[Donn Hewes]

I loved reading Les’s pfd. Even though there are things I don’t understand completely, or copy completely; you can sense a man in complete control of himself and his animals. I hope / plan to continue learning as long as I am driving. Recently we have been untying some of my lines, but it is amazing how hard it is to make changes like that after so many years doing it one way!

My Donkey has been a great teacher for me trying new ways to comunicate. He doesn’t always stop well. He can be walking along quitely and if he thinks the two hands on the lines are a challenge he will be hard to stop on the command “whoa”. I have been learning to stop him much as I have learned to drive him; by ensuring that I keep my signals moving from hand to hand. Ensentially I stop him with one hand and a verbal “whoa”. I can try to teach him to stop on the slack line. My horses vary from one extreme to the other as far as how well they stop with out a reminder from the bit. Some stop on a dime with no contact from the bit, and one mule will walk into the bit every time. I am sure I have taught these animals all these responses. Now that I have so much young stock, it is a great chance to teach something different.

[Donn Hewes]

I think work on belly bands will be the next thing I need to work on. Another thing I can do on one of my main forecarts is move the evener from above the tongue to under it. This will improve the angles and ease the hitching.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi all, To me this is the essence of being a teamster, and I love it. We want the same response at the same instant from two individuals (the horses) that a) are not identical, and b) need to figure out a relationship between them selves while we ask for them to pay attention to just us. It is surely a dance. Often we try to use our voice, but it is hard to send the message to just one animal with our voice.
With my hands on the lines, my question for myself is: can I send signals that will gradually change behavior, or am I stuck ‘just holding one of the horses back”. I have often used a curb chain and leverage, but I prefer to do it with an animal that will change their response in reaction to the added leverage. My donkey has taught me a lot about the fact that leverage will not work in every case, and is not the only way to convey our desires to an individual.
I have never really thought of curb chains as being adjustable for different responses. Too tight and your animal feels the contact all the time and is uncomfortable. If the chain is full on loose it is hanging down in the loose flesh of the chin, and this will cause a sore. I think two fingers un the chain is best.
I am interested in Les’s comment about reins adjustment and will try to read that later today. We have several options for adjusting the lines. I once had an old friend that was sort of a part time horseman and he was driving an old pair of haflingers. He was having trouble getting one of them to go (the smart one I think). I asked him why the horses were bitted down as they seemed so “off” the bit and quite to drive. He told me that was how the harness had come. We all have to learn how to make these adjustments to get the results we want.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi George, Those are great pictures. I have been meaning to take some myself, but I have been too busy to stop! I will be interested to hear what other folks say as i am not the expert on this, but To me you could shorten those front tugs if you wanted to. Mine were about like yours and the big horses now measure 21″ from the hames to the Dring. You are probably at least 24 if you measure from the hames bolt. I don’t think I would move the tug attachment to the hames, but again there is a fine art to fitting the point to the underlying muscle. The hames angles good to me and i wouldn’t lower the dring. I fact when you shorten the tugs you might have to shorten the market strap a little to compensate. Very happy with the horses hooked to spreader today. still get some bowing tugs when backing hard in the mud, but you will get that as long as the rear side straps have that room to give. Good luck, donn

[Donn Hewes]

I am not a professional vegetable farmer, but general horse farmer, so take my advice for what it is worth. One thing that you said really stood out to me. ” just SLOWLY getting started”. This is a great idea and opportunity. Erika’s point about the low start up costs speaks to allowing the time to learn. Visit some farms that are using these tools and see how they work when pulled by horses. There is a great upcoming cultivating workshop in VT this summer. (see add on the side!). Also you could see lots of equipment at horse progress days.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi George, I couldn’t make the google plus photos work. Sorry. I have been fixing some of my short tugs as well. They are easy to shorten. Last year I had a local harness shop repair one that was broken (don’t ask) but I ended up with two tugs that were almost an inch different. This year I had a local shop make me some replacements, but left them unfinished on the front end. Now my intern and I are slowly measuring the best tug length for each horse and finishing the tugs with clips and solid nail rivets. Some of my harnesses are wearing out, so these kinds of parts replacing are the only alternative to buying harnesses which I hope to do some day. Once I am done with all these I will have to adjust the length of the front side strap and market strap? (from the back saddle to the D ring) to make it all fit right again. Donn

