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jen judkins
ParticipantOK, I’ll fess up…..Peanut and I had a wreck a week or so ago. I have to say that although I wish it did not happen, it was a hugely valuable lesson for me and probably was a necessary element to becoming a more serious teamster.
We were at Ted’s working on our ‘whoa’/stand/park and doing great! I was really feeling good about how Peanut was working in harness and the progress we were making together over a day or two. I guess I was feeling alittle cocky when I hooked Peanut to the manure spreader. A little voice in the back of my head said, ‘we should wait for Ted to be in the cart when we try this for the first time’, but I was over confident and turned the sucker on full tilt. I don’t even remember how we went from stopped to a full gallop and I don’t even remember being scared, just mildly surprised…until peanut started heading toward a big manure pile. I had no effective steering and I was simply triing to stay in the cart at this point, so up and over the pile we go. I managed to stay on the cart as we went over the pile, but the cart was really rocking on the down side and it hurled me out of the cart and onto my head (luckily on a nice soft grassy spot and not a rock:eek:).
Peanut apparently continued on around the field and back to the barn. He managed to squeeze between my parked rig and my firends rig parked 10 feet away with the forecart and spreader in tow without touching either vehicle. Boy was I happy to be unconscious for that! He made it back to a small paddock where he stopped…thankfully he never hit anything and was completely fine….physically.
Ted caught up to him and took him back out for a long while…while I recovered my memory, which took an hour or so. Then before I could remember enough to be afraid, Ted made me get back in the cart and drive the spreader around the field. Peanut, by then was SO over the spreader….it was just an exercise for me. The next morning we were back on the spreader and any other loud, noise making implement we could find and all went well. Not sure if Peanut was just used to the noisey stuff by then or if I was now suddenly prepared for action. It didn’t matter, we were both feeling more confidence as a team.
I’m most thankful that this happened at Ted’s place….in a reasonably controlled setting (fenced in, familiar, flat area…except for the manure pile:rolleyes:) and that he was there to make sure Peanut ended the exercise working in a calm and productive manner and to make sure I got back in the cart and completed the task. At home, the wreck might have been much worse…and I would have been in no shape to help Peanut….much less get up the gall to get back into the cart to work through the issue. So instead of having a wreck that simply created ‘fear’, we had an experience that has left both Peanut and myself more confident together as a team. That is really the true value of a mentor….putting things in perspective and maintaining focus.
My bruises and dizzy spells are clearing up, but my ego has a ways to go;). I went back and read through this whole thread this week. I remember reading it intently last year when it first developed as well. To be honest, though there seems to be tons of sage experience and useful information here in this thread, I don’t think reading about it can prepare you for a runaway situation…you just have to experience it and learn from it. I can tell you I will spend every second behind Peanut (and any other horse I drive) thinking about how to set myself and my horse up to succeed. I’ll pay more attention to his state of mind and be more consistent with my leadership. I don’t expect to have another runaway, but I don’t think I will be too complacent any time soon.
ParticipantEd, Its not really about the oats, but about getting rid of the sweet feed. You could feed corn or barley as well….oats are just simpler to get and pretty cheap. You could add a cup of black oil sunflower seeds which will add some fat without the excess energy as well. Both the oats and the BOSS are readily available at any feed store.
In regard to supplements, I use (and sell if you are interested) Dynamite products. Penwoods is another good supplement alot of draft people like.
ParticipantHe looks alittle ribbier than I like my horses to be….some of that is just preference. You could go up on the hay abit…my drafts were eating nearly a bale of hay a day each this winter and neither is fat. I agree with Rod, skip the sweet feed, especially with the jittery behavior you were describing earlier this spring. Some oats when you work him and a good all purpose vit/mineral mix should be fine. Is he on pasture this summer?
ParticipantNice photos, Rod. Maybe you should add your safety tips to Jean’s safety thread. I always wondered why I felt safer going by scarey stuff at the trot. I guess the momentum keeps things going straighter. Interesting.
Participant@Jean 9214 wrote:
Lets think about safety first.
You weren’t thinking of anyone specifically, were you??:eek:
ParticipantOMG, That’s awesome!
Participant@Donn Hewes 9179 wrote:
Hi Jen, Just out of curiosity, when you headed up to Ted’s last week you hoped to work on the whoa, witch was needing some work. Did you mean stopping when you asked or standing after stopping? The reason I ask is because we have been mixing our terms a little and I just wanted to see what you were working on.
