[Donn Hewes]

Yes, the socket wrench fits fine. I am pretty sure that is 1/2″ drive. Gobs of paint would be about the only thing that could mess that up.

[Donn Hewes]

It sounds to me like you are doing well. Keep it up. I complete understand trying anything in a tight spot to maintain control. If backing helps so be it.
I am going to comment again about the backing just to give you a few more things to consider. To give you an idea of what I am hearing you say. Again you are the one putting it all together.

” I have more control with a single horse in reverse than forward. When moving forward she is more apt to swing around on me, side step her way off the track I’m looking for us to follow, flat out stop, or bolt 4-5 feet.” All of the things mentioned above are from a horse that is unsure about moving forward. You have asked it to go forward and it is unsure. How do you get it into reverse? I assume you say whoa first. Not surprising she won’t stand well (she is nervous or excited, confused). So now you have asked her to back as a response to her not being able to stand well. If this horse can go back under these circumstances it can surely go forward.

I would first attempt to correct all of the above by continuing to ask her to go. This can be a great challenge to feel safe and be safe. By peacefully, sincerely, relaxed but timely asking her to continue doing what you have already asked her to do. As you continue to drive her you will be able to anticipate these outbursts, that is a good time to let them know you are home, and you know where you are going. I might kiss if they slow or hesitate. or just a touch on the lines to one side of the mouth or the other will be enough to keep them going forward. When you push (put pressure on, kiss, to make go forward) a horse, the lines steer them and direct them forward, not side ways or turning around. It is when we take the initiative away that they can wander (steping off the trail, stoping, etc.)

You can stop when ever and where ever you want, but ideally the horse will be calm and relaxed when you do. Keep up the good work. A second person can sure be handy when working with logs the first few times. They can also get in the way so be sure to direct them where you want them! Donn

[Donn Hewes]

I think the question is difficult to answer exactly because of the nature of the work we are doing. Folks always want to know if they have the right method or tools, and those things are much less important than they realize. Round pen or no; toward the barn or not, with a log or none; what we need to learn is how to assess what an animal is telling us and how to respond to it. It is a touch and a feel. Learning to see an animals anxiety or concern or excitement in all the different shades, and correctly choose when to ask for a little more, when to stop, and to change it up takes time. It also takes commitment, focus, effort.

Often when an “old timer” or Jared! say they just “do it”; what I find is that they have learned and ingrained these skills. It doesn’t matter if they harness it, hook it or just lead a horse they are using these tools to evaluate it’s energy and using their presence to shape that energy to their purpose.

Working single is a great thing for the relationship between the horse and the teamster. One common misconception is that it will be easier than driving a team. Viewed from the animals perspective I think it is more difficult.

Just one aside – Why backing if the animal tightens up at something? Backing is stressful, and should be done as calmly as possible. If the animal is tightening a little try to keep moving forward unless that becomes unsafe or is makeing things worse.

If you can find purpose to this work it will speed up the process of acceptance a lot.

[Donn Hewes]

It seems like a good wood to me. Will you cover the center hole with small metal plates? On the ends you can use plates or metal straping?

[Donn Hewes]

It is definitely a loose hay barn; although I don’t have any plans to make loose hay at the moment. I was joking with the young Amish boy helping me. Maybe he will be the one to put loose hay in it. In the spring I will build a roof that will connect our old hay barn to our new, and the old one will be the new sheep shed. I also have to fill in some ramps to get into it with a wagon.

[Donn Hewes]

I am planning to put steel tongues on most of my equipment this spring. There is a part of me that thinks it reflects poorly on me that I couldn’t maintain something as simple as a wooden tongue, but I also have to think about students, green animals, etc. There is a reason why all the eveners and most of the neck yokes are steel. I bought 10 pieces of 2″ x 2″ steel tubing with 3/16″ wall. This is definitely on the strong side. Some of these will be removable and some will be welded or bolted on. On my farm there are two mower tongues, two cultivator tongues, three simple forecart tongues, one tongue on the gas PTO cart, and two tongues on the ground drive cart. Until now these have all been wood.

I had a bad mishap with a broken tongue about two months ago, when the neck yoke end of the tongue broke off. I knew tongues were on my list of things to do, but hadn’t gotten to it yet. I usually tested these tongues by jumping on them. This may not be an adequate test. The only thing that prevented it from being worse was the fact that the tongue was also rotten under the cart and broke a second time under the frame at the first bolt. I was surprised to see how much rot had followed bolts down through the frame.

For some of my newer equipment I have used slip in wood tongues and I think this also would be a good solution as they are more likely to not be put back in when bad, and are a lot easier to change. Also with a d ring harness and a deep pocket you can choose to not attach it and that leaves it with no bolt hole to follow down. Also, I would not drill through the tongue to mount an evener. Just mount it under or over depending on the height of the tongue.

[Donn Hewes]

I have a couple here that measure 1.00 spot on and they are not new, but not well used. I thought I had one unused, but I must have already put it in a mower. I also use the bearing plates on my pitmans. But if you have a badly worn wrist pin it seems to me it will be loose with that bearing just as it would with the old bushing. Usually it was the bushing that was worn, so changing the pitman plate or changing to the bearing would also get rid of that slop. But not if the wrist pin was truly worn. With a shop with a press they are not that hard to change. Grind off the back – press out pin. Press in new pin and set it. They are readily available from mower parts dealers.

