[LStone]

Is this it?

http://www.bigblackhorse.com/horsedrawn-mower-book.html

[LStone]

Ya gotta love Youtube. You’re not the first one to come up with that parking style. Extra credit for resourcefulness on the extraction method. It is all practice for next time. That’s how you get good at it. Is this anybody in this group?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq5dd7JLk1s

[LStone]

I am working the day job to pay the bills. I continue to work my three “bigguns” in the woods doing my own thing on the old “Stonestead”. I have been busy lately, so not too much time to spend with them. We’ve caught a couple paying gigs for the wagon and team, and I am driving wagons and sleighs commerically for a local farm part time. Feeling okay about the way things are working out now. What I am lacking on working my own I am trying to make up by learning new skills and experiences. Remembering that patience and persistance will get me where I want to be in knowlege and skills.

My best to all,

Larry

[LStone]

I haven’t heard of it either but agree with Carl. There is probably some beer in there too. Sounds like just the ticket. Seems like it is going to be a real long hard stove season this year. At least in this neck of the woods.

[LStone]

The “night vision” project is improving daily or nightly as it were. It is funny how looking back it was kind of intimidating the first night but now it’s a distraction that I think I’m overcomming through familliarity. I think this commercial gig is improving me as a driver / horseman through repitition as well as diversity. I drove a bobsleigh for the first time last night. It dug in a few places but when it was good sledding it was good sledding. Pleanty of snow areound here today. I can’t wait to do it again. I wish working my own horses paid this well but they are on standby while I am making grain money.

I got a chance to work them for several hours Christmas day jingle bells and all around town. Hey who ordered up all this cold weather anyway? Oh well I got layers.

[LStone]

Not wanting them to lie down in the stall is strictly selfish on my part from a grooming/bedding conservation perspective. If they want to lie down they can & I certainly would not intentionally discourage them. Based on my limited observations and experience, it seems that more mature, though not aged, horses lie down less, which makes less work & mess for me.

Understood… I hear you my friend and I share the same selfish feelings. Any thoughts from the group about a shortened tie chain? Of course not to hang them with but short enough so that they will not be comfortable while laying then get back up.

[LStone]

Wondering here. I know there is no harm in laying down, and if he wants to lay, let him lay in my opinion. But, if the tie chain were shorter would there be any danger? would it hinder him from laying or would he lay down anyway? Meanwhile I found that my biggun hates the steel pancake type shedder deals that are so effective for taking care of just what you are dealing with in short order.

Have a wonderful holiday season all.

[LStone]

I run the D-ring too. I am not sure how it works with three abreast. I haven’t ever run it clean across either. I have two D-rings with a third belly backer. I have only ground driven not carrying a pole in that configuration. I just always assumed that from my point in experience that I would have to throw all the weight transfer benefits out the window perhaps. I would think that because of the pivot point on the T/H evener the third guy not carrying the pole would gum up the works with the team no matter what you do to compensate for him not being up with the team. Maybe hooking the single as tight as possible first then the others? Same principle as with a team the second hitched kind of locks in the first one and third locking all three? Maybe he has to be hitched first behind the hitch point? This would lock him in drawing him to the front? I don’t know for sure but I am wondering if even a third D-ring is going to help. I am waiting for some more of the seasoned D-ring users to help out with this one.

I love this place!

Larry

[LStone]

Hi there. I lost track of this thread so I just read the posts from last week today. Thanks for the feedback.

I do get the concept of “dropped lines are dead lines”. I don’t have a problem with dropping lines on my own horses, and do it regularly although I do keep a wary eye on them. It is necessary to get anything done, and yes on occasion they have walked away on me only to have me drop what I am doing and catch and correct them. I have developed a habit of what Donn mentioned of putting lines across my lap and holding them in the crease of my waist and thighs while stooped over, hooking them to the log though. It was slash, along with misplaced feet and gravity at an inopportune moment that caused me to fall but he started out running on me before I could recover myself and that compounded the issue. He had quite a head start on me and I couldn’t catch him. Now as for standing still, I had hitched him and started him moving. Whoa’d him up and stooped over to shorten the choker in the b**** link to get a better draft (can I say that? No offense meant, I just don’t know the real name for it). He was stopped and I was in the middle of adjusting when he moved. I adjusted my feet and tried to stand and viola! On my lips throwing the lines clear across the woods.

