[LaNette]

Mule deer were rarely seen on my place in the late 1990s. I don’t know if it was a combination of successive droughts and record number hot summers or a change in the natural vegetation on the surrounding BLM land. After the explosion in housing development to the east of me began, the number of deer increased as well (it would seem counter-intuitive but that’s what happened). To wake up in the morning and see the amount of damage to both crop and ornamental plants by hungry deer was shocking as it was disheartening. Here in New Mexico, we can go through a process and get “permits” for shooting crop destroying deer. Locally, our game warden is somewhat lenient on the conditions set forth on what qualifies as shootable deer. I understand in the Northern part of the state the wardens are far more particular in their interpretation of the requirements. Last I heard this law was going to be taken from the books and substituted with a damage payment fund (excepting ornamental plants).

My hay farmer friends are adamant about being able to shoot their problem deer. For me I never saw how that was going to work since the deer only came onto my property at night. The wind always blows here so you can’t hear them either.

A few things I’ve experimented with are the various smell deterents people suggested (carcass excepted). But those didn’t work for me. The motion detector squirt gun devices do okay but have to be checked every day in case of water leak (water is too valuable here in the arid southwest to waste) and isn’t too practical outside of a small plot area (at one point it was just easier to fence off the garden than use the squirt gun).

To date, my most successfull deer deterent (other than deer fencing) is Charlie the Jack Russell. It took some doing but I got him to chase the deer off my property (while getting him to come back when he reached the end of the property line). Putting a bell on his harness really cranked up the scare factor too. So now he night patrols for deer. Its not fool proof and I hope he doesn’t get killed by coyotes but for now I’ve had good success.

[LaNette]

I use the Roswell Seed Company out of Roswell, NM. They will be printing their 107th annual spring catalog in 2010. Not too many companies in this part of the world can boast having been established since 1898. Their selection is primarily customized to this region however.

[LaNette]

I have used mink oil on leather goods (non-horse stuff) and its hard to beat for softening and weather-proofing leather. Around here though, its the most expensive thing you can use. That goes for olive-oil too. Perhaps these items aren’t so pricey where they’re manufactured?

I was introduced to Harness Honey back in 2005 and gave it a try. Didn’t like it at first. I couldn’t get over the weird sensation that I was putting a honey-like substance on my equipment. So I quit using it. Then somewhere along the way I was introduced to another product (that shall remain nameless so I don’t get sued) that was alot like mink oil in texture. Thought I had found a great substitute as it sure did soften up the leather. Then, for the first time ever, I started having chronic problems with mildew. I live in a very arid part of the southwest and I just couldn’t get over the shock that this was happening to me all of the sudden. I finally decided that my new leather conditioner was mildew food. So now its been banned from my barn. I’ve gone back to Harness Honey as a top dressing after cleaning it with leather soap. I also have used Leather Therapy for equipment that came to me in really bad shape and have gotten it back into good working condition.

Have fun with your hame covers. How about a side shot of them?

[LaNette]

Yes, trust is a two-way street. I try not to put my equines in situations where they can get hurt in the first place. If I see a dog running out to my team my carriage whip goes into action. If I can shoo it away with just waving it then so be it but if its targeted on my animals I’ll whip the living crap right out of it.

When I was 8, my horse was attacked by a pit bull dog while I was riding her. That thing never went for the back legs or front legs for that matter. It kept leaping at my horse’s neck and throat. Running away was the only option (she made that decision as I was too terrified to think what to do). How could that have been any different had she been under harness with or without blinders?

As for the stick example, I’ve had sticks pop out from the under-brush to poke them in the belly many-many times. Working day in and out they don’t go into hysterics about things like that with or without blinders (since they can go both ways) its about spending a lot of quality sweat time together. Same was true when some Jerk threw a stone at my horse at the Homecoming Parade last year. Horse jumped then settled down while I talked to him then carried on like nothing had happened. Takes time under harness to get that way.

