[Gabe Ayers]

The mare in Florida is in her foal heat at nine days after birth.

The rest of the mares they are trying to catch in natural cycles. The Florida mare is a vet’s horse so palpation can detect if she is in heat or has a swollen follicle. I think the vet is used on the other mares too.

A teaser stud or hot natured gelding is the old traditional way of detecting heat. Usually the mare is ovulated during the latter stages of the heat cycle.

No question with the registered Suffolk having a vet involved, it is required by the association, along with other papers that are negated once the foal is DNA tested, but they have to have a paper trail for everyone records.

[Gabe Ayers]

We shipped our first semen to Florida today. The horse has learned the routine and the active sperm levels are increasing. Several more to go, we’ll see if we can get these mares from far away in foal.

[Gabe Ayers]

Hey Bill,

Post photos and tell us how old he is? Does he have a registered name?

What are you asking for him?

~

Jason Rutledge

[Gabe Ayers]

I don’t want or intend to bump JAC John’s post or question but thought this photo from a top horseman in Europe may be interesting for the buffer discussion.

[Gabe Ayers]

We are trying to collect this horse for shipment to distant mares that are isolated from an appropriate stallion. So we are planning chilled semen shipment.

Our aged stallion was easily trained for collection with the phantom and a mare in estrus on the other side of the fence. After three attempts he did ejaculate and his semen was not the strongest in the horse world but appears to be suitable for shipment. The vets added two types of extender and are monitoring the motility within the shipping time line to determine which is best for shipment later, probably next week and another collection.

I wasn’t aware that thoroughbreds were allowed to A.I. I know the restrictions (rules) on the processes required to satisfy associations is not always supportive of the technique in that it adds cost to the procedure that makes is less likely that an owner of a single mare will be able to afford the cost of A.I. Given the advent of DNA testing all this seems redundant and may be more of a reflection of resistance to modernization and a threat to the market for colts.

A funny part of this collection experience was seeing it all happen with the vet wearing a Va. Tech football helmet and the vet tech wearing a lacrosse helmet. Apparently there has been some difficulty collecting other stallions and that had become a safety feature. I should have video taped it for later laughs, but was just happy that it was successful and that we are using modern technology to reproduce a very rare breed and in this case an exceptional animal.

This is a homegrown horse that has proven his usefulness in harness in the woods and every other application asked of him. He doesn’t owe us a penny so the expense of owning him is more of a blessing than a cost. So maybe he is a cheap one that will be successful for A.I. For all of us that know this horse he is priceless. If disposition counts he is worth whatever it cost to have his genes.

Thanks for the comments and thoughts, we will keep the board informed as to the eventual results of this effort.

[Gabe Ayers]

Phil,

That is a great post – thanks for your input.

Given that you have extensive experience in sourcing and building with the material you have locally harvested or salvaged or rescued from being wasted is important. Your experience is a wonderful example of common sense, vision and knowledge. The centralized supply systems are the child of cheap intensive energy and that energy is not going to be cheap forever or even available at all.

Addressing human needs from where humans are is culturally deep and empowering to ground level workers of restorative/sustainable forestry. Your work is another example of that actually being possible and in fact preferable in every regard.

The public must get beyond the concept that the best way is the cheapest way. That in itself is a long story beyond this post. It all depends on who’s doing the accounting….

The LEEDS green certified building scheme actually awards extra “green points” to locally sourced materials for construction, including that the products are sourced sustainably from the natural resource base. Our best jobs or greatest income (the same) are from Architects that prescribe the materials to be DRAFTWOOD community green certified forest products in their structures. These insightful designers not only relish the opportunity to have a unique and appropriate source for their building materials, they also actually make good choices about species and appropriate use. So there are folks that recognize that local is best, for food or fiber. I hope that approach continues to grow everywhere.

On your conclusive statement, Healing Harvest Forest Foundation was started in response to a Ford Foundation grant that was seeking to develop “replicable” community based sustainable forestry projects. So, it is our intention that every community have a HHFF type organization that trains more ground level workers in the skills to do the work of restorative forestry and inspire them, (through example) in the ethics of why this is best for everyone. You have obviously came to that understanding on your own.

Thanks for your post and good luck with your work. Let us know if we may help in any way.

http://www.draftwood.com

~

[Gabe Ayers]

People, this is some cool stuff….. way over my head boys. I love it though – so interesting to read the information.

Yet I kinda agree with Mitch about the mystery of their biological existence and potentials, as maybe being the greatest power.

