[karl t pfister]

some horses that work well together don’t always feed peacefully , how strong is the pecking order at mealtime ? I know a fellow that lost a horse feeding while hooked .a broken leg , it was a new to each other team, I think it is an unusual pair that would get into serious trouble . Would it be possible to pack the hay bags on the landing and take them into the woods where you could unhitch and give them each space to eat and relax . they sometimes can be crazy creatures . good luck karl I would agree with jason’s statements as to treats and water hydrate them and leave the forget the treats

[karl t pfister]

Jean ,,Wow a close encounter of a third kind ,they do come for a reason .Back in march did you have some trouble with him leaping into a gallop for a few strides ? Sometimes holes in training show up in very strange places and times , inexplicable ? We probably need a Sherlock Holmes at times . Did you mention also that some folks had some less than positive things to say about him before you got him , subtracting 10 to 50% for exzageration ,What did they say ? Please don’t take any of this personally , these are difficult Questions for all who try to be the better leader . When we get horses with “a history” we never know the horses whole story .THis is where the screw loose theory sometimes is brought up, when things get too close to seeming like the other “really scary ” thing that happened the horse panics and tries to take back his control or at least repeat a solution that they tried before in a bad situation. All indeed complicated by physical problems I never heard of EPSM. Good Luck I hope the best .

[karl t pfister]

jean did you get to hear any of the description of the j d ground drive baler you have pictured in your nice album of the horse progress days? karl

[karl t pfister]

Hay Donn It looks great, you have thought of a lot of nice things . the siding pole is simple and strong . Is it 24 hp honda diesel or gas ? Have you figured what you have into it ? Karl great photos too.

[karl t pfister]

i use sisal on a 327 J D pto kicker baler , using 9000 ft twine. a few years ago there were terrible quality control issues , somtimes the twine was almost half the diameter making it much weaker and giving the knotters fits ie slipping thru .The company replaced the bad ones ,but not the time we spent fussing around and rebaling broken bales . You’d get 1/3into a bale of twine and it would just start breaking bales when it had not missed one in 3 wagons . ?. The knotters need to be adjusted for diameter size twine you are using . Bale chamber tension “clamps relate to twine only in that you can’t make monster bales with skinny sisal twine , I have heard you can get away with skinnier poly than sisal not sure why but never have used poly except on round balers . hope that helps a little it’s only my opinion karl

[karl t pfister]

I saw a man once who drove a pair of horses with gee ,haw, whoa and walk on ,they went a lot more like oxen than horses, he held the reins with very little contact , it worked for him. I long ago thought it might be fun to start my team with OK , well ok comes up in conversation alot more than I would have thought ,at least on sleigh rides,with unexpected starts ,not fun. I ‘m going to work on gee in the stall and gee hooking up and gee going laterally while hooked and haw etc , its all about movement in one direction not involving forward or back.I already have it but don’t call it the same thing .I do agree they will turn you off if you micromanage them …

[karl t pfister]

wow Rod ! well done ! A poet, farmer, engineer with more on his mind than what the manure spreader put there .Karl Landgrove ,vt .

[karl t pfister]

I have had 2 stallions 1/st age 7 got the 2/nd at 4mo. turned the younger in with his to be mentor right away . they were great together , had them at a barn 1/8 mile from the main farm .very simple took the elder to the breeding barn in the spring 3 years leaving mike the younger with a couple gelding who kept him in line. Field bred mike at 2yo ?at that barn , then broke him at 3 and worked him 2 years , keeping him in a paddock with bred mares and back with geldings in the offseason . Those 2 years the studs were together at the remote barn were happy ones for them both .and mike was good in the mare paddock of course , can not imagine keeping a stallion separate from all horses except for breeding times .solitary confinment I’d call it .just some random thoughts .

[karl t pfister]

Hello unexpected things sometimes make um jump , here is one, 3 traces hooked on a sled snow comes off a barn 15 ‘ behind us they jump , I jump on , out the barn yard and down the road in a flash, I grabbing reins , no just the left one , a dog is running and barking.. it’s on the left . I just work the rein a bit and say “easy whoa ” they know I ‘m with them all is not right tho ,they’re slowing their gate to the pasture is coming up they missed it . We are stopping ? no ! there goes the yoke off the end of the pole, a horse is down , he is up again , all is stopped , the yoke is broke . I unhook ground drive back to the barn ,everyones breathing is normal ? none seems hurt , get the other yoke , back to the sled in the road . They hook up fine they stand like always ,still,” ok boys walk on ” I drive the 1/4 mile to the Inn , horses feel fine no off steps , I pick up the people do the hour loop ,” thank you ” What did I learn ? buckle reins together before hooking be aware as Carl was saying when stuff is happening be the calmest leader you can be. Other things yes head uphill but more important don’t focus for a second on places you don’t want to go , that mass of old farm equip etc. focus on them slowing stopping with all you can even more than bracing against the reins. Pull and release the reins aternating , try to make a circle . After a week of prefect ground driving that real deal auction horse she took me on a wild ride that I lived thru , with starting a turn by throwing one rein away and working the other hand over hand till I turned off the road to the main drag tractor trailers etc. Sometimes you can hang with them othertimes not .I agree effective communication every step is the goal , but if they leap and you lose it for a step or twenty all may not be lost , the more time driving you get the more you see the potential for it going bad before and in a second or two change it all and everyone comes home safe with only a little heavy” breathing ” .

[karl t pfister]

Bachelor, Phew the plastic is a hugh issue ! They tried once to get it to recycle had to be clean ?? Understand another effort is coming .So many problematics , time , storage move the equvalent of 12 bales at a time leave them outside then move to the paddocks in the fall with the teams or later on sleds . Stacking square bales in the mow 100 degrees no help . I heard it happens in California when it rains on their open stacks of hay horses die from Botulism too. Thanks karl

[karl t pfister]

hello to the debate, I have been feedingWRPs wrapped round bales 4×4 1000 lbs for 12 years no problems ,known some to have lost horses and cattle both , but considering the numbers of WRBs fed now ? At one time I was fedding almost 300 a year to up to 40 horses , now we feed only one group, out of 5,up to 5 in the group . Did do shots in the past but not for a while . Questions to me are ! who is in that group ? older hard keepers overfeeding is a big question with freechoice feeding always! worse the better the feed. We did surprisingly well with august made 1/st cut , no protein lots of chewy made right ,no mold etc.We were haying 200ac as far away as 10 miles . phew that era is over now it’s 100ac in a mile , but still it’s nice make WRBs, the weatherman meant to say 3 days of showers but said 3 good days coming instead . That happened to us in so. VT . It amazing how late in the process we have changed gears and made good haylage. We are able to not feed some to the horses and give it to the beefers ,but do find myself some times feeding a freechoice group after the last sleigh ride 11:00 ? How picky are you when tired ? I like to keep the ones on it on it all winter and not ask their guts to change microbes fast and to start them before going into hard work ie Christmas week doing 2 weeks straight 6-8 hours of rides a day, 1 problem to deal with at a time, they give us so much , I like to be a good team mate ,over the years I’ve seen some good horses die in various ways it’s never easy and I hope none go because of feed I made ,farming with horses is not easy but would it be good if it were easy.?karl so. VT

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