Good question and I agree there is a difference. To be honest, my concern was, that when I said the word ‘whoa’, nothing happened unless I used the reins and then when I was effective with the reins, Peanut would constantly fidgit, requiring me to constantly correct him from going sideways or backwards or pawing or whatever. So I guess I wanted to work on both.
But the concept is similar, I think. Peanut just never knew that standing still in harness was valuable. When we were harrowing and I said ‘whoa’, he stopped before the word had left my mouth…no line pressure and no correction from me…and that is what I was looking for. That stop simply lead to standing and to park. I’ll include a photo courtesy of Jean Cross.
Participant@Plowboy 9160 wrote:
Looks like you might be turning a little “Old School” :).
Well, Dennis, I’m nothing but a pragmatist…if it works and my horse is happy, so am I. I don’t have enough time in my life to be ineffective with it.:D
Had to laugh at the image you inspried, of Peanut someday being the horse I hook the youngsters to. I hope this forum is still here when that day comes so I can brag about it too.:p.
ParticipantCongratulations, Dennis…Big daddy!
Participantyeah, Donn, if I were to ever have a mule, it would be a percheron cross…
ParticipantComing to this thread late, but certainly an interesting read…
I’ll just throw in my recent experience with Peanut to agree with both Jason and Carl. I spent 3 days with Ted Russell at his place last week. My main goal, besides getting some help starting to pull heavier and noisier loads with Peanut, was to develope our ‘whoa’, which has been pretty much non-existent, so far. He’ll be 3 next month and I admit I still sort of treat him like a baby and have not done any hard work with him at all.
Ted hooked us to a springtooth harrow, a pretty heavy one and set us to work. It didn’t take but two turns around the small patch of dirt for Peanut to find ‘Park’. It was incredibly obvious to me that the load was essential to start teaching this and that without it, ‘whoa’ had no meaning to Peanut. By the end of an hour, I could park Peanut, get out of the cart and fiddle with the harrow or have a conversation with a bystander whithout him even thinking of moving. I lengthened the time we stood still to 20 minutes or so without any problem over a couple of days.
In the mornings, when he was fresh and without a load, his ‘whoa’ deteriorated abit so I know now that we really need to start doing work regularly to get the ‘park’ mode solidified for him. It doesn’t happen in a weekend, but in regular, consistent work. That is gonna be a significant challenge for me, but it has to happen.
ParticipantThanks, guys. The collar IS indeed too big for him now. It is adjustable, but I bought it with his growth in mind, not his shrinkage, lol! It will probably be ok….he is only 3. I know a pad isn’t meant to fix an ill-fitting collar, but I think I will try to get by with one of those vinyl pads, before buying a new collar….unless the problem gets worse.
ParticipantWelcome, Northplow! I truly enjoyed your website and the videos. Watched them all with my morning coffee. I can read a few words of swedish, so I enjoyed reading without the translation, though I am sure I did not know enough to benefit from them. I look forward to hearing hore from you.
ParticipantI was gonna start my own thread about this…but seeing as you are already discussing it…:p
I have a 3 bin set up for my manure..each 10 x 10…with removable 4 foot walls. I put the 20 lb piglets in the first bin…full to the top and in 2 weeks thay had that composted good. I moved them to the two other bins (middle wall removed) 3 weeks ago. Bigger area for them (and I had to run a hot wire around the top), but they are loving it! They burrow and play and when it gets cold at night…they bury themselves in compost…yaaaaaay! The local farmers market is on my case to sell composted manure….we might have a product here.
Go, animal powered composting! Can we have our own heading?
Participant@Michael Colby 8681 wrote:
Jean, I’d love to see more photos of the horses that sold. I had to leave early and only got to see a couple of horses go through. I’m particularly interested in the gorgeous and quiet Belgian that was only trained to ride (six-year-old?) and the 10-month-old Belgian that was already hooked to a cart. Also, which horse fetched the $2800?
QUOTE]I was watching for the big belgian gelding as well…he would have made a nice match for Peanut….but his owner backed out of the sale and he never made it into the ring. The youngster did not sell. Reserve wasn’t met. The bids for horses were quite sad, really.
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