[Donn Hewes]

“This does not excuse us from continually trying to improve but gives us permission to carry on while acknowledging our imperfection.” Mark, I love this. There is room for so much variety and individuality in this craft. Studying the teamsters can be more interesting than studying the animals. Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Lizzy, Here is my two cents. I think there are many good forecarts for general farm use. I think the barden cart has some unique features that might make it easier to use’ especially with a D ring harness (high tongue and low evener). The pioneer and all the other carts are nice. I am sure the steering gear is nice, I just don’t know what I would need it for.

If you know anyone who can weld a simple fore cart is about the easiest thing to make. For most farm purposes no fancy features are necessary. I like to start with a salvaged trailer (I just bought one from a neighbor that is a tandem axle with good hubs, bearings, and tires for $250). The with some square steel tubing or channel you can make a flat deck. add a seat, draw bar, railing, bolt on a tongue. They can be really simple and easy to make.

I guess for me it would come down to exactly what I intended to hook it to. I use mine for manure spreaders, hay rakes, hay wagons, moving chicken houses, and sheep shade shelters. water wagons. For my next one I plan to include some features of a log arch, a barden cart, and my idea of a simple forecart; plus a bus seat, or two person seat. One nice thing about a cheaper home made one is you can have more of them. Including a gas powered pto, and a ground drive pto, I have five forecarts that I use; all home made. I am planning to make a new one this spring.

[Donn Hewes]

It seems that in most jockey yokes I have seen you can clip off the ring and slip the downward facing hooks right in. Might just need to reem them out a little. Also I believe Meader’s supply sells the downward facing hook. While not everyone needs to or wants to switch, I do think the se hooks are better.

Of course I have no real experience with leaving horses in the woods while I cut. I have run a saw a few times with them in the woods, but that is different that having a regular system. As Carl often mentions there is some element of risk with each of these systems. My Amish nieghbors have the typical team that will stand all day, corn choppers, belts, anything. Last winter they ran out of the wood lot and all the way home, a good mile from one farm to the next. He said it was because they were cold! I got to weld the arch back together.

I was showing some one how to tie a horse to a wall the other day. I pointed out the difference between tieing them long, short, high, or low. And the benefit of different knots. I think tieing a team in the woods while still hooked seems like a small risk, but not zero. I would look for a good sized tree and put it dead center in front of them. I would tie them high (+40″) with just enough rope to keep them safe if one fell or lay down. This system would not be fool proof. I would work carefully to built a teams ability to be tied this way.

Hooking a choker to a tree and the back of a cart is very different to me. It could be very secure and safe, but I would worry about horses moving around, or testing the hitch. A horse that tests a tye rope is reinforcing something they should have already learned “tied means tied”. The team hitched to some thing behind them with no one home is different, I would prefer that they never move or test the system, but if they do I am not sure what I am teaching at that point. “hooked to something solid means whoa?” I never taught them that.

I am just thinking out loud, taking the horses to the wood presents some real challenges. I am luck to be able to cut with the horses in the barn and skid separately. I got out of the habit of using halters under bridles and prefer the bridles that way, but I often still encourage other to use halters that way. In the last couple years I have had a three bridles made with halters built in. I like them a lot.

[Donn Hewes]

They Look nice. I am sorry they didn’t work out for you. Often when we are introducing the working horses to beginning farmers we focus on the work; ie here is the harness and this is how we drive them and hook them to equipment. In my own work with beginning teamsters I am trying to take the time to make sure folks understand more about ‘what a horse is”, “how they think”, and why the cooperate with humans”. I have found it very fun and satisfying to take the time to explain these things to folks. Good Luck in your future horse powered endeavors.

[Donn Hewes]

Tom, Keep us posted. I hope and believe the time is right for more restorative forestry. D

[Donn Hewes]

Totally not an ox person, but the similarities with horses are sometimes interesting. I often encourage folks to question the assumptions of which animal is in the wrong when one is in front of the other. Some folks always blame the one behind “for not wanting to work” while others blame the one in front for “never slowing down”. Sometimes with horses it is about the relationship between the two animals.

What is the speed you want is just part of the equation. How are your efforts to speed up or slow down one of them effecting the other. How much of the space between them (one in front and the other behind) is really not about speed but an issue between them (like get away from me). This is where getting them engaged in work (and paying attention to you, and not each other); thinking, watching, turning; can distract them from x (this dang ox beside me).

Again not an ox person and it probably has no baring on our your animals. Just fun to think about ways in which these things cross over.