The culture of making this life force to be useful is made even more fascinating by your discussions here.

The art and science of animal power. Carry on….please.

Awesome. Thanks!

~

[Gabe Ayers]

This week we cut standing dead red oak about like the one Carl featured a while back. Broke our loader truck frame in half trying to load a butt log and will have to figure out how to get the loader set onto another worn out truck, just not quite as worn out as the last one. We also cut some cherry on a worst first basis for our own sawing and processing.

The pre dry shed is complete at the Natural Woodworking Company http://www.naturalwoodworkingcompany.com

so we are started to move lumber along the process for the other projects we have ongoing through the owner builder situation.

We will move into white pine soon for a owner builder timber frame barn deal. We hope to team up with some of the other Biological Woodsmen to work on that together. It is actually closer to them than us so it makes sense to team up on it so we can move along to the other projects we have scheduled.

We are selling the r.o. into the conventional markets, glad to be able to sell it at any price. The cherry goes into the DRAFTWOOD inventory as KD
lumber for later various uses for green certified lumber markets.

Lots of continued interest in Black Locust Decking so we continue to harvest that species on a worst first basis too.

Also still working on getting out English colt into the country and finding a home for the other colt we found over that that is worth importing. Lots going on, garden ground is ready and probably will put off any big plowing this spring.

Working on the ongoing SDAD efforts with vendors and sponsors too. Carl knows what a job putting an event together turns out to be. Worth it just to see the many folks that wouldn’t be able to visit our area otherwise. The American Suffolk Horse Association annual meeting will be held at SDAD this year too, so maybe get to see some of those folks too.
They will surly get to see some red horses with sweat on them.

Oh yea, also working on collecting our Stallion for A.I. this year with about a dozen mares or so, one being owned by our DAP member Donn Hewes.
Just covered a homegrown mare with him to crank up the reproductive parts to increase the chances of good collections to follow.

Hope y’all are well and busy as you can be.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

I think of it as doing my part to run the oil out.

We simply can’t compete in the conventional markets without some machinery, and we simply have no other markets for all of the material we produce.

Meanwhile we broke our loader truck frame in half day before yesterday trying to pick up a big red oak log, so we are looking for another tired truck to put the knuckleboom on to keep working. The u-bolts popped like a gun going off and shot the nuts right into the ground under the truck. Just about sent me flying off the tower, but fortunately it broke before I had the log far off the ground. We have borrowed a larger 4WD tractor to keep working moving wood to the various markets and processing we are doing. It won’t lift the big r.o. logs. We may try to roll them up skid poles with a parbuckle arrangement with a combination of the horses and the tractor.

I would prefer to process all this material into DRAFTWOOD Forest Products, we simply don’ t have enough markets to afford the processing cost and owning he inventory.

No guilt required from working with integrated systems. It is just reality in the modern world. The portion of the process we use that is exclusively animal powered are the ones that are most environmentally sensitive as in from stump to landing where the impact is greatest in conventional logging systems. Road building and skid trail construction in forestry create the greatest amount of sedimentation in streams.

Our biggest challenge is to keep the old machinery running without hydraulic oil leaks or killing us in mechanical failure as described above.

Keep working your animals when you can. Use the machines to keep you going, when you have too. We all have to live in the real world and this forum is more real than any I know of.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

I have one side of those mag. hames with a WH on them. I had a set but some so and so borrowed them in my absence once and never brought them back. One side was straighter than the other. I think I still have the straighter set of two.

I remember hearing that they were made in a homemade forge out of melted down chain saw cylinders. That’s about all this old man can remember about them.

I wouldn’t sell the side I do have now that I have heard this story. They were a little funny on the top adjustment and it will come off when harnessing if one is not careful. Maybe that is just my pair. They are still on one of the original pulling harness we have from Arthur Miller in Illinois. They were one of the first pair of mag. hames and nylon tugs in this part of the country.

Awesome forearm and cannon on that horse in the photo. Looks like a Belgian Shire/Clyde cross with the big wide blaze and white stocking in the rear. Just guessing or saying, I know nothing of the horse or man.
Bet they were a great team though…

We retired our old Wedge horse from pulling two years ago. He was legendary down here in the small circle we run. Nothing like the pulling that goes on in the North and Northeast.

[Gabe Ayers]

J-L,

I spoke with Ronnie Tucker a few weeks ago before going to England. He mentioned that he had relocated back to his old home place and that they didn’t have internet or phone service there at the time. He called on a cell phone.

