[Donn Hewes]

Hi Jeroen, Thanks for your thoughts, I like to break my work situation into these three categories. the teamster (trained and prepared for what is being asked), the animals (same – trained and prepared). and equipment (safe and maintained). I am sure there are things like motorcycles and fire crackers; or bee’s nests!, but I try to lump them in the first three categories.

I like this approach as it keeps me focused on things I am in control of or should be. I believe these accidents are avoidable, and work everyday to practice and teach how to avoid them though preparation of those three things above. Unfortunately, I realize that saying they are avoidable is not exactly the same as saying we will never experience them again.

[Donn Hewes]

Back now. I was able to walk some of the tightness out of the old calf muscle.

Immediately afterward we lead the animals back to the barn were we were able to tie them out side. It was tempting to go right back to hooking the disc and continue with the plan. My broken lines and check straps would have made that a bit of time to set up. Normally with a team of two going right back to work when ever possible is a good idea if you can safely. Four out of these five animals I would have turned right around and gone back to anything I wanted to do. Taking Eddie right back might have been a bad choice. as I was not 100 % percent certain of his reaction and I should test that in a little more controlled method. Also my leg was sore.

We chose to tie up the three mares, and hook the donkey and mule to a fore cart and wood wagon to move a couple loads of fire wood. This we did within ten minutes of our mishap and they worked fine. We then unharnessed them and hooked two mares to finish the wood pile. same result. Later that afternoon we hooked to a potato plow with Lady and Connie so all would be driven in the same day. One of the interns was driving at this point and before we plowed potatoes he said the horses seemed nervous. They didn’t seem nervous to me but it is natural for us to be looking for that. Once I took the lines, these horses worked fine although the plow was running a little deep and hard to pull.

What caused this? Before I point out some mechanical or equipment details that contributed I should say that regardless of any mechanical corrections we might make, I believe that our best defense is in situational awareness. This means our ability to identify when things are not what they should be. This can be all encompassing and includes the equipment, the animals and the teamster; is everything ready for what I am asking it to do? I believe being relaxed and alert is how we can build situational awareness. Also experience. In this case my situational awareness failed to perceive a combination of factors what about to disrupt my day.

Lines – I have for a long time corrected folks that work a ground drag implement, harrow, disc, what ever; that your lines need to be long enough to work all the way behind it so you can get from side to side. regular team lines will usually needed to be lengthened, but you can do it with rope or anything. When all is going well it seems OK to turn left and right form just one side. But have a team take a false step and now the implement is coming your way while you are trying to turn in the other direction. It is even harder to turn in your direction, because every step you take to avoid the implement is turning them the opposite way.

I know better and had the extensions in the hands of of a helper ready to put them on. Just didn’t do it soon enough.

Line buckles going through a hames ring. I know there are millions of horses driven ever day that take no precautions against this and have no problems and never will. There are also lots of near misses where this line buckle gets caught but then comes free before anything bad happens. I think it is somewhat over looked because it tends to be a problem that is more apted to befall a green teamster with a green horse. Experienced teamsters with experienced animals will not allow them to get misaligned to this extent. None the less this is a serious problem when it occurs. If it is happening to you, you should take steps to make sure it doesn’t. The simplest that I know of is placing rings under the buckle in the lines that will not fit through the hames. I think all my lines are protected in this way, except this pair of three horse lines. I will fix this on Monday.

Finally, reading the donkey is the final factor. He is not as well broke or experienced as my other workers. He is a little more unpredictable. He has worked in this hitch before, and with this disc before, but he tried to upset my apple cart once while we were hooking to the evener. Would I put him in the same situation tomorrow? After I fix my broken lines and get a few new rings, Yes. But I will be paying a great deal of attention to him as I do it.