[Donn Hewes]

Don’t take this the wrong way; as I know how hard you have worked with these horses and how much you have likely learned from working with them, but I have always told people to get the horses you need. As a green teamster it may feel like giving up on them, or failure, but they can go on to work for someone else. Ask Jody at Roxbury what it is like to integrate a single horse in their farm operation once they got the right horse. Please don’t take this the wrong way, and if you want to discuss this further just let us know.

[Donn Hewes]

Not exactly sure what would be considered a Pioneer “heavy duty”. If it is just an older (and they make a newer model) then I think it is fine. Does it come with shafts? The only reason to make your own over buying the pioneer is if you want something specific (like the barden design, or you want to save money. If manufacturing is not your thing, you won’t beat that price y much. Sometimes they are a little cheaper at an auction.

As far as towing the coops, it is possible to make a set of wheels with a short tongue that you lift up the tongue (picture picking it up like a hand truck) then you slide it under the front end (with a pin or hole to catch) and then you lower the short tongue and hook it behind your forecart with the leading edge of the coop off the ground.

If I weren’t at work I could draw a picture of how that might look!

[Donn Hewes]

It is always hard to say from a photo, but the collar is quite a bit too big. A good thick pad and some adjusting might make it fit. Just to be clear, the final shape of a collar is not set until you put hames on it. The hames determine a lot about the collar. The hames are adjustable in a couple different ways and allow us to fine tune the point of draft, (where the tugs come off the collar – really where the point of draft is on the animal) and also the hames can be used to make a collar narrow and a little longer or wider and a little shorter. Because of all these variables it can be a little complicated to get all the desired effects at the same time.

At the top of the hames the hames strap clips can be moved up or down to adjust the length of the hames. To make the collar a little shorter and a little wider, lower the clips and make the hames straps a little longer. To adjust the location of the point of draft; lengthen and shorten the top hames strap until the point of draft is on the animal where you want it.

Obviously these things effect each other so it takes a little fiddling to get it right. At a minimum you will need good pads to make those collars fit. I prefer a vinyl inside, blue and white tic fabric outside. These pads have foam inside and have served well.

[Donn Hewes]

I have tried heat before with mixed success (mostly not). One thing I would like to know is what else is set up? I have seen a couple mowers where the push bar was set up in it’s thread in the inner shoe. I have not gotten them loose. With it on the mower and everything else disconnected, rocking the cutter bar forward and back should tell if the shoe is frozen on the push bar.

[Donn Hewes]

Any parts on a mower that has been sitting out side can be frozen. Likely that those two pins are frozen if you have disconnected the rest of the lift system. Some timing bars and inner shoes will not be salvaged; at least by me. You can buy these parts if you need to. Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Carl, Good questions. We made sort of a home made hobble. It is wide leather with a buckle for a good fit. We started out with a 3:1 with a pulley on the belly band and one on the d ring (no pulley on the foot – just running the rope through a large lock link). This gave us plenty of lifting power, but a slower response when we wanted to lift. Turns out you only really capture the foot when the animal lifts it anyway. Last time we used it I modified it with out the pulleys and a simple 2:1, this seemed to work also although I am not sure which one worked better. I tried to do something similar about 25 years ago and it was a real failure, so I think keeping the rope system simple and combining it with a good cart or sled, and working with the right people are all elements that make it work this time. I wish I had more time because i would hook him every day. We still manage the situation, plan the where the equipment is parked, which way it faces, which way we will go first. For us, with Pete, all these things matter.

[Donn Hewes]

We have driven him about three times hooked to a tongue. We have ground driven him on a few days when we didn’t have the time or people to hook him up. In ground driving we are carefully hooking him to single trees and chains with an emphasis on keeping him relaxed and not getting away. Last week we broke the front off of the sled I built; combination of bad materials from the scrap pile and week design, yesterday we hooked him to the forecart.

All three times we have had to use the foot rope. It is simple and not an alarming event for him, but it does stop him. Yesterday we went over a couple miles of woods and fields. He was good, but made one concerted effort to get away as we were returning to the barn through the woods. He went about 100′ at a gallop on three legs. he was much easier to hook yesterday and it only took two of us; one at the head while the other hooked. he moved over toward the tongue with the help of the but rope and stayed pretty still while we hooked. Progress?

I think the process and the tools are working and working well. It is just a slow process at this point based on the history we have developed that we need to undue. I wish I had started with it much earlier. The only problem with that would be: I would much prefer to work an animal by ground driving until they settle with that and then add a pole. In our experience with this system it wasn’t fol proof for ground driving (read we feel down once while trying that). It has been fool proof for anything we could sit on or stand on.

In order to employ it earlier would basically mean moving an animal that has gotten away to a cart or sled directly. Probably what I would do much sooner next time. I hate to admit it but I am contemplating selling Pete. I think he is an awesome animal but might not be what I need right now. I will keep you posted. d

[Donn Hewes]

I changed the video link above to the right one! Sorry. Must have attached the wrong one here. There is a thread for training Pete ‘look under mules”! I will make another post there now. talk to you soon, Donn

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