[Gabe Ayers]

Naw,

It just happens to be a fellows young mares that he wants to breed some crosses out of. This fellow has several mules and donkeys, but this is the only pair of horses he has. He just wanted to do something different.

Of course I am always interested in what is born out of the service of this Rudy horse and all of them I have kept over the years. It is amazing how many of these horses come around over and over throughout their lives. It is like you have a dealership and your brand keeps coming back into the shop. I really enjoy finding good homes for them with folks who work them. I’m always trading folks and buying and selling, but mostly just putting customers and owners together for the best of the horse and people as the goal.

I am truly interested in this particular cross, but suspect they will become members of this fellows family. I will try to keep up with them.

Although I really am dedicated to the Suffolk horse, but have always crossed them with any mares of breeding quality and of substance or reasonable size.

We see what comes of the cross. I never have been able to get Tommy Flowers to cross his Barbants with Suffolks.

[Gabe Ayers]

We use the Stihl and Husky saws in the 372 – 460 sizes. We still have a 440 and a 360 Stihl we run also. We operate all of them with 20 inch bars, so the same chain fits them all, chisel tooth full comp.

We have some taller guys that run the 24″ bars to lessen the stoop factor and back issues common to this work.

I agree with Carl about sharpening in the woods, but without my bifocals I am not as good at getting the chrome edge as clean as I used too….

We did have a fellow in our group walking a white pine log limbing recently that slipped off the wet log and put a stub into his groin which took some time to get over…. I suppose some ice caulks on the boot soles would have helped, but less rain would help too.

PPG is a must and no chainsaw is operated without it. I think the difference in the saw brands is tiny if any at all over the long term usage. The most important thing for us is to have a brand that the local saw shop will repair.

Be careful and take your time out there folks, it takes a life time to grow a tree so there is no need to hurry to harvest them…..

It is funny how things work out. On our next segment in the series on Rural Heritage RFD-TV coming out in July, we do a felling demonstration and for the experts watching they will noticed we plunge the heart out of the hinge through the open face and don’t even mention it. We figured it would just complicate the demonstration to beginners watching and was presented for demonstration purposes only along with the recommendation that anyone considering doing this work get some hands on professional training. We use that plunge to create a door hinge as opposed to a piano hinge, which lessens the chances that it will crack the hinge on brittle species.

[Gabe Ayers]

Hey Scott,

The stick is actually a broom handle that the student was using to sweep trimmings out of the way throughout the hoof paring operation. We are not really great photographers and certainly resist setting up photo ops, so this was about the best shot we had of the group while not in the woods. It may have actually worked for both those other jobs though Scott.

Speaking of which the rain just continues in the mid Atlantic and Appalachian region. I have never experienced anything like this in thirty plus years of farming. We had one small window of two days without rainfall this weekend and were able to apply some timely cultivation in our garden and truck patches without it being a mud stirring experience instead of weed control. We have not made a sprig of hay yet, just haven’t had three days without rain since about mid May and our hay, being mostly timothy was not ready then…. so we wait for the next weather change, which we hope includes some low humidity sunny weather.

Attached is a photo of that same stick wheeling student driving that same herd sire doing something useful with his energy besides servicing mares. He hadn’t worked in a year or so, so it took a couple of rows to get him to accept that he wasn’t going back to the barn every time he was pointing in that direction. We used a three foot cultivator and put two shovels on the outside feet to turn soil toward the rows in two passes each row. It is living out the old song, “plow my corn with a double shovel”….lay it by for this season.

PS – We now have two Brabant or Ardenennes (sp) mares here for breeding with this Suffolk stallion. (Rudy) We are not sure if they will be called Brafolks, or Suffants? The mares are small enough that according to Simon’s description they may be the latter European breed. They are bay roans, about 15/2, 1600 pounds, lots of bone and black course hair on the legs.

[Gabe Ayers]

http://www.wiscnews.com/bnr/news/454998

Here is the headline in Baraboo today…….

Birky

[Gabe Ayers]

It was a wonderful week working in the woods with our students. By the end, they could select a worst first individual tree, cut it down safely and skid it out with the team they had harnessed that morning. Very satisfying for a teacher and rewarding for the students. Now there are more folks with this skill base to work in the woods of their communities.

