[Gabe Ayers]

We are committed to helping this effort, will write about the FETCU meeting and other topics of common interest to support the new group. My general comment is that we are behind FETCU in some regards and we are without the support of our government in the U.S.

Glad to be home. More later,

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Great stuff guys. This is what we have done many times by hiring the mechanized forwarder after bunching along side the old haul road. We divided the tract into units and each horse logging crew managed their own, cutting marked trees and color coding small ends at the landing to be hauled by the sawmill that purchased the wood. Worked out great, moved allot of wood and everyone made money, including the forwarder guy who rented his services at $500.00 per eight hour day. Stumpage and pro rated costs similar here.

If the wood were small enough or the horse drawn forwarder stout enough it could be done like Simon does and the investment in your own assets makes good sense.

Other story-

Just returned from ten days with Simon in the U.K. He is the real deal folks.

Our quest to find a good colt is complete and wouldn’t have been possible in such a thorough way with our native guide. Thanks Simon.

Attended the fetcu meeting, another bunch of real folks…. hard to give a speech that is being translated into three languages one sentence at a time. Showed the Chronicles DVD, the visual brings us all to the same language. Awesome event.

Off to the manure mines here and getting the spring work underway. Still plenty of logging to be done, but have to take care of the ground in a timely way.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

No problem – let me know when she drops. Good luck.

[Gabe Ayers]

Andre-
Sorry haven’t gotten over to see the mare yet. Did she drop her foal? I am pretty busy right at the moment, but hoping to come over sometime in next two weeks. Can you send me some directions to your place? Thanks.
-Brad Johnson
802-345-7488

[Gabe Ayers]

If you don’t believe in reincarnation, just come around the work site at quitting time and watch the dead come back to life!

[Gabe Ayers]

Looking Great Josh, I would hope to find some good specimens in the U.K.

Many open minded British are telling me they think we have better horses here… I am going to see for myself and will share with all interested when I return.

Carry on man. Glad you are keeping Suffolk horses, they need good human partners.

Off to the U.K. now, for a few days, back soon. Kind regards to my cultural kin, until then…

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Try calling Jimmy Brown at:

585-567-8158

Linda works a full time job and Jimmy ain’t much on the computer thing.
He will tell you if he has or can get them if you can speak with him.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Having raised hundreds of Suffolk foals during my time, I have to say this breed matures slower than any other draft breed. In other words the horses seem to continue growing in height and weight longer than other breeds. I have heard folks say the a Belgian will be 3/4’s it’s mature height at 2. This is not he case with the Suffolk. Our experience is that it takes at least five years for them to top out height wise.

I would add that the clock is ticking and they have only some many growing days height wise, so if you have a little money to put into grain or concentrates, feed it while they are young and growing to get the full genetic potential of their height and over all size.

It seems they also grow in spurts with some parts growing faster than others at some times. At two they are often high in the rump and low at the withers and then at 3-4-5 they balance out. But they are all individuals and the mating and results are quite a wonderful mystery to observe.

It seems their cannon never gets any longer than they are born with.

The best way to grow them is good pasture with a little concentrate supplement and free choice mineral salt block.

[Gabe Ayers]

When we have our little private instructional courses here we take lead lines and spell out the word P A R K on the ground and ask the students what it spells? When the say “park” we say that’s right – those lead lines are for parking them in the woods while you are doing things you have to do to get the wood out and you shouldn’t expect them to stand for very long. The lead line is your park brake, so if you want them to be there when you finish your other work – tie them up.

We prefer to tie them to two trees that are far enough apart that they can’t rub against them or go to far forward or backward. Always tie them as high as the eye, so if they move backward it raises their chin which is a signal to move forward and so if they become alarmed by something they don’t jerk their heads up and break the lead rope snap or halter.

It always tickles me that when some equine photographers come to take professional pictures of the horses they always insist we take the halters off. It seems to be a show horse thing, because the halter is a piece of the work horses equipment that keeps them where you put them while you are doing other stuff.

Definitely don’t let them stand around pointing toward the landing or the trailer or the barn or they may decide it is time to quit work and go back to where they came from. Everyone that has had a walk off type of runaway knows they always go back to where they came from. So unless they are very well trained, broke and tired don’t leave them in the skid trail pointed back to the where they came from.

All of our logging horses spend lots of time tied in the woods watching us work before they are taken to work there themselves. In this case use your stout lead ropes and choose something a little bigger than a sapling to tie them too. You’d be amazed what they can run off dragging with their head when they are scared. We often use an inner tube around a limb higher than their eye so there is some give when they respond with their natural fear equals flight response. This saves equipment and the horses some discomfort when this naturally occurs. They will get used to it as long as you don’t hit them with falling trees during their introduction to this work.

