[grey]

My firewood handling regimen is terribly inefficient. They say that firewood is the fuel that heats you twice. Mine heats me about five times. I’ll be paying attention to the ideas and advice in this thread.

[grey]

Near horse has some uploaded some great photos from this year’s event in the gallery.

[grey]

Now, see? We just don’t get deals like that out here. 🙁

[grey]

If the onset of this problem was literally between one bridling and the next, with a different handler in between, I’d suspect he’s pulling one over on you. Somehow I had it in my mind that he had given you trouble over bitting or bridling once upon a time, a while back.

Has he had his wolf teeth removed while in your ownership? If not, have you checked for them?

I guess if it were my horse, I’d put his halter on and work with him like that for a while. First get him to drop his head and take the halter on and off a few times. Then stick your fingers in the corners of his mouth, reach past the bars and fiddle with his tongue. Get him to open his mouth and try to evict you. No bit, no bridle. Just play with his mouth. Look at his teeth, feel around on his tongue, stuff like that.

After he’d gotten soft about my fussing with his mouth, then I’d put his bridle on (with no bit) and play with his mouth some more until I could do it without him trying to lift his head to evade. Then maybe if I wasn’t entirely out of patience I’d try putting a rope in his mouth a few times before I tried putting the bit in.

[grey]

It’s okay, your horse just had a little setback. Horses don’t automatically trust all humans, just because they have come to an agreement with one particular fellow (you). If a team is going to be used by another teamster, the team needs to negotiate separately with that person. Different teams have different requirements of a teamster. Sounds like your team has very particular criteria and negotiations did not result favorably for that other person.

I have a horse that anyone with a modicum of skill can drive. I let others halter her, harness her, ground drive her, ride her, lead her, undress her. She’s a good and patient teacher. However, I do not let anyone else put her collar on or bridle her. She and I have come to an understanding about this and I’m okay with it. If I had a lot of students coming through it might be different. But the way things stand now, it’s just better if I do it

What did you do to resolve his bridling problem the first time?

[grey]

Geoff,

Bummed I couldn’t make it to Wilson Creek… our antique housecat had to go to the vet.

How often does someone else harness or bit up your team?

[grey]

That’s great about the chickens! You must have customers that appreciate the value of real food. Many small chicken outfits (small outfit, not small chickens) throw in the towel when they try to market their product to people who usually buy their chicken for $5, hot and ready-to-eat at the grocery store deli. That sort of consumer sees any *raw* chicken as a value-removed product and want it priced accordingly.

[grey]

I find that a check (I use a sidecheck) drastically cuts down on the amount of extracurricular fussing about that my horses try to engage in. Sometimes I let it out for working and shorten it while standing for long periods. Often, however, I disconnect it entirely when working and only clip it up while standing.

I never allow them to eat in harness, unless it is in a nose bag. The nose bag presents a specific situation that I feel allows them to fully understand and compartmentalize the exact time and place in which it is permitted to eat in harness.

I don’t like to tie solid to something in front of harnessed horses because it gives them a target against which to pit their boredom. I prefer it if they stand free, whenever possible.

I do sometimes hobble my very “busy” horse, especially if I have to get down in a vulnerable spot and clear a jam or work on something. That particular horse just doesn’t seem to be able to put her brain entirely in neutral unless the hobbles are on. She is a very sensitive horse; eager to please and is always ready for the smallest cue that I might give. Putting the hobbles on is the only way she can really relax while standing hitched.

I have an antique hiching weight that is a good 20lbs but I have never used it. On the rare occasion that I feel the need to tie my horses by their heads/mouths, I have always somehow managed to find an easier and more convenient way to do it…. a way that DOESN’T involve lugging a 20-lb chunk of iron around, securing it to the vehicle so it doesn’t slide around, removing it from the vehicle, attaching it to the horse, etc.

[grey]

When I have a problem that seems to come out of left field, I try to break the situation down into its basic components and try to figure out what the real issue is so I can treat it with precision.

When you go to ground-drive this horse, is it in a closed bridle? When you lead him, is it in an open halter? If so, the sticking point may have to do with the horse not being comfortable with restricted vision or with noises coming from his blind spot.

Can you tie him up somewhere with his closed bridle on and work around him? Make noises behind him, jingle his heel chains, scuff the ground with your feet? If any of this makes him uncomfortable, work on getting him used to sounds that come from sources he cannot see.

You could try driving him in an open bridle to see if that is a sticking-point for him but after two runaways, you need to approach your ground driving from a different angle. Note that I dont think that he should necessarily be excused from driving in a closed bridle – I just feel that temporarily driving him in an open bridle might help you pinpoint what it is that needs to be worked on.

Next time you go to ground drive him, do it in an enclosed area where he cannot run clear away from you and cannot mingle with other animals. When it comes to horses breaking away and running from you, once can be a fluke, but twice or three times? Now you’re looking at a bad habit. You need to arrange it in such a way that he can’t get away again. Each additional time he manages to escape and run away is another week -MINIMUM- of extremely careful, high-alert driving that will be necessary on your part to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

Aside from what is worn on his head, is there anything else that you do differently when ground-driving versus leading him? You didn’t have his heel chains dangling, weren’t dragging the evener, weren’t taking a different path/route? He was wearing his full harness in both instances? You used the same voice commands / cues when ground driving and when leading?

[grey]

I have two lengths of butt rope in my arsenal; the long one that I use when I’m expecting trouble from a green team and the short one I use when I’m letting someone else ground drive my broke team. The long one has bull snaps at either end and I snap those into the lower outside hame rings, pass them through one outside breeching strap on either side to keep them from sagging too badly. My shorty butt rope just has a couple of nice beefy brass trigger snaps and I clip them to the inside britchen dees, just to ward off trouble of the inside-out variety.

[grey]

I’d put a butt rope on the team and then just drive em a lot. The butt rope should be long enough to go from one horse’s outside hame, around behind both horses and up to the other horse’s outside hame. Keep an eye on that one horse and make sure there isn’t something about the harness fit and adjustment that is making it uncomfortable.

[grey]

@goodcompanion 25424 wrote:

Also, on the second one, it looks like the angle of the sides can be adjusted somewhat with those iron rings and hooks, that would allow the sides to be supported lower down on those poles that connect to the hubs?

But only on the front, for some reason. I’m not quite sure what’s going on there.

[grey]

I got mine at the local Ace. Galvanized, like the one in Carl’s link.

[grey]

I’d have to stick to simple straight lines.

[grey]

It’s an elegant design, but far exceeds my meager carpentry skills.

[Author]

Posts