Earlier I mentioned the moment in the afternoon where someone thought the horses were nervous. It is natural for us to think this and be on guard for it. In order for us to take them back to work, whether it is five minutes later or hours or days later, we need to be able to put it behind us. We need to provide our calm, relaxed, and alert leadership; all the while maintaining our situational awareness

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Billy, Those Haflinger’s are big. What size cutter bar are you using? I am pretty sure I have seen a mower with three abreast, you will have more side draft than before, but I think it will work. I have also found smaller horses without D ring pull a little easier with a dolly wheel on the mower.

[Donn Hewes]

My wife says I have lost my nerve! Now the forecast is good I will let the ground dry out for a day and then mow two days in a row. At least that is the plan. I will try to shoot a little baling video. (just don’t comment on the hay quality). Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Carl, You are right- it takes practice. That is what makes the skill of being a teamster so fun and rewarding. When you finally get to that place in the woods, and you know that your hands and your horses can thread the needle.

[Donn Hewes]

Mowing is a good place to thing about which horse to put where. You certainly what a horse that will move over easily on the right. You also need a good forward horse (a leader) on the right as the mower seat is not perfectly centered and this holds that horse back slightly.

It seems some of the logging horses move over in the woods with a little more voice command and less hands on the lines. It may not be quite as precise, but it is just more efficient for the logger that is doing two things at once to just ask them to “move over”. I did work with a friend out in Montana once who always said “move over”; didn’t matter who, how much, or which way, some how his horses figured that out for them selves.

[Donn Hewes]

I think it depends on what you want to heat. If you are building something new it is well worth making it heat efficient. I would have liked a masonary stove (russian fireplace) in our new home, but it would have been totally wasted on our 1200 foot straw bale house that we heat with passive solar and a wood cook stove. Our house usually has a window open most of the winter as we use the stove to heat hot water, and we burn about 2 cords of wood a year.

[Donn Hewes]

Hay Jay, Between you and Ken you would almost think it was a Suffolk horse convention or something. Oh yeah, there is an annual meeting of the Suffolk horse assoc. I hope they don’t find out who I breed my Suffolk mare to!

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Eli, What does it make you wonder about how you make hay? Last night it rained 2/10ths of an inches. Makes me question why I get up! It seems pretty clear to me that folks that buy hay are making more money than folks that make it or sell it. Folks that sell it are, for the most part, not realizing the cost of the nutrients they are selling from their farm.

To make your own hay for your own animals; especially with horse power, seems to me to be an effort to demonstrate a system that can be more sustainable. Of course there is nothing in our economic system intended to reward sustainability.

I also make hay with horses, because I enjoy it, I can’t really think of anything else I would rather do. Even with the rain and baler problems. I don’t know how true that would be if I was working off farm five days a week. I think that makes it tough.

[Donn Hewes]

the hay is mowed and tedded today, about four acres. It has a nice crop of second cutting trefoil mixed with some dry first cutting grass. it appears it will dry easily and we can rake and bale early tomorrow. I hope so as now there is a threat of rain ( 20%). It was hard mowing, with some plugging for the younger teamster, and several passes to complete a triangle at the end. Those are always a pain, especially with heavy hay. It took us a little over an hour and a half with two teams, not particularly fast, but I think the horses may have gotten more rest than they needed with the plugging. At one pm we returned with the rotatory tedder and tedded in second gear (faster turning tedder) and that took a little over an hour. I was thrilled that I could ted what four horses mowed faster than they mowed it.

Hopefully we will have a nice baling video tomorrow. D
Ps. I think I fixed the baler today
Pss. I broke a seat post on a mower today as i was coming out of the field. It is one that I had previously welded so I guess it isn’t too surprising that it broke again. I think the welds lasted about two years. Today I was able to pull one off a parts mower. Good thing as it turns out those can be hard to find, and not readily available for purchase. Just in case anyone is wondering, “bale Babe” is a term of endearment I use for my wife when she stacks bales on the wagon; which she likes so much she usually won’t share the job with anyone. d

[Donn Hewes]

