[DraftDriver]

Thanks Jean…not sure if I mentioned it…were doing a church picnic this Saturday for a friend of ours so I am excited about that. Our friend didn’t think that the older folks of the congregation would be interested but he said when he mentioned it they were excited too, as we thought this would be fun for the kids.

[DraftDriver]

The wagon we borrowed from Bob and what a pleasure it was to drive, I had a lot of fun too!! Mark and I are going to start looking for one like this to buy as we have been asked to do a lot of volunteer time with the public and giving rides:

A really cool shot Mark got of the team and I coming around the back of the barn and indoor arena. I love how they are both in step:

And the team after two days of absolute perfect behavior and a willing manner. This was the first time for Trixie to be out in a very public setting with us and Smoke and I have to say, they were top on behavior and manners. Saturday we drove, non stop, 4 and a half hours and Sunday, we drove 5 hrs, with a half hour break for lunch.

We heard back from the farm owner this morning that everyone who came to their farm, the first thing that the public saw was our team coming around the barn and they loved getting to go on a wagon ride and learn the history of the farm. They also loved the hands on with the team, being able to touch, look at, and see a well behaved team being treated with kindness, that was also mentioned. They sure did our farm proud this weekend!! We were asked to do this again with them next year, so we have it on the books…

[DraftDriver]

Thank you so far, to those who have answered. I should explain that I won’t be doing any heavy hauling or moving logs around, our team is worked more on a wagon for personal pleasure and the occasional church group who wants us to give rides or if we hitch them to the fore cart and drive down the road every few days for exercise as well as the few shows we go to just for practice and the experience for both mares.

As for heavy, I have a set of leather w/brass fittings and dots on a work harness we use that is an older set of team harness. Yes, it can be a bit of a pain to get on the animal for me, I don’t have the upper body strength my husband has but I can do it. If I have a step stool it is even easier for me as I walk the hames up the back, setting everything else (the saddle and britchen) on the back, set my hames to the collar and work backwards. If this helps Trixie with her adversion to being touched on the chest, then it would be worth it.

[DraftDriver]

Carl, what a bunch of lovely animals you have! I have to say, they are well built, good looking, and easy on the eyes! Kids aren’t too bad either!

When we go to any public events, were usually who all the kids come to for rides as we will throw them up on the harness, tell them to grab the hames and lead them around. The smile is priceless for us!!

[DraftDriver]

I am on facebook…well our farm is….look up Grey Attanasio (Going Grey Farm) and you should find us…

[DraftDriver]

George…will check that out, thank you for mentioning it.

Drove them today on the fore cart and they stayed together, we don’t drive them with a hip check, but Trixie is lagging while Smoke is more forward. Some of it could be she is lazy and doesn’t want to pick up her pace when walking, though, if we trot, she is right up there and moving out nicely. Hmmm….

Thank you all for answering my questions, your answers are helping me out…as for plowing a field or setting them behind a disc harrow…nowhere around here I personally can do that. The local draft club does have plow days but I am not well received at the moment, long story as to why. So am figuring this out on my own…

Mitch..Smoke was Amish broke and trained then did time at a few different carriage services. She didn’t want to stand still, that is why she was sold several times before I bought her. I found, she LOVES to work and be in harness so I work her and she is happy to now stand for me when I ask, but you have to wear that energy down with 10 or 15 minutes of nice steady trotting. Trixie is not as polished as Smoke movement wise but she has heart and is calm and gives you an honest days work. She too loves to be in harness and when you drive her, her ears are always forward and she is eager to please. I had a pretty scary accident some years ago so it took me some time to get my trust back…these two mares don’t have a mean bone in their body and are good for me to learn to drive a 4 wheeled vehicle again.

[DraftDriver]

My 4 roll, sometimes simultaneously, one will go down, roll, then as they are getting up, another will go down, rather funny to watch. I know that mine roll to get the winter hair off, scratch an itch, after being worked, or just for the sheer exuberance of being alive.

A colic roll is a lot different than a normal roll. they will camp outward, ears back, look to the effected side, nostrils can be flared and wrinkled, stomach tight, flanks tucked up, etc. I have gotten good at spotting colic at the first signs and I will not wait, I pop the horse with 12cc of banamine that I always have at the farm, begin to walk them and call the vet immediately. I would rather pay the emergency call and vet’s time than hope I did the right thing and loose my animal.

[DraftDriver]

That is a really neat way to feed our herd or stock…thank you for sharing that. We feed round bales to save on our square bales right now and because I only have 4 horses, I unwind what I need, roll it up and throw it in the hay holders for the horses…usually takes me 4 trips as I have two hay holders.

Thanks for sharing.

[DraftDriver]

Alright all you strong men…don’t start laughing when I am done explaining. I grew up an only child, so many of my “friends” if you will were animals, horses in particular. The first time I met one of our neighborhood farmers, who later became close friends of our families, was when she looked out her farmhouse window to see this waif of a little girl sitting under her daughters horse in the field reading….that was me. I had no fear of them, they never hurt me, they never said cruel things, they were honest in their friendship and if you learn to read their cues and body language, you knew what they were “saying”.

My adopted dad (more of a close and beloved friend) taught me to ride when I was 10 and always said that he never worried about me when I was on a horse as I was so quiet, they listened to me and I had the hands that were quiet and easy on their mouth, I never jerked or yanked and he always told me, if your horse is acting up take a step back and evaluate the situation and what you both were doing when he did what he did, get into his mind. If your angry walk away as a horse doesn’t understand why YOU are angry.