[Donn Hewes]

This is such a tough issue. Unfortunately someone felt that taking these loans in the first place was a good idea. If your original plan was to become a farmer I would not have recommended expensive college loans. Helping young farmers find access to affordable land or situations seems to address some of the same questions. I am also more interested in how some one chooses to farm than if they farm. In other word’s; why should I support the teaching of things I don’t agree with (land grant, fossil fuel farming) while I also offer an education in another form of farming. Local, small scale, grass based, draft animal powered agriculture.

I feel bad for folks with high student loans. I think they make all choices more difficult. I wouldn’t recommend they take the loans. I fully realize I have had many advantages in life and was fortunate to find work with out any college education. I respect anyone (college loans or no) working to get a head. I do think these are tough challenges.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi George and Brad, I am glad this is working. let us know when you feel you have really tested with big logs and stuck logs and such! This is great news. At this point there are quite a few of the original ones, but not everyone will break them, and I don’t mind taking them back and fixing them.

I think this application is particularly well suited to welding the grade 8 bolt becuase the weld is not what was to weak or broke. I think Brad broke the head off the Bolt (There is some torque there). But there is plenty of welded area, and I don’t think they will brake there.

I am glad you like it. I think they work great for the first goal, making them easy to pick up for beginning teamsters.

[Donn Hewes]

Mark, You wanted a “hot stove” topic. I think you sure got one. I see something to be balanced here. The need for good quality animals for beginning farmers on the one hand, and on the other a need to develop these beginning farmers so they will be able capitalize on good horses.

As much as I enjoy training / working with young or green horses, I enjoy working with beginning teamsters more. A good well broke team in the hands of someone that doesn’t appreciate what horses are or what they need from people, may not be good very long. A green horse or team with no training or experience, can mess up a well intentioned green teamster in a hurry. Both these situations lead me to want to help folks understand horses and mules.

I am looking forward to selling some good mares in the future, but the mules need to grow first.

[Donn Hewes]

“My objectives are not to get horses that are trained to conditioned response, so I usually need to break that down, and start over with creating a more momentary communication…… ” CR

As usual this got me thinking. Sometimes I like to translate Carl’s words into my own, just to see how well I understand them, and also because I often glean something I will repeat. So here is what I was thinking as I was stumbling around outside today.

What does Carl want to “teach” these horses once he brings them home? Gee and haw, whoa and go, are all well and good but it is not that. It is who is Carl Russell? From the minute They arrive this is what the horses are trying to figure out, and Carl will help them. It doesn’t matter if they are working in harness, on a rope or loose in the barn. You can start with “perhaps you have never met anyone like me”. Then it will go into ” I am calm, determined, hard working, fair, consistent as I can be, patient to a point.”

When a horse “learns” these things they will respond to them with trust. They will accept his leadership. Compared to this gee and haw are really small potatoes; and this is what I think Carl plans to “teach” when he brings home a green team.

Ramblings of a one handed man! Stitches out yesterday – so look out I am coming back!

[Donn Hewes]

Carl, I have a sixteen y/o mare that will be perfect for you! Just kidding; having just come in from fooling with two youngsters I know what you mean.

[Donn Hewes]

I think I can see where Carl is going with this. If you plan to keep working horses what is the most economical way to get replacements at the time you want them? While breeding is an option for folks with mares, I would not always say it is the most economical. If your operation is big enough to include a working stud, plus a few mares (so one might be foaling while you are working others) it could be a arraignment. I think of breeding my own young stock as more of a once in a life time chance to make something just as I wanted it. My young mules are not the cheapest way to get a new team of mules.

I think the idea of looking for horses that have created problems for their current owners is an interesting one. There is really nothing “wrong” with many of these horses, other than they are looking for / need a different kind of leader. Carl, I am guessing, figures he might get a great horse or team, based on his ability to figure out the animals.

Once my mules are a little older and all working I would like to see the number of drafts on the farm going up every spring and down in the fall. I would try to keep my base 4 or 5 and add a green team each spring and sell them in the fall. Hopefully improving them along the way. It would be an interesting experiment.

[Donn Hewes]

Brad, I am guessing you didn’t get the remade hook I sent you? should have got it with the harness. D

[Donn Hewes]

Just Kidding! I did get to use the hook in a new way a couple weeks ago but didn’t get a picture. I thought I would be right back to get a picture in a few days. Then the weather warmed up, and now I am sitting watching netflixs. Horses should return to work this week as Scott and Aubrey move in.

Anyway, I used the hook with a double tree on my ski arch. The ski arch has a large homemade hook to hang eveners on, and the handle goes right on. Tongue length was fine, and I pulled a couple of big birch pieces (wind storm, lightning?). It worked fine in a hitched configuration. Pictures next time.

[Donn Hewes]

Hey Carl, Don’t take this the wrong way; but if timber is happy I am happy!

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