[Donn Hewes]

Great thread Kristin, I have had a few runaways; most of us have, but I like the idea that I don’t expect to have them in the future. This is not exactly the same as saying they will never happen; but more along the lines of, I make a conscious effort to prepare myself, my equipment, my work, and my animals such that these accidents will be avoided. I probably did a poor job of paraphrasing something I read in the work horse hand book.
Having said that, I had a runaway last year, (many years after the last one). I had failed many of the tests I set for my self above. I had a equipment brake down of a manure spreader, and I had a green horse that was not ready for the work. After many years of working successfully it was an eye opening experience to realize that a Lack of accidents for several years was not a guarantee that I was doing everything I could to prevent them.
About the lever bits, I have been slowly useing more of them, but not with the clear understanding that Jason described. I use a variety of bits and line placements in order to allow the different animals to work with the same line pressure. I work everthing from 28 y/o halflingers (any line pressure is to much for these two). Two 12 y/o molly mules which I first tried to take the lever bits away from, and later realized this was a mistake. Two three coming four y/o’s (one mule, one belgian) that I started and so far are pretty light mouthed. One 20 y/o Belgian gelding who is happy with his lever bit down one spot.
For the last year or so I have been trying to retrain my self and my animals to have a new relationship with the lines and line pressure. the idea came from a Steve Bower book. It is simply that every pressure going down the lines should signal something. That means two animals walking straight ahead doing exactly what you want should not feel any pressure. I have not gone so far as to loose contact with the animals, but I really like the idea of working toward a lighter and lighter touch. I think the lever bits could work in a system like this. When I finely returned the proper lever bit to the most afending mule she actually relaxed and started to work better with less line pressure. One question Jason, in your approach to these bits are you using a variety of line placements, or always the bottom, or perhaps just not the direct (or top) placement. I perfer the ones that are not the broken snaffles but the straight bar, although that is just based on instinct.
Well, that is a long post, I apologize for any misplellings, I couldn’t figure out how to make the spell checker work, My wife is out of town, and the horses are all out in the barn, so there is no one to help me. Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Jean, The NOFA winter Conference is happening all weekend in Saratoga Springs. On Friday we are doing a pre-conference Workshop called ‘Introduction to farming with Horses’. There was a limit on the number of participants and as of a week ago there were only afew spots left. You can find a full description at NOFANY.Com. You would also find contact info if you wanted to register. I am considering doing a weekend workshop like this on my farm this spring. If I decide to do it I will post it here.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi DAPPERS, Kristin It is “our” Intro to farming with Horses Workshop! yes, anyone that wants to say hello; I wish I had gotten on this site earlier as I probably could have made the organizing easier. As it now stands we have a good presentation set up for our first time. I wish I had one more team of horses but it is alittle late to worry about that now. Jason, If you want to see a funny picture of a working dog check out our New Zealand Huntaway helping me feed horses. You can see him on my web album. I have been haveing alot of fun this week starting a new three year old belgian mare. we are skidding little logs for fire wood and she is doing great.

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