So all of that said, we seldom actually tie our broke horses in the woods, but we still have the lead lines on the harness, but not attached to their heads. They come in handy if you need to repair something in the woods.
We don’t ever leave a broke pair pointing back to the landing though, it becomes just a matter of habit and safety to let them rest pointed into the woods.

[Gabe Ayers]

As some may know already, I am heading to England this Friday 12th and on next Saturday 20th will be a guest at the FETCU annual meeting held in England. Our fellow poster Simon Lenihan has been kind enough to invite me,so I hope to meet many real European horsemen at this meeting. I would be glad to introduce our new group to them and ask for participation. It will be a honor to represent the DAPFI fledgling efforts.

Also I wanted to make a presentation to DAPFI about our DRAFTWOOD program as a system we could all use to gain market share in the green movement. I am afraid that will have to wait until I return. I look forward to sharing that with this group.

The primary reason I am going is to look at Suffolk stud colt prospects in the U.K.

I will let everyone know what happened when I return. Carry on good folks.

Salute,

Jason

~

[Gabe Ayers]

I have read that the wearing of rubber releases cadmium. Probably not a big deal, since we are all surrounded by roads that are the source of tire wearing regularly.

Sorry Jen, just figured I’d add that thought again since there may be new readers that didn’t see it last time.

That drag will not do as good of a job as your chain harrow. The chain harrow has several adjustments and multiple uses. I guess you could turn the tire harrow over and get a different contact situation.

It is about pasture dragging time, great thing to break/train/condition horses with. Right behind that, spread some manure.

Cool to make your own tools too.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

A problem with hand loading large hardwood logs is the amount of taper. The big end likes to get ahead and then rolls between the ramp poles and there it lays needing some more power to get it on the truck.

I agree that the addition of hydraulics being a component of modern horse logging.

I think the gin pole idea we discussed here once has some merit. It would be interesting to fabricate something on this order from metal components with modern roller bearing pulleys and wire rope. Someone sent me a copy of some historical information about Gin Poles if anyone is interested.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Given skilled handling and leadership the gender or entirety don’t matter as far as being usable. The old folks always said the stallion is the smartest and strongest horse on the farm, but the mares pound for pound are as good as any. The mares do cycle, but that can be stopped by having them bred… using that smart horse mentioned above.

A stallion should prove himself in harness before reproducing. In some old stories there are stallions that go through performance test prior to being sires. One thing that is for sure is that the more you work any of them the better they are.

A silly thing I see sometimes is people spending money to “register” geldings. I don’t understand spending money for that, certainly not if you are really working the horses as part of your income generation.

All in all a gelding is generally easier to work with because they lack the hormones and every male is certainly not a stallion prospect.

[Gabe Ayers]

Geoff,

We offer A.I. on our Suffolk stallion through a local company (http://www.roanokeai.com) that has been doing that work of collection and shipment for many years. We haven’t had any takers to date, but get several phone calls and emails about it annually. It is more expensive than a live cover, but with the Suffolk they are spread out all over the continent so there is not always a stallion available. Having a good work mare that doesn’t get to raise a foal or two seems a waste regardless of breed. On the other hand there are more draft horses out there now than people with enough culture to work them, so I wouldn’t breed a mare unless we had a need for the foal. They all grow old and can’t work eventually, so replacing themselves seems like an incredible advantage to the culture of animal husbandry.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

It does come down to working for the machines instead of the machines working for you. I have never heard it called machine husbandry. They are a necessary evil to operate at all, working to keep them going is not what most of us want to do, so we keep the stuff to a minimum and enjoy our time with the horses first and keep the order of investment from there. It is about the culture not the machines.

It also can be a matter of making the value of the labor worth more which is he opposite of the machines that replace human labor. The value of the labor will only be greater from a quality of services perspective, which is what makes me not a Luddite. When an appropriate machine helps us stay in the woods practicing good forestry, we get one.

For our group the issue of start up cost are very important since we focus on putting new Biological Woodsmen in the forests of every community we can. The less machinery we need to start, the easier it is to get more people started.

I ran a similar self loading truck for almost a year. I picked up from all our horseloggers and hauled to the mill that owned the truck. The problem came up when they boomed and we had to be busted as the smallest guys. When they couldn’t get logs from anyone else we were the ticket. There is seldom much loyalty from the mill unless they need your goods or services from a short term perspective.

We have to develop our own markets and that’s what we are doing every chance we get… DRAFTWOOD

~

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