At the old lake site, mesquite bushes scratch them on the sides while they travel down the embankment. That’s the primary reason I use the bridle with the blinders – to help keep there eyes from being poked.

LaNette

[LaNette]

Here in SE New Mexico we have nothing but thorns, horns, and spines. Hard to find a bush that doesn’t have some type of mechanical defense from mammals or birds. But then that how these plants survive in the desert environment. Clochids (the tinier spines from cactus) are the most insidious of them all. For work purposes I usually don’t have to encounter them. Though ironically my re-naturalization projects means I’m eventually propagrating them. But when I go on recreational or exploring drives with my wagon team it becomes a problem in a real hurry. Here’s where blinders on the bridle really help me out. In time both the horses and mules learn to tilt there head inwards when traveling down a road where the brush sticks out. Basically they learn how to use the blinders as protectors. Where they can’t duck their heads, the brush just runs along the blinder and keeps their eye protected. This isn’t something you teach them they just figure it out with time and practice.

I groom the animals every day to make sure there isn’t something stuck in them and I take extra time to run my fingers along the inside of their ears to make sure a thorn isn’t lodged in there as well. That’s why its very important to desensitize your animal to having their ears handled. Actually my animals really enjoy having the insides of their ear scratched and will lean into my hand to have them rubbed.

If I’m going through cactus country I’ll put on brush leggings that I’ve rigged up myself. I make them out of old levis. No point in buying them as the clochids make it impossible to remove (too numerous and too hard to see). So I just throw them away at the end of the trip.

Eye protection for yourself is a good idea too.

LaNette

[LaNette]

Like a Pioneer forecart? I do use my breast collar harness for quick trips or short work sessions when I’m hitched to the forecart. The forecart is not easy to balance but my Percheron/Quarter horse doesn’t have any problems with a little bit of weight from the shafts either. I can pull a 25 bushel manure spreader with my breast collar harness and the horse (and my mule for that matter) can pull it with ease for as long as it takes to empty one load. Not too sure how he would go if I had to do very many trips though. The breast collar does squeeze back more with a loaded spreader but my animals are in very good working condition and don’t sore up an a short job like that. If I was going to go for a several hour tour with a friend in the bench seat or do alot of trips with the dump wagon or spreader, then I would go ahead and use the neck collar. Or for that matter, depending on the job I just might hitch them together and use them as a team. You just have to watch your animals and see how they are handling it to be the best judge of this sort of thing.

One other point, I use a synthetic breast collar and trace. Might be a bit hard and cause some stretch for a traditional leather buggy trace and breast collar.

[LaNette]

First thing that needs to be determined is what do you have it hitched to? Breast collar harnesses are designed so that the traces run parrallel to the ground and shafts and connect at a single tree. Like what you would see in a two wheel easy entry cart or Meadowbrooks. The collar harness works such that the traces come down at an angle to connect with either a single tree closer to the axle or to a single tree used to snig materials along the ground. The neck strap on a breast collar is too thin to withstand downward stress for uses like pulling things along the ground. Plus the thin surface area of the neck strap bites into the top of the neck and, if used long enough, can do some real damage.

[LaNette]

I enjoyed the photo too. Do you have any more?

LaNette

[LaNette]

Try checking with Aaron Martin Harness Ltd. Their on-line catalog can be viewed at: http://www.aaronmartin.com. Look under stable supplies then click on the fly nets. I know at one time they were made of leather. You might want to check with them and see if they are still selling the leather ones or they have gone to the nylon style made by Weaver.

LaNette

[LaNette]

Two full bites! They were long.

I once saw a gelded donkey that was running wild on a large pasture with feet so long they started to curl over. He moved like he was on skiis. Fortunately for your mule, he came back to someone who knows how to take care of him.

[LaNette]

Average price “for pick-up in the field” for Bermuda grass hay is 50-65 lb bales at 8.00 [up 2.00 from last year due to petroleum prices effecting fertilizer and production costs]. 85% of alfafa in this county is under contract arrangements to dairies (according to the County Extension agent). What little is left over is either sold to long standing customers or family friends. New buyers are either forced to buy outside the county or buy at the local feed store.