Now, I have my team of Percherons. Smoke, my first draft mare, is very attuned to me and that mare would move mountains if I asked her to. I have been so humbled by that willingness to please, people who watch us say they can tell who is driving her, as I have let two people drive her ever since owning her and one will not touch those lines again (long story), but the other person, Bob, is much like me when he drives. He is quiet, he gives the command in a firm calm voice, never shakes or slaps the lines down on her back, and you can tell how much she loves her job. Trixie I am still getting to know but she is my steady eddy and prefers calm and quietness when putting harness on or working her, she needs a command she knows and if in a situation she doesn’t understand, looks to me.

I am humbled when I work these two together. I may not always get it right, but my life is enriched to know that these two mares, who could hurt me in a moment if they wished, listen and trust me to work with them. I have been angry and upset and as one said, they know. I think they read our body and how we hold ourselves, the tone of voice, our touch, then go from there. All my success is solely because of my two mares, not me. They make me look good because they trust me and I trust them. When I am working them, there is when peace truly comes to me…it is something that is hard to explain.

And in all honesty, I prefer Trixie and Smoke to many peoples company, as bad or rude as that sounds. I enjoy taking them out alone, trotting down the road, it is then when I am truly at peace with myself, that I feel I have done something worth while with my life.

[DraftDriver]

I have to say, when that woman got jerked off the seat I had hoped that horse gave her one in the kisser!! That kind of ignorant “training” has no place in what we do with our horses. I wonder if that animal will one day, in the RIGHT hands, be a calm, trusting horse between the shafts but for some reason I highly doubt it. That video was stupidity and ignorance at it’s best. Believe me, that is bad but I have seen ignorance like that in a draft club before when driving a team that had never been driven together before.

Just makes me love my Percheron team all that much more and thank whomever taught them to work and be honest when in harness. I would rather have a horse or draft who likes what they do than that. And people wonder why I like my equines more and more…….

[DraftDriver]

I worm every 4 months and have 4 horses to do, two of them Percheron mares so I have to use a tube and a half on each. I would rather be safe, spend a bit more money then wonder or question and potentially harm and/or kill my animal. Better to spend a bit more for wormer than spend money to dig a hole and bury a beloved animal……

[DraftDriver]

I am the same as you are Carl…when I am in the trailer I always put my mare Trixie on the side with the slide door as she will step over when I ask and tap her to get her attention as well as say her name. As I am going by, she keeps Smoke in place for me. My husband can put his arms up and they won’t smoosh him but me, I got caught between them once!!

In the stalls, if they are at the stall gate I can touch their chest and tell them back, which is their cue to back and let me in and not crowd me. I have even gone so far as to stand over the food till the animal got the idea of not crowding me, then counting to ten and letting them have the grain. My Quarter Horse gelding Terry was horrible about crowding and would slam me against the wall of the stall so I took a farriers nail in with me. He came rushing over as I went to feed him (he had several other issues too from being spoiled) so I would simply hold the nail where he would run right into it all the while ignoring him and doing what I was doing. Couple times of that and he stopped.

Being a woman, I am not as strong as a man so I personally rely more on voice commands than anything else. It has helped me a lot…

[DraftDriver]

Wow…I would love to see that set up in real life. How does it work compared to a normal set up harness and pulling? And working? I hope I am asking what I mean correctly. Does it put the pressure different since the way things are connected on it.

[DraftDriver]

I have both, biothane and leather harness. I use the biothane for showing, it does clean up nice and a bit of armoral on a clean cotton cloth and gone over, that harness shines and looks really nice. Light, easier for me to get up on a 17.2H Percheron by myself if I have to. All my collars are good leather and we keep those clean and nice too.

The leather though, as with what others said, I clean at least 2 to 3 times a year, go over it well, I love the smell and the feel of it and how it looks as well. Our harness is an older set, a friend figures it was made back in the 40’s, it is dark heavy leather with all brass dots and hames balls. When my husband takes a bit of brasso to the dots and hames balls, it does look sharp on the team in work classes and we have gotten compliments on the condition it was in. I got it off of a draft web site and paid $250 for the team set, lines, and everything that went with it, save the collars.

Our other set of harness is a biothane, leather set up that is nice, we wipe it down and ensure all is well but it isn’t anything fancy. Something to knock around our small farm with or play in the dirt so to speak.

But hands down, I love the leather the best. It is heavier and I do not have the strength to lift but I put the hames over then the saddle then the hip straps. I go from front to back, easier for me.

And could someone tell me or show me what a D ring harness is please?

[DraftDriver]

I have watched some set the lines down and walk away, the team stood there and went to sleep. However, with some, I know that they are in fear of moving from the harsh manner they were “trained”. Could I set the lines down and walk away from my team? Probably not.

And yes, other teams are worked all day, they are given breaks and they learn that when they stop and rest they had best do just that while I think others look to those small breaks and learn to relax and stay quiet. I am still learning and watching, seeing what works, what doesn’t work and what I will never do to my own.

To each his own. My humble opinion that works for me personally is that the more I work Trixi and Smoke, the better they get for me. I know Smoke inside and out, what makes her tick, what spooks her or when she is apprehensive. Trixi I am still learning the little things and her own personality but they are more responsive to me and when I have let others ground drive them, it hit me then that when they were given a command, same tension I would have on the lines, they didn’t move. I had to issue the command before they did anything. So I think that a team of horses becomes tuned to that driver…and it is a nice feeling.

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