[Jean]

I had to let his driving harness out several holes both front and back this spring, so perhaps he will grow into the D-ring this year.

Jen, what do you have for a driving harness? I bought one for Kruiser, for his road cart (speed/death trap), but it is too small for him. I don’t think I can use his D-ring, because the traces will not hook to silly little thing that the driving harness would have. I think I will sell the cart at the auction, but would like to try it to make sure it is not for us. Who knows maybe I would enjoy having him pull me at warp speed down the road.

Anyway, I would love to see Peanut in his “driving harness”.

Oh, Kruiser and I had a good day on Saturday. I went out with him and my husband. I am not sure what I was more nervous about me doing something wrong with Kruiser, or him jumping out of the cart at the slightest sign of trouble. Needless to say I gabbed at Kruiser the whole time. At one point (we have this on video, which I don’t think I will share), I actually said to him “Haw” (we really did need to take a sharp left turn), but then I said to him “good haw”! Well no kidding lady, we are still on the trail, if it had not been a good haw, we would have been in the woods! I could not believe how much chattering I was doing when I listened to the video. What a powerful tool the video camera is.

Jean

[Jean]

I have only ground driven my mare, and she was a horrible spinner in the beginning. I would get all tangled up. Someone suggested that I stop driving her with the lines over her butt, but on her side. I find that easier to do that if I take the time to put her whole harness on and use the rings in the hames, rather then just using a sircingle that would slip around when she spun. She still tries to spin, but does not get very far because I can offset it with the lines on her side. She is barn sour and will only walk a straight line if we are headed back to the barn, or to the gate. It will take a lot of time and work to get her to move nicely, but at least I have I that one “trick” to keep her from spinning around to face me.

[Jean]

Kristan, I have gotten that at Guys in Williston. I used it on rain rot and some other mystery gunk on the mini’s last year.

I don’t remember how much it cost.

Jean

[Jean]

One of my horses has an infection in his frog on both front feet. He is not lame, just a bit tender when I pick them out. I have been treating him with the cow medicine Tomorrow. It is helping, but with the mud, it is hard to keep ahead of it.

Good luck.

Jean

[Jean]

Plowboy, Point taken!! Kruiser and I are going to make this work! I am so happy that it is light still when I get home from work.

[Jean]

I am just starting to ground drive my team of minis. I did not put any thought into which side they were on. It was just the way there were standing when I attached the lines. I like the idea of switching them around. I will have to pay attention the next time, so I will know that I am switching.

[Jean]

Hi Linda, I don’t know what part of CT you are in, but there is a great group of draft people in the Eastern CT Draft Horse Assoc. All that I have met have been open and willing to help. Check out their website. They have a wonderful place to hold meetings and do a lot of activities with their drafts.

Welcome to the board.

Jean

[Jean]

Donn, I love the suggestions.

I can’t wait to try them. Kruiser is the first horse I have ever done any round pen kind of work with. As you can see I am not very relaxed in my position. You have given me some great ideas and I think that we will both benefit from them. Because Kruiser has been known to come at me with his front feet (the example in the video is much improved from our first attempts) I think I over do my commands. In the beginning of our relationship he would get me cornered at the mini’s barn and strike at me. I sent him away for professional help (me too) after that and I can now worm or clean his feet without restraining him. I can also walk him calmly and respectfully on a lead, in the early days he pushed me all over the place.

He does look to me and I take that as a good sign. I too would love to see him do some work around here. I have a small manure spreader that I bought to go on the back of the forecart, he should be pulling that!

I am on vacation next week, I think Kruiser and I will have some fun together.

Thanks for your insights.

Jean

[Jean]

Jen, that is great news about Reno. Good job!!

Love the work on the little guy Spirit too.

[Jean]

Donn, I appreciate your words.

Here is what I learned, I have enough time with this horse to not totally freak out when he does something like this and once I get him back under control I can keep holding the lines. I have had him a year and because of some good peoples attempt of telling me about him I heard more bad stories then good. So I have been expecting something like this. He has pulled similar things on the ground when he has had enough, I have posted a video showing some of that.

Prior to his last outburst on Sunday I did bring him down to a walk every time he picked up speed without me telling him to. I would ask him to trot later. I can not see a time that I would ever ask him to go any faster then a trot, just because of his sillyness. But who knows last year I did not think I would ever dare trot him, so we have advanced.

I do need to learn to watch for when he is tired and when he is getting geared up. He seems to like being out, his ears are up all the time, his body language is telling me that he is excited, but he has always (until Sunday) been easy to calm down. Having said that, Cathy and I were chatting a lot and normally I am talking more to him then to the person with me.

See what happens when I am up early, the chores are done, fire wood is in, dogs are fed and I have had my first cup of coffee.

Here is the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM91CFOHYCk

[Jean]

Here is the sign up sheet if anybody would like to plan early.

Jean

[Jean]

My Canadian has a hard time with holding his back feet up due to an old injury. I try to let him work out the kinks and when he has found the best spot I work on it then. Sometimes it takes two lifts before we get it. Once we have found the spot he will stand for as long as I need him to.

[Jean]

Hi Sam,

I worked during the summers when I was young at Putney School in Vermont. This is a private high school. They have a farm program that the students work at during the year and new students come up for 2 weeks in the summer to get introduced. If you want to see city kids out of their element be there for the 2 weeks, most did not understand that milk in the store actually came from the udder of a cow.

Anyway, they do hire some staff for farming while school is not in session. I learned how to drive, maintain, get stuck with and get unstuck with tractors. We fenced, hayed and do all the chores for the dairy barn.

They supplied me with a cabin to live in and plenty of food to eat.

Best darn job I have ever had.

Anyway my point is there are ways to get experience that might not cost you a ton of money.

Good luck.

Jean

[Jean]

I am not trying to hijack this thread, but I have some questions about plow days, or plow competitions.

I have been trying for 2 years to get a plow day, or maybe a competition going and have not had any luck. The first thing I have tried to find is a place to hold it. My land is really heavy clay that is either too wet or too dry and hard. Maybe that is not really an issue, someone must have plowed this land by horse at some point in time. Is clay a reasonable soil to plow?

The other is, if it were a competition do teamsters except to make money if they win, or is a hardy pat on the back and and a winners trophy enough?

Any ideas would be wonderful. All of you Green Mountain Draft people, any interest in such a thing?

[Jean]

I picked up a brochure on how to compost animals on the farm at a farm show in Barre VT a couple of weeks ago. Not a happy thought, but sure beats a lot of other options. I will keep it filed until the day I need it.

[Author]

Posts