I just went by the feed store yesterday and the price they were selling alfalfa for is 11.25/bale for an average 65lb bale. This was grade A high quality alfalfa. The feed store Bermuda was going for 8.25 and was not of the highest quality (either B or C grade). Better prices can be had for round bales and these prices seem to be all over the place.

My cousin drives 70 miles round trip to pick up his feed (for cattle) in neighboring Chavez county. He’s says that even with the cost of fuel to drive up there he’s coming out ahead with his total purchases. So there seems to be some big price differences here regionally.

It will be very interesting to see what prices go for next season.

LaNette

[LaNette]

I’ve had first hand observation of watching donkeys (usually as a single) snigging logs for individual family needs in Guatemala and Tanzania. You won’t see a whole lot a difference between how we do it and them except the quality of the harness and the equipment they use. They are not logging for commercial purposes (not that they wouldn’t sell the wood if they could find a buyer) they were just taking what they needed. I saw one little donkey drag a timber (5 inches at the base and about 21 feet long) along a highway to his owner’s farm. The donkey had a neck collar made of thick manila rope with small diameter rope knotted to that. Traces were made of rope too.

My horse and two mules really enjoy pulling logs and farm equipment (like harrows) they look forward to that type of work and really get after it in their neck collars. I imagine a lot of donkeys would be the same way.

LaNette

[LaNette]

While I don’t know about the vegetative concerns to grazing after the frost in New Hampshire, here in southeast New Mexico we occasionally get a few horse deaths due to prussic acid poisoning from Johnson grass after the first frost. Our county extension agent will tell you that prussic acid poisoning can occur at any time of the year but our local veterinarian sees prussic acid poisoning only after the first frost. We think it due to several factors. One of which is there is no other forage to graze on (because the good grass and other browse is, by that time, in decline) but the remnant Johnson grass that grows nears troughs and water spigots is still green and available. Another is that many people hold off as long as they can before feeding supplemental hay for the winter forcing the horses to eat plants, like Johnson grass, they would otherwise avoid.

In short, that may explain where the idea that you remove animals from the pasture after the first frost came from. Around here, people have little choice in the matter and horses and other livestock stay out on pasture year-around.

I’ve managed my pasture (as best as I can under the circumstances) so as to not have Johnson grass. I don’t remove my horse or mules from it after the first frost. First frost around here averages somewhere around the first to mid-November. I also supplement with hay as needed.

[LaNette]

BachelorFarmer,

I understood what TinaY was getting at in reference to hooking up a cart with a draft harness. The reasons I prefaced the term market tugs with: “the loop space where the trace goes through” was to reference that area.

I have a western box britchen harness. It was made with loops or actually trace keepers that are part of the billet strap (the connection between the back pad [or what carriage people call the saddle] and the belly band). I’ll dig up a photo and place it in this thread when I can find it. In the meantime, if you have the book: Work Horse Handbook by Lynn R. Miller, go to page 110 and you will see an actual market tug harness. It does not have a back pad and since its defining feature is the market tug that is where it gets its name.

Give me a day or two and I’ll be back with a photo.

[LaNette]

Steve Bowers used to show this technique in his clinics and it may even be in one of his videos. When I visited him one time, I used his harness and his Kentucky braking cart to do this. It worked quite well in this case.

For the harness that I own I can not do this and that is because the market tugs or “spaces” where the traces run through sit too low for the cart shafts need to be placed. And I don’t have enough room left in which to take them up. Also, I would have to remove the clip ends from the quarter straps in order to use them as hold back straps. This means I would eventually forget where the clips were placed during those times when I needed to use them again! Another issue is, if you were to use a heavy front-ended cart like a Pioneer, it would eventually distort or break the market tugs. Since, in general, they are not made to be used in that fashion. I use a shaft adapter and they are very well made to withstand heavy and repeated use.

[Author]

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