[near horse]

Jen,

It was my first time w/ my own horses at one of these events – although technically I’m not sure if this qualifies as a “plowing bee” in that it wasn’t a competition and no judging was involved (except ribbing from other participants). People call them plowing days, old time farming days, and horse and mule days. Yes, it was exciting to finally get around to “tickling worms”. I’ve done wagon rides, sleigh rides and such and they are also fun with the community aspect to them. But this just seems different. And in our neck of the woods, the opportunity to gather with other teamsters and do some plowing and primary tillage work is pretty limited – 3 or 4 times in 1 month and then nothing.

Can’t help with why a plowing bee is called a bee. Or a quilting bee, threshing bee, sewing bee…. Maybe it’s just a gathering or swarm of like minded folks.

BTW – Red and Ranger are in the photo album referenced by “grey”. They are about the 40th photo down the page – 2 Belgians one w/ a blaze the other not. Right after a picture of Fjords if I remember right. Not the flashiest pair nor as stout as some of those Percheron beasts but they are my team.

[near horse]

Hey Grey,

They do a really nice job of providing for you at Wilson Creek, don’t they?
I couldn’t have asked for more.

I had a team of young Belgians – it looks like you got a picture of them (about 1/2 way down your page) – one w/ a blaze and one w/o. We don’t have anything to play in the dirt either so we were using a forecart of Todd Bohnet’s w/ a section of harrow behind (started off Sat AM w/ 2 sections but was killing my horses w/ it). I had a small bumper pull stock trailer next to semi w/ the eight mules tied to it. I’m the 6’1 240# guy w/ light hair & a ball cap, black coat w/ blue sweatshirt underneath. Just think of the fool who was harrowing and could have gotten a DUI based on his erratic paths – actually was hard to see where you’d been w/ all the dust, rain, wind. Where axactly are you in W. WA ?

Are you going down to SFJ this year?

[near horse]

Hey Matt,

Gempler’s supply has spindles w/ the bearings and hubs for about $60 ea or $120/pr. They’re online. Be careful because they also sell ag spindle/hub assemblies but the bolt pattern of the hubs only take ag rims – not Ford/Dodge …. So