[jen judkins]

That’s why I put the clarification on my statement…..driving a single horse. I get what you are triing to accomplish with your offset rein settings and it is an entirely different scenario. In your case, it probably helps the beginner driver get a feel for driving as the two horses are not so out of synch with each other.

I guess my point….for my horse…..is that if I need the lower setting, I am working on something….and that is between me and him.

In your case you are offsetting a tendency your mare has to exert a certain amount of control. You might need that offset permanently or you might find she settles to the expectation you originally had.

But I can’t comment on driving a team. I have so little experience.

[jen judkins]

One more comment, for what its worth. I think a teamster should earn the right to use a leverage bit. Green hands on a leverage bit, could take the try out of a good horse very easily. Thinking on my recent experience teaching people to drive….I would never let a novice drive my horse with the reins set on a leverage setting (as a single). If Reno were in the frame of mind to need the leverage, I would take him out of the teaching setting and work out the issue before letting novice hands on the lines.

[jen judkins]

@near horse 22265 wrote:

Straight/solid bar or jointed? Is there a benefit of one of those over the other?

Geoff, It would depend on the horses mouth and shape of their palate. In a horse with a fairly normal size tongue and arch to the palate, the two style snaffles are pretty equivalent…..pretty mild. For the horse with a shallow palate or large tongue, the jointed bit can cause pain, either to the palate (with the pointed joint) or pinch the tongue (known as the nutcracker effect). To avoid this effect, if you have a horse like this, is to go either to a french link, which has two joints or to a straight bit.

I’ve always ridden with a jointed snaffle. Never had any problems. When I bought a liverpool for Reno, I naturally gravitated to the jointed bit. This bit made him very agitated even when used in the snaffle setting. I switched to a mullen mouth (straight bit) and have not had a problem.

I’ll just say for the purposes of this discussion, I have never had any use for leverage bits in my riding horses. I have a few in my tack room, that I experimented with along the way, but never found them to be a good substitute for soft, educated hands applied with the proper focus.

I do find myself at a disadvantage driving however, as my only point of contact with my horse is through the lines (and with my voice). This has been a big adjustment for me, triing to refine the subtle use of rein pressure variations and release. I use a straight liverpool, just like the one Carl is speaking of. I use it at the snaffle setting without leverage 90% of the time. There are times though that I am acutely aware that I may need some leverage for training purposes….hooking on to a new piece of equipment or working in a distracting environment. In these cases I drop the setting down one notch until I am sure I have a good thing going, then set it back to the snaffle setting. It works for Reno and me. So whatever.:)

[jen judkins]

He flew back yesterday…or at least that was the plan. Maybe he didn’t make it through the security pat down:eek:

I’m sure he will turn up soon…

[jen judkins]

I think your bobsled was the highlight of the weekend. Certainly worth the extra effort to get it there. Thanks, Dan!:D

Except, I was hoping someone had got your ejection from the logs at the landing on film:eek:

[jen judkins]

It was indeed…a very good time. And timely…I feel alot of gratitude, right now. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

[jen judkins]

I don’t know, Ed…can’t find too much to criticize:p. Ozzie looks great and solid as a rock. At first, I thought….not sure that cart looks sturdy enough to hitch to, but you obviously know your horse well enough to make that kind of judgement.

I don’t get excited about a horse showing some concern about what’s going on around them as long as they can take their cue to stay calm from me, like Ozzie was, with you. Nicely done. Jen

PS…all that red was giving me a headache though:D

[jen judkins]

@Carl Russell 22042 wrote:

Bringing rain gear, and shod horses!!! I’m getting kind of sick of this sunny, warm, clear weather here anyway.

Yeah! Looks like winter is knocking on the door…..bring it on!

[jen judkins]

@Tim Harrigan 21881 wrote:

I was picturing a 6 month heifer with a calf down the road in 18 months or so, in the meantime pastured with a couple of horses with enough space to stay out of each others way. Maybe I pictured it wrong.

No. You pictured right. Thank you. Jen

[jen judkins]

As an update, Dolly appears to be settling in well. She touched my hand with her nose last night and remained in her stall while I cleaned up and fed her….very big steps in a few short days.

Now, of course, I am wondering if I really should dehorn her? Is it necessary? I’ve got people on both side of the aisle on the subject. I don’t think I’ve met a farmer who raised highlanders that dehorned. That said, my teamster neighbor feels all heifers who might be bred should be dehorned for safety reasons (for the calf as well as handlers), but I’m not convinced one way or the other.

My main concern is how she will use her horns a.)with the horses and b.) my nieces and nephews, who can be alittle silly around the barnyard.

Consider this a poll….dehorn or not???

[jen judkins]

Indeed….very nice to meet you and put the proverbial name to a face. Looking forward to working together in the future!

[jen judkins]

Thanks, Vicki, I think we ARE making progress in just a few days, so I’m reasonably optimistic that I am on the right track.

Oldkat, this is perfect! Just what I was looking for…thank you.

I spoke with Oxen Teamster and neighbor, Brian Patten, last night and he is gonna give me some help. I haven’t told him yet that I want to train her to drive a cart, lol. One step at a time…

[jen judkins]

@OldKat 21752 wrote:

If you only mean to be able to work around her; clean her pen, feed and water her etc then the process that Erika described will work fine. If for some reason you decide to halter break her, the part where she said to tie the calf up is the way to start that process as well.

Well, I’m not set up to ‘run’ cattle through shoots and such, so I kind of have to halter break her.

So what’s the best way to get a halter on a calf of this age? Just wrestle with her? Erika, you want to stop over on your way to LIF and show me how its done?:D

[jen judkins]

I don’t know, Gulo….Pinning this heifer seems like a huge feat! I hope it doesn’t come to that! Though if is comes down to me or her….you can bet I will win, lol:p

[jen judkins]

Rod, Have an appointment on the books for dehorning. It will be a matter of whether I have been able to get a hand and halter on this heifer to get that deed done…..but I wholeheartedly agree….given her propensity to lead with her horns.

Carl, Thank you. I was looking for someone to compare horses and cows somewhat…..and specifically what is different between them. That helps alot.

Tonight…sensing some of the extreme fear and agitation had worn off, I decided to play around with some spacial boundaries. I felt a 12 x 12 stall was too small a space to be safe with Dolly. So I closed off the barn aisle on both ends and simply open the door to her stall allowing her access to the barn aisle should she choose it. Then I went about my normal barn activities….mucking stalls, feeding horses, watering, sweeping, etc. I noticed her getting curious about the open door and thought….this is good. She was careful about maintaining space between us when I came near though. Finally I decided I needed to clean her stall (not really necessary, but as an exercise, proved useful). I entered as non-chalantly as I could…pitch fork in hand, moving circularly so as to be non confrontational. She left the stall as soon as I cleared the doorway, as I expected and found herself in uncomfortable but safe (from me) territory in the aisleway. I cleaned her stall, refreshed her water and diddled about for awhile while she watched from the uncomfortable end of the barn. As soon as I left her stall and approached her, she siddled around me to get back to her safe place in the stall (interesting how fast that happened).

I’m not sure yet, what I accomplished, but it felt like progress. There was at least, no charging or climbing of the walls:). It will be interesting to see if she can adjust to me being in the stall with her without her having to leave…which I think is my goal…at least in the short term.

Any input welcome and appreciated!

[Author]

Posts