Jen your take is exactly correct in that he is certainly my young one and not worked regularly, as my big team is only worked two or three days a week for a few hours a day. I think there has to be different degrees of agitation though and agitated or not misbehaving or not. I wanted to get that log to my wood yard. What I think I have trouble understanding is how much effort I as the leader and human in a human / animal relationship I am to put into figuring all this out and cutting a compromise with my animals. After all my wants are small compared to others who actually use their animals to make a living.

I am heartened that a consensus is that maybe I did the right thing by going back to work with him. I don’t know what his problem was, short of inexperience and lack of work maybe. His trust in me should be there as I keep them at my place and deal with them daily no matter whether or not they work. The harness should be somewhat familiar to him and he works hard when I use him usually. Thinking back to that day, I think I have ruled myself out as the cause of his actions but who knows.

What I did pick up and haven’t thought of until now is the method Donn and Carl use, facing the horse to the log while setting the choker. I will try that going forward. I also agree with horses picking up a routine and trying to get ahead of the teamster. I have dealt with that as well.

I guess long and short of this remains that this is the best place I know of where I can write my thoughts and be encouraged and educated. It’s magic!

Thanks

[LStone]

Looks like the real thing Donn. Good for you!

[LStone]

I don’t see a problem with it. I do it if I find it necessary.

[LStone]

Well that didn’t exactly work either. mine only gets you to the infowars page but doesn’t drill into the story you were interested in.

[LStone]

Hi LanceK,

I haven’t read it yet but the link got posted wrong and I figured I would post the correct link for you. I think this link will work.
http://www.infowars.com/…lled-from-air/

Larry

[LStone]

Well it wasn’t a “bad” day. I have participated in many worse. I knew something was up while harnessing him and I persisted. Although I probably shouldn’t have Jen. But we were able to produce and I thought we were ok, just restless and jumpy. For all my good intentions though human stubbornness prevailed and I guess that was one of the points of my post. I should have finished with him before he ran but I failed to read him that accurately. Possibly a choice would have been to leave him turned out altogether. But if those being my only choices then how does training get accomplished and on who’s terms?

The positives I am taking from this are that he went home and he managed to settle down after the “scare or whatever” and get back to work. Even though I was surprised, it is now another aspect of training horses that I have experienced so I can be better prepared to deal with it (if) (when) it happens again. Luckily nobody got hurt and there was plenty of potential there for him to hurt himself. The facts I am ok with, the concerning part for me were the variables that could have turned everything on its ear in an instant. But I am sure all will agree that if I let variables effect me too much, eventually I will never get a horse out of the barn and hitched.

A little background on Billy is that he has been in a harness about a year and a half. He seems generally comfortable working alone and this was uncharacteristic behavior. It figured to be a relaxing afternoon “hobby horse logging” with nothing out of the ordinary. But instead, I certainly, and maybe both of us learned something about each other.

I don’t know about the preparation J-L. What would you suggest as more prep.? I harnessed, banged around the singletree and chain while hitching it as usual, then we were off into the woods. That about sums up my usual routine. Not horse season here yet but I imagined him going down hurt after hanging himself up in a blow down and some knuckle-head hunting brown when he should be hunting horns. Just thoughts I guess.

Yes it can happen, hard, fast, and continuously. I am familiar with those slow motion, gymnastic moves, demonstrating superior athletic prowess and flexibility too. Those are the best kind and most times would kill an ordinary man.

Thanks for the confidence building. I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.

Larry

[LStone]

In my small barn I had tie stalls for feeding and vetting etc. I had water and grain buckets hanging on the front waite high with a steel wall hay manger about 5 feet high at the top. No real issues for three years. The stalls were 6×8 feet with their noses to the front wall. I thought they were wider than they needed to be and shorter than they should have been. But I could move around fine with a horse tied in it. My short bodied geldings would actully lay down in them too. I started out with a tie chain attached to a cleat on the head wall but changed it over to being shackeled to the manger and it would travel up the manger rod if a horse pulled back on it. I guess similar concept to Blue80. They would generally not get the leverage to pull the manger down before backing into the butt chain, and would not test either end. The farrier could work comfortable in them too.

I am building another barn 24 x 36 with the center aisle measuring 24 x 12. I am thinking 5×9 tie stalls with a 3 foot feed aisle along the outside wall and their butts on the main aisle. I think 5×10 from what I have read was popular with the old timers. I am also watching this thread for ideas.

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