Attached is a photo of one rainy day activity – hoof care on the herd sire…..

Off to the next event – Southern Draft Animal Days……..

[Gabe Ayers]

Same old solution that remedies so many of the other aspects of working animals….

Work them more… it sounds like they may be bored.

The only horses I have ever seen do this excessively are ones that are locked up and expected to just stand around most of the time. There may be other instances of this behavior, but I am not sure what to do about those…. they make material to put on wood called something like “stop chew”, which you may have already tried. Maybe others will have suggestions.

[Gabe Ayers]

There is a fellow named Ladon Dewell in Andalusia, Alabama that works mules and knows some other folks that do too. Email me through the address below and I will give you Ladon’s email address. They had a plow day recently down there. Welcome aboard, take the time to look back in the archives or older post here and enjoy lots of good reading.

Thanks,

[Gabe Ayers]

There doesn’t seem to be any problems with cows grazing poison ivy, or horses or goats.

In fact when my children were young and we were milking a couple of nannies and raising calves off them, we actually tethered our goats on the fence row to eat poison ivy and then gave some of that milk to the children. I believe it contributed to their not have adverse reactions to the stuff in their lives. It is sort of a home made vaccination – immunizing against the negative effects of this native vegetation. Folklore??? or common sense… both!

[Gabe Ayers]

Repetition is a great form of emphasis and the repeated message from the old hands here is that the more you work them the better whoa works and as it becomes found to be a part of their function they will park where even and when ever you want and need them too.

And WELCOME BACK JOEL, glad you are still with us here on DAP, hope your recovery continues.

It is a simple matter of working them until they want to stand – then while working, as they are doing everything just right, stop them and let it be a reward. One subtle signal is dropping contact with their mouths immediately after that stop signaled from some increased line tension and voice command, whoa. Then as you gather your lines again it is like saying “attention” to a solider, they become alert, ears back listening and then continue the light contact in their mouths, command to move and release simultanously but keep enough contact to steer and control their pace confidently and comfortably from the first step onward.

Somehow – within here ~ there is a discussion about the reality that horses are prey animals and movement is certainly an instinctual survival response – so working them, has a part of that instinct in their dynamic. The key seems to be getting the prey animal to a point of realizing that standing still is a safe way to be a prey animal too. It has to be linked to the comfort you emit as a alpha horse in the horses minds. That presence around the horses is what these old hands have. It just comes with much time spent working the animals just like being happy to stand still comes to the horses.

Be consistent, be clear, be confident of what you want them to do, and the better you get at it, the less it looks like you are actually doing.

Maybe a hitching post for starting and stopping your working them would help too. Particularly if you work without an assistant (smaller herd setting in the horses minds). Keeping it safe is the foundation of all successful work.

I am also with Joel, about I want to hear what everyone has to say about their experience and perception – vain or not… I think everyone should be proud of their animal husbandry skills, it is not easy and the pride has to be earned.

[Gabe Ayers]

Is he red headed like his mom or black haired like his dad?

Don’t worry about him meeting a mule, just keep him away from solid red horses!

[Gabe Ayers]

Ronnie,

I think this molly is six years old. Last fall when we got her she seems to just have made her outside corner teeth or become full mouth. So she is young enough to have a real working future in front of her.

I have to admit that she is a stabilizing feature to the herd situation. She will befriend any new animal put in the herd, keeps watch on the entire field, doesn’t like any dogs and mediates between conflicting pecking order deals and seems to take on the role of second in charge when needed.

She has been hand fed treats before so she sometimes expects that upon greeting. The lady that had her gave her licorice all the time, but knew nothing of being a real mule skinner, although every book and video by Meridith the Mule woman came with her…..

I have never experienced her trying to bite or kick a person and she is the best at avoiding a kick and giving a serious response when threatened by underlings in the herd pecking order.

