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Ack, spring links! I’m allergic to those things!

Besides their propensity to admit and then retain the odd strap or ring at just the wrong moment, they have little resistance to torque.

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A Travelette? or a Wagon master?

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This is a great idea for a thread. The International Harvester truck club I belonged to did the same thing – post heads-up of items of interest for sale on Craigslist.

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OldKat, A raised floor is typically used with tie stalls in order to achieve a particular desired slope, causing the urine to run out of the stall rather than puddle in the middle.

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That’s a good description, Julie. That’s essentially how I do it as well, except that I place the hames ahead of the collar, with the top hame strap resting on the horse’s neck. I find that, for me, the hames stay put a little better while I toss the rest of the mess up and over. Also, if the horse should dip his head, the collar is less likely to slide down, trapped as it is by the hames.

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Make sure you use a butt rope so they can’t turn inside-out.

Hitch in a quiet place that is familiar to the horses and is free from obstacles and distractions.

Hitch to something heavy and strong and make sure you’ve got a path in mind and plenty of “runway” in case the 2 brains in front of you decide to go a little farther and faster than you’d planned.

As far as preparing yourselves or the horses, it sounds like you’ve done about all that can be done prior to the first hitch.

Just keep in mind that there are 4 brains and 4 personalities in the mix here. The horses can get used to having 2 different drivers and 2 different sets of commands, but it probably won’t go as smoothly or progress as rapidly as if they only had 1 driver. Maybe only one guy should do any talking or driving for the first several hitches?

I do love to work a single horse and often attend events where I am the only one not working a team. This inevitably leads to occasionally adding my one to someone else’s two and making a three. Or splitting a team and adding one to mine.

If one or both of the two horses considers itself an alpha, you could have a little more trouble than if they were both middle-of-the-herd in personality. I shouldn’t call it “trouble” because I doubt it will severely impact their ability to get work done, but it can add some “static” in the communication between the driver and the horses.

Some horses try to get the rankings sorted out straight away, particularly the mares. You didn’t mention the genders of the two horses involved. Any time you add a mare, you are more likely to be dealing with issues of rank. Not to say that it will always be an issue, or that geldings don’t care about rank. Just that, statistically, mares will be more interested in social standings.

The horse I usually work single is pretty full of herself when it comes to social standings. She’d try to assert her dominance with a new temporary team-mate unless I bark at her to be polite. They can set aside their differences and hold off on the pecking-order crap for a while in harness, but the question of which of the two horses is boss will always be there in the back of their minds till they get it sorted out. This is easiest if the customary owner/handler/driver of the more dominant horse is the one driving the team. If you can pasture the two animals together for a while so they can get the rankings settled, that can help a lot. Needless to say, if they are stalled close to one another, you will get the ol “team spirit” quicker.

If one is significantly crankier than the other, a jockey stick will keep him from biting at or intimidating his team-mate till they can get things sorted out on their own time.

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A D-ring harness is a sidebacker harness, but not all sidebacker harnesses are D-ring. Clear as mud? 😮 I sometimes say sidebacker when I mean D-ring. It’s not correct, though.

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As Carl said, those hame clip swivels are not intended to be helpful in any way while the harness is on the horse. It is to keep the traces from bending and kinking when you hang the harness up in the barn. When in use on the horse, the traces should be 90 degrees to the hames, so the swivel wouldn’t be helpful there.

I understand what the seller is telling you the clips are for, but it is a misconception.

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Some English agricultural implements are foreign in shape and design to my American-trained eye. What is that single-horse implement following the plow at the end of the film? A seed drill?

I love seeing the single horse working in heavy shafts. Wish there were some better shots of the cart saddle in use.

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There are definitely different qualities of chrome plating. I have some chrome-plated garbage that started rusting within the first year. The other real variable of course is chrome-plated what? If the base metal under the chrome is ferrous, a scratch in the chrome plating will allow the corrosion of the base metal.

I much prefer stainless hardware to chrome-plated anything, be it trace clips or heel swivels and chains.

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Y’know, they might manage to muddle through with this horse, despite their ignorance. Notice at the end, how the horse is standing and observing the aftermath of the wreck? She seems to be fairly level-headed, if a little sensitive-skinned.

If they had used the proper equpiment (a sturdy harness, properly adjusted) and had densensitized the animal even a little a bit first, this wreck probably wouldn’t have happened. There may still have been a few airs above ground, but they probably would have had a much more successful hitch, even with their obvious lack of knowledge and horsemanship skills.

They still may get this horse driving, but it won’t be because they know what they are doing. It will be because of the resiliency of the horse.

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Yeah, haynets are okay once in a while, but horses need far less dentistry (sometimes none at all) if they eat off the ground, where their jaw aligns the teeth properly. Eating off the ground also helps keep the eyes and sinuses clear of particles, resulting in less coughing and fewer respiratory problems.

EDITED TO ADD: WHOOPS! That was not clear at all. I meant “eat off the ground” as in “this floor is clean enough to eat off”. I did NOT mean “eat off the ground” as in “eat up off the ground”.

Horses should be eating at ground level, not above ground level. Their teeth only align properly (and thus wear evenly) when eating in the grazing position.

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I think that there are a lot of ways that humans regularly and habitually (innately?) relate to one another that are counter-productive to having a good working relationship with horses. Frankly, a lot of those behaviors are counter-productive to having a good working relationship with people as well, but they exist nonetheless. It is those behaviors, methods and practices that I feel a good teamster should work on identifying and shedding.

Horses naturally communicate a certain way. We, however, often have to consciously work to achieve the same type of communication.

I’m not trying to say that this more efficient way of communicating with horses belongs solely to the horses, or that horses have cornered the market on it. It’s just that when you are striving to improve your communication with horses, you’ll have a clearer understanding of what it is you are striving for if you observe their natural inclinations.

I think those natural inclinations would be ours as well, were it not for all the “civilization” that gets in the way.

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Now, through the miracle of technology, we can know exactly what these folks were thinking….

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If I approach my horse feeling pity for putting her in a position I know she will not enjoy (paste deworming day, for instance), she will feel that softness in me and translate it as a lack of firmness and resolve. She will rebel and act up, hoping that I will relent and not follow through with the unpleasantness. I have to steel my resolve and go into the task with a firmness of spirit that says, “And now we will do this until it is done.”

This particular mare of mine will take advantage of any softness and make you regret ever having felt it. One needn’t be mean with her, just firm. I think that the softness actually disgusts this horse. She is on the top rung of the social ladder and has no respect for a soft spirit who tries to tell her what to do.

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