The bowing tug never bothered me much, but it can be an indicator of a tug that doesn’t fit right. I am looking forward to the higher D ring and improved angles making hitch easier. with less tension

[Donn Hewes]

Hi all, Just want to add one thing. from experience! When dragging a harrow (any type) or other large, wide, dragging farm implement, (and the teamster is walking) it is essential to have lines long enough to walk all the way around it, and behind it. This may not be apparent at first as walking on one side seems to work fine. But eventually you will try to make a tight turn away from you, or your horses will shift, and the natural response of the teamster is to get behind the team. You may well end up on your belly on top of a harrow. It is safer; and easy to set up with rope if that is what you have, to make sure your lines are long enough to get behind the implement.

[Donn Hewes]

PS. The Pioneer carts are also built to have the tongue moved. Most that I have seen have three channels for the tongue and there are bolt holes under each seat post!

[Donn Hewes]

I am not sure about the nuisance as i just asked my intern to do it today. Think of how much he learned about horse drawn equipment! Actually shifting the pole back and forth is a chore and I basically have one cart that I run as a three horse all winter and change to a two horse in the hay making season. I can not have too many two horse carts for hay making. I would like to not unhook from every rake I use.

But to answer Peyton’s question, no, the cart turns perfectly well with the offset tongue. The main point, and the reason to move the tongue, is that your horses are centered and pulling the cart from the center. it is a better set up for my purposes than an offset evener. Also, that evener can be taken off and used for any three horse purpose.

[Donn Hewes]

The easiest way to have a three horses evener that you can use with or with out a pole is to set up the cart so you can move the tongue. This also keeps the three centered in front of the cart. Then the three horse evener is as simple as a block of hardwood 2 x 6 with a clevis to a double tree on one end and a clevis to a single tree on the other. The hardwood gets a hole 2/3 from the single tree and 1/3 from the double tree. This ends up being right behind the center horse and is attached to the cart in the center, not into the tongue.

[Donn Hewes]

In team lines the cross checks are longer than continuous line. The difference between the two lines will determine how far apart the horses heads are. Ideally their heads will be spaced to match the evener and neck yoke they are working with. If you look at a team of horses where their heads are pointed towards each other the check lines need to be longer, (make sure they weren’t put on wrong). Two horses walking straight ahead while they both look out, away from each other, need to have their check lines shortened. Backing and going forward should be about the same results. I hope that helps. Ideally the two check lines will be the same, although folks will some times adjust one longer than the other to accommodate a size or behavior difference in a team. Donn

[Donn Hewes]

I am planning to go and set up a DAP Net table. Hopefully I will see you there. Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Hi all, Basically I like all my neck yokes and eveners to be the same. That is a good goal. There is the occasional neck yoke that might be an inch or two off, and as long as you are not doing a ton of heavy stopping or back it won’t hurt anything. If I counted all the doubletrees, tripletrees and four and five horses setups I use (mostly out of old eveners I have collected) I think it would be over twenty.

I use 36″ more than any other size, but when I do use something bigger, I can easily deploy a couple rings already on the hames (like short drop rings), That makes it easy to fine tune the animals spacing. I just bought two 40″ eveners for my four horse evener. I am looking forward to opening up that hitch because I have always worked with one animal half walking on the hay and with a wider center and new eveners I should be able to move off that spot.

The one thing I never do is change my lines. Several pairs of team lines, and I want them all the same. They work perfectly for 36″ eveners.

[Donn Hewes]

hi Bob, Yes I think I have a second edition, Sorry. The bit to bit lines you describe are featured in a story in the recent “Rural heritage”. With good pictures. All ways interesting to see all the different possibilities. I like to let a horses look at something before I bring the head back where we are going. The hames to bit check allows for that, perhaps a little more than the Bit to bit, maybe. Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Teding hay with thee horses and mules.
https://vimeo.com/tag:northland+sheep+dairy

Baling hay with four hrses and mules.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cY_cNgtpYM

One thing yo can see is that Jay’s check lines are longer than those in Lynn’s book. I think as long as you get them adjusted for the spacing you want there s some flexibility.

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