I would disagree slightly with you Mitch. Round balers where made for big tractors, and you have to start one in the winter to feed it out. Kicker wagons leave my neighbor standing by his barn wishing some one would help him unload the 8 wagons he has just made. A ” bale babe” No offense please, is the best of efficiency and cooperation. I think the possible best thing would be loose hay, but I can’t say for sure ( my wife hates even the thought of it). As for loading on to the wagon with horses. It is great ( at least for us) I am fortunate to work pretty level ground. On the few side hills that do exist here I work a cross the hill and make short turn around on the ends. In Indiana I saw Amish pulling balers and wagons over ground as steep as your I bet. They had to be very careful how they stacked them to keep them from falling off.

I think up and down big hills all the time would make it harder. Now that I think about it I have another Amish friend that is rigged for six, so he can bale on hills all day. Out to go mowing! I hope to bale tomorrow what I am mowing this morning. It is as much side hill as I get. I will try to get a little video of us making that up hill turn around. Only caveat would be that my baler has been very frustrating and probably will continue to be tomorrow!

[Donn Hewes]

As like others have suggested, it is difficult to give concrete advice from a distance. First, let me say that in my own experience ten year old horses can be difficult. I have had mixed success in starting them to work myself.

Having said that, I think round pens can be trap. They are a perfect tool for a green horses with no relationship with people. For a horse that won’t turn and look at you, or you have no way to get their attention a round pen is great. Once this is a accomplished a round pen is still a nice safe place to work, but no longer necessary. “Caution” The difficulty in moving out of the round pen is not the horses – it is ours. We have to correctly read the animals ability to walk calmly, to pay attention to us.

It is alright to take each new thing back to the round pen, but then immediately take it out as soon as it is successful. Horses are purpose driven and identify with us being purpose drive. When you start working with an animal like this you should already be planning the first thing it will drag. Where is the evener? chain ? and small log? If the round pen is big enough and this helps you, you can hook this horse in there, but again it needs to go out of the pen.

The thing you really need to see with each new piece is not a whoa (getting to that) but a calm, relaxed walk. If a horse is walking calmly and pulling a small log, after a few minutes (don’t keep testing the whoa every few feet) it will be perfectly willing to stop.

Calm and relaxed sounds simple, but it is easily over looked, and can be harder to achieve than we like to admit. That is you goal. Good Luck.

[Donn Hewes]

I would think the two tongue slots on the I and J would be perfect for two tongues. Those slots are made for a three abreast with single pole usually. I think mine is just over 36″ apart. You would just have to make sure the three horse evener fit the spaces available.

I run an unusual neck yoke attachment. I use a slip hook with a safety clasp on the neck yoke and an eye bolt on the tongue. I use these for regular neck yokes as well. When I am baling with four I have one snap on neck yoke for one team and another for the other two. Both are hooked into an evener like bar, mounted on the tongue in front of them. That way all four are pulling back, or holding the load.

If you look at my web album you can see some better pictures of neck yokes with snap hooks. picasaweb.google.com

Try the album marked “making hay”, it is down a ways, about seven rows down.

[Donn Hewes]

That’s right. I tried different wheels with more traction, and it was starting to work in lighter conditions, but that is not what tedding is really for anyway. I could have tried to add weight but it seemed I was starting from too light of a machine. I am currently debating adding 200 pounds on the back of this cart to lighten the tongue. I already have enough weight so it is a hard choice.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Eli, I think that most of us have a horse like that. I have a rule, (have a lot of rules, one of which is beware of rules) that I always try to work the horse that needs it the most. On my farm this means that on a day when only one team will be hooked up, I use Connie, because she is always fat, and polly, becuase she is an incredibly pushy, strong willed horse and if I don’t work her it will show up very quickly.

It is a good rule and I follow it as best I can. I have tried to encourage some of my friends to use it as they get more animals. They are so busy and working hard that using the suboptimal horse seems impossible, but they are starting to get there now. Just keep picking away at that horse.

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