I think he is still working in the woods with his mules, he was when we spoke. The markets for commercial wood were squeezing him between a machine and hard lifeless place, but he was hanging on when we spoke.

I hope he is doing well and suspect so.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Wow, a blast from the past. That fellow that did the photos for that article is also a photographer for National Geographic. It would be cool to have an article in NG one day, but that may be a bit more difficult apparently.

I guess this proves how old I am now and how long I’ve been at this culture. We certainly have evolved our approach to working, training and promoting the modern use of draft horses since that article. I think a common thread to this experience is the repeated observation by others that one of the most intriguing aspects is that one continues to learn from working with the animals. That makes it a much deeper personal life experience that most occupations or lifestyles. It is the same as working in the woods in some ways. The work is diverse, each log is different, each tree is different, each horse is different, so if you like diversity in your life, this may be something to consider doing with yourself. It is not easy, as all of you that keep and work animals know.

The M.E.N. did a follow up on this article a couple of years ago, written by a guy that “knows” me from here in the county that didn’t even bother to come to the woods to interview me or the family members about the ongoing experience 20 plus years later. He already “knew me” so he didn’t bother. I have never met the guy in person to this day. My point here is that although it is in print it is just words and has to be taken as just that. The reality of doing this work is much deeper than the words or photos can express. It’s like putting your life into a slot machine of reality and pulling the handle – there’s no telling what may come up in the portrayal. This culture isn’t suited to sound bites and shallow considerations.

Many positive things happened from this international exposure, the Suffolk horse gained some notoriety from the article. We did sell many horses, (for more than they bring today) for a couple of years after the article came out. I have been told countless times that someone got into draft horses from reading this article. I am happy about that.

Then there is the negative side of many people coming to our community looking for a eco-utopia or place to live and buying land. Often paying far more than the land would or could possibly support and displacing the opportunity for our local young people to afford the prices paid by outside folks from places far distant to Appalachia. I have been partially blamed for the increase in real estate prices over the years from the cover story article in Mother Earth News. Probably the saddest thing about that experience is that most of the people that came to this community from reading this article are now gone on to other places after elevating the land prices beyond the grasp of our local young people. It seems to have happened in most parts of rural America so I guess we are not much different.

Meanwhile things do come around and repeat themselves. I have just returned from a 12 day trip to the U.K. searching for a colt to continue our breeding of the Suffolk Punch horses in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Since I was in the U.K. on my 21st birthday it was interesting to be there again nearly 40 years later. English countryside hasn’t changed that much and really I don’t guess I have either, except being much older, grumpier and set in my ways, of course.

The dogs and horses in that photo are long gone and fondly remembered. I did make some real friends from that article and many are still serious horsemen and women and I appreciate the opportunity to put this culture forward as a part of the present and a promising potential for the future.

It a pleasure to share this culture on DAP. Thanks for looking that old stuff up Joshua. Reminds me of my youth for sure and fuels the personal drive to keep on going. Now if I can live out my retirement plan of “dying with my boots on” maybe they will make a movie out of it someday. They could call it “A Forest of Dreams”. It is a great journey, this life with horses. I wish the very best of luck to everyone doing this work in their own lives to any degree. You never know how your efforts may influence others while you are enjoying your own unique experience. At least you are all keeping the animal powered option alive!

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Andre-
She popped yet?
-Brad

[Gabe Ayers]

I definitely tie mine in a big loose loop and have them on one wrist or in one hand along with the driving line all the time. It just keeps the excess (that I may need in some occasions) out of the way while I’m handling the horses from a closer distance to their mouths.

Probably not the safest thing to do – looping the lines over your wrist, but is very comfortable when you trust the horse to know whoa as their favorite signal. I’ve never had a pair run off with the lines on my wrist, yet ~ (knocking on the white oak board this keyboard sets on) ~ but the loop is tied in such a way that it won’t get smaller and think I could get my hand out even if dragging on my belly through the woods.

We’ve had this discussion before on here. Some just double loop the ends and carry them in their strong hand or the hand with the softer mouthed horse. I do that with the tied loop most of the time and just put it on my wrist when comfortable.

As the pickup trucker bumper sticker says down here “ain’t scared”. The horses know I ain’t scared. I guess that phrase is Redneck counter to No Fear, they really ain’t the same.. one is a energy drink or something sold and the other is just a way of being.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Yep, I think the shorter, wider ones eat less and keep easier too. Maybe even less likely to colic? Sometimes they can drink more beer too! Oops, I’m getting horses and men confused again…

[Author]

Posts