I also have to admit that I like the creature, although in reality haven’t had time to work with her at all. She has been in the round pen and knows all the body signals, will start and stop by voice, but the one time I put a bit in her mouth she acted like she hadn’t had one there very much. Just simply don’t have time to work with her and have plenty of young stock here that should get more attention to be their full potential.

I could think of nothing better than her being your’s Ronnie Tucker! Give me a call if you are interested, I’m wide open to ideas on finding her a good useful home or a home where she will be used…..

[Gabe Ayers]

Here is a big black percheron mammoth Jack cross that is for sale. She is sweet and smart, but we haven’t taken the time to do much with her. Stands over 16HH and has as pretty a head as I have ever seen on a mule, but I don’t know that much about mules… I have often wanted to have some red ones, but this came to us without asking, so here she is if anybody wants a black one. Make and offer………

[Gabe Ayers]

Neal,

I am not sure which photo, but I suspect it is just a bent breast yoke from leaving a pair tied up to a tree and they moving around and getting the breast yoke against a tree while reaching for just one more mouthful of leaves….

Generally the breast yoke is straight but the use of jockey yokes or whiffle trees to accommodate the D-Ring side backer arrangements, the breast yoke does hang a little lower. One thing we didn’t discuss much in the D-Ring debates here is the fact that it does take longer and a little more effort to hitch horses with the D-Ring. The suspension of the tongue weight on the back pad requires a tighter adjustment between the side backer straps and the tugs.

Chad Vogel has relocated to NY State and is working on a farm with some folks that are on the site occasionally I think. We miss him in the central Appalachians, but bet he is doing well where ever he is at.

Thanks for visiting the site and giving your feedback.

Keep working them hard, resting them when they are doing everything right and make them stronger all along the way.

[Gabe Ayers]

“If they don’t have a park, then none of their other gears count.”

The only way I am aware of getting work animals to stand willingly for long periods of time is to have them tired enough that standing is their favorite command. I think it comes back to the use of whoa as a reward concept, the old saying “the greatest reward for any beast of burden is cessation of demand” which equals whoa, relax, stand still, you are safe.

The more you use them the better they get, just the opposite of a machine. When a machine is broke it needs repair, when a team is broke they stand willingly and work even better, longer, stronger and more reliable.

Cross training is important though. Doing lots of tasks with any work animal is better for them in that they experience different settings, levels of resistance to their movement and the only constant is the request to stand…. so that command becomes a common feature in everything they do.

There is much to be taught while on the ground and handling while harnessing, including the opportunity to imprint train babies to relax when cradled by whispering whoa in their ears as they are cradled the first time, (after they relax), as they are touched by a human for the first time.
This lesson will last a lifetime and is easier to learn and accept as a positive reinforcement of that behavior.

I think when a horse whisperer talks they are talking to themselves mostly and hoping the horse/mule/oxen/animal understands…after a while of repeated audio signals and certain responses it becomes clear that they do understand some of the sounds (words) or noises we make…and it is up to us to reinforce that understanding… particularly when it comes to standing…

Sweat equity in a working animal is a true measure of their value as servants and partners in life. There is no replacement for work, moving against resistance and relaxing upon completion of any effort, but it does take effort to get them to really be willing to stand still.

Given that they are all prey animals that instinctively flee to survive we have to teach them that if they stand still they are safe. Maybe they think they are invisible if they don’t move, like a fawn in the hay? The only reason our logging horses ever move when left to stand in the woods is to browse a few leaves when they get hungry. If they are accepting us as the boss horse, then it makes sense we would be taking them in the woods to find something to eat anyway….

Keep working them, make whoa be a reward, but take the lead lines with you everywhere in case you have to leave them for longer than a few minutes, so you can tie them and increase the likelihood of them still being there when you get back to give them your attention. This is why real working horses wear halters while working, so we can tie them up if we need to.

[Gabe Ayers]

B. Corson,

I wonder what color a chestnut and buckskin cross would turn out to be?

I still owe you for those cool back pad arch deals I haven’t slowed down long enough to try out – yet….. Maybe we can work out a good deal???

Having a stallion that is proven in harness as a requirement for reproducing should be an important feature and characteristic everyone that decides to breed working horses should consider.

Thanks for posting.

[Author]

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