[jac]

So does this mean George’s horses are working at more of a disadvantage than with a Swedish style set up ??

[jac]

Over on the “routine for work horse “thread is a great picture of George’s hitch cart set up for timber.. I notice the eveners are on top of the pole. This seems to create a flat angle of draft.. on the other hand I notice the shafts on Simons and Johns rigs have a very steep angle. Is there any difference in the actual draft on the horses between the 2 set ups ?? I usually hitch wagons, plows and mowers and setting up the draft angle is easy on these thing but dragging timber is clearly a lot different from the small amount of firewood my lot have to pull:D..
John

[jac]

Just as a matter of interest… what does “spammer” mean :confused: over here spam is a form of tinned meat ??? not that im implying we have a spammer on this thread of course but this is a draft animal site… unless someone has harnessed a cougar:D…..
John

[jac]

Jeremy I think each job is different regards routine. Haymaking, for example, can mean switching teams if you have the extra horses or more frequent rest periods if you only have one team.What I will say is that any feeding changes needs to be done slowly and feed as work increases and not in anticipation of work. If a horse has been working hard and fed accordingly and a day off on Sunday is planned for example, then I cut the grain down on Saturday night and dont increase again till mid day Monday…depending on the work load of course.. There is a lot of different ideas regards watering hot horses. I personally offer water often and never worry about a horse being hot. Let his breathing settle and even if the sweat is dripping you shouldnt have a problem. I recon if a horse is being chased in the wild and happens to stop next a river he will have a drink…Again every horse is different.. my old black gelding will never drink untill his work is done.. the bay gelding will drink every time… grain is a totally different issue. NEVER grain before water. Get this wrong and colic will be a real probability.We feed chopped hay and this slows them down from bolting their food…
John

[jac]

Hi Jeremy ,we have the same basic strategy as Bradbury..temps over here go down to -10 at most. Wet is our biggest enemy. If the weather is mild and wet I dont worry too much.. Cold and wet is a different issue. If the team has to stand at a job for any length of time in a cold wind I have quarter rugs to cover the kidney area. I never use rugs for turn out. I see so many horses with saturated rugs that have flattened the horses coat down and stopped the insulation properties of nature. If I bring the team in sweating hard after work and the weather is cold I place a layer of straw on their backs. This stops them cooling to fast and absorbs sweat at the same time..
John

[jac]

Hey Marshall its a transatlantic problem too… you are not alone buddy. With horses there is allways something needed “outside” before the house :o..
John

[jac]

Ahh.. memories indeed.. as a kid growing up in the 60s we spent a lot of time watching that show.. that and the Virginian:cool:..
John

[jac]

Hi Al.. some great fotos of a really usefull looking team..how many drafts do you run ?
John

[jac]

It can be a really fine line between puting forward you’re chosen way of working in a rational manner and appearing to “ram it down folks throat”..after all we dont want to end up as bad as some of the machine guys with the “ours is the best” mentality.. for what its worth I havnt seen one single job in Scotland done with big harvesters like the Timberjack that doesnt resemble a scene from the Somme…
John

[jac]

Thats a good point about the corporations Lancek… It has been that way over here since the 30s.. in fact if WW2 hadnt kicked off, horses would have been off the streets by 1939. A major newspaper.. Daily Express, mounted a campaigne to get rid of horses despite all the evidence that horses for delivery work was very profitable.. an interesting fact is that during the entire hostilities of WW2, the German army maintained a stable of around a million horses for supply lines and gun limbers.. Britains army on the other hand was completly mechanised by 1939..
John

[jac]

Sometimes I feel I gain more “kudos”.. {if thats the right word ?} if I just shut the hell up and get on with it.. it took a long time for the farmers on our road to accept the fact that I could get my hay done and done well using my team.. now they think its great.. I used to preach that horses were a truely viable option and got laughed at.. now I find a lot more folks are genuinely intersted and will come round to my idea… other point is.. do we want folk involved that only see horses as a tool ?..
John

[jac]

Hey Geoff what were you posting under over on the arborist site. If you only joined in Jan then I thot you made a damn good job of your post. . It does seem that the machine boys are a bit more agressive with their opinions than the horse loggers… but I suppose we who work horses need to be a bit more laid back generaly:cool:…
John

[jac]

Hey Scott , VAT is a Value Added Tax, currently at 20% and this gets added to goods and services. If you are vat registered you claim it back.. if not you’ve 20% more to pay for your stuff.. have to say its not helping in this reccession.. especially when some sob’s think its ok to keep you waiting 90 freakin days on your payment:mad:..
John

[jac]

Regards the compaction of horses versus tractors… the recovery time of animal tracked areas is a whole lot quicker than tractor tracks.. in fact a lot of areas never recover from tractors. I find it a pointless exercise to argue with folks in that mind set and I tend to carry on with what I do..
John

[jac]

Only problem with hooking straight to the tongue with a double tree is the old draft angle thing again. If the tongue runs low on the neck yokes so that the line of draft runs thru to the wheelers point of attachment then it should be ok, otherwise you end up with downward pressure again.
John

[Author]

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