previous software into this photo album manager. I will update when I am able to get the images ported over.
It turns out that there are no automated methods for moving from our previous image script to the new one so I manually moved every photo. I put them in public albums under my user account. I realize this is not ideal, but it is the best I could do to save all the old pictures and make sure they were still available. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that this has been completed.
KeymasterI used a single horse for the first 9 or so years with horsepower, and we always used a leather D-ring. I ran that harness with lots of different rigs – loose, forecart, haymower, rake, tedder, plow, cultivators-and the D-ring worked exceptionally well with them all. I do think it offers advantages over other types even with a single horse, as no matter what you hook to the angle of pull against the horses shoulder always stays the same (90 degrees). Whoever mentioned earlier that the Amish shops are not familiar with D-ring design is right on. I got both my current D-rings from Meaders, but they are made in Amish country and I had to modify a lot of the harness to get a good working fit. In terms of leather versus synthetics, I always had leather but one winter I broke a tug and my regular repair shop was too busy to do it. So, I bought a nylon D-ring and I have never looked back. I have biothane now, and I really like it. It stays supple, requires no cleaning or oiling, and seems to last well. I don’t think it has the same durability as leather and lacks a certain aesthetic appeal, but it works great.
-BradKeymasterI have added in a new Photo management feature to the site. In the Navigation bar is a link to Gallery. From here you can add photos and photo albums. I am looking for a solution to move the photos from the previous software into this photo album manager. I will update when I am able to get the images ported over.
KeymasterThe software upgrade for the DAP Forum has been completed. Over the next several days I will be updating the site with additional features and alterations. None of these should impact the operation of the forums or require them to be shut down for implementation.
All the photos that had been uploaded to the old board will be restored soon.
KeymasterJust so everyone knows, the bylaws have been sent to Pam Stafford, and she will get to review them in the next two weeks or so. If anyone has other questions please let me know. Thanks.
-BradKeymasterGeoff and others-
I did get Pam Stafford today, and she is willing to review the bylaws. However, she is very busy and thinks it will be two weeks or so before she has time to look them over. I did get from her the name of another lawyer who might be able to do it sooner. Do we want to wait? The way I see it, this review process if not a big deal, and Pam thought that they other lawyer she recommended would be fine. However, Pam comes highly recommended so if time is not an issue I would probably wait for her. What do you all think? If no one cares then I will go ahead and decide, which is fine by me.
-BradKeymasterAh, to shoe or go bare…I have mulled this one over so often. I agree with others who have said that a well-trimmed hoof on a horse with good feet works very well without a shoe. However, there are certainly situations were more traction or more protection is critically important. For logging work, I have found that even if my drafts (1600 lb. percheron and suffolk) have enough traction their hooves take a beating. I do keep shoes on during the summer and winter when we are doing commercial work to keep their hooves from taking too much stress – cracking, chipping, etc. Last summer, one of my geldings developed a sort foot when I was working them in the woods bare. I put shoes on him and he was immediately more comfortable. And, beyond comfort, in the winter here in Vermont the terrain really demands the kind of traction you cannot get with a bare hoof. Especially when they are headed out to the landing with a large load (600-900 bf) on the bobsled, they need the extra traction of a studded shoe to allow them to hold the loads back on the steep, snowy and icy terrain. I figure if you can get away without shoes that is better – less money and time spent shoeing – but if you need more protection of traction shoeing is the only solution.
-BradKeymasterEd-
You may have that soreness resolved by now, but I have found that often when I pull the shoes off after the winter season their feet can be soft and sensitive, even if well trimmed. It does seem to take some time with the frog and sole back on the ground for the hoof to harden and become comfortable, particularly on rocky, hard ground.
-BradKeymasterYep, those are not our breed of horses, but have to prove that I am not just about red horses, can’t be a breed bigot, I love all horses, some just a little bit more than others, allot like my kin and friends. That fellow is a younger member of our draft horse community and is doing so well, plus it is the same breed as the editor of the pub…We’ll have plenty of red horse photos coming up.
Hey man your arch is looking good, keep it going man. The attachment point for the double tree is precise, but it doesn’t have to be the big bobby pin looking thing on the original as long as it attaches at exactly the same point on the overall frame to work properly.
Thanks for posting, come see us when you can.
Best Regards,
Jason
KeymasterRobin, I don’t want our event in Sept. to bump your closer date to be on the site, hope this brings yours back to the first listing on the page. I didn’t know how else to do this. Sorry if it doesn’t work.
Best Regards,
Jason Rutledge
KeymasterDAP Friends,
So our new name for the event is American Draft Animal Days. Certainly not that we propose this event to be about everything draft animal in the country, but that it has participants from all over the country and is not limited to demonstrators, vendors or attendees from just the South. We also got tired of folks telling us Virginia wasn’t the South.
I am going to try to attach a flyer about the upcoming event, but don’t want this thread to bump anyone off the page that has a closer date event. Let us know what you think.
We now have a bigger venue and hope for a larger attendence, it should be a great event, once we get through all the hoops to get what we need at this facility and property. Visit: http://www.virginiahorsecenter.org and have a look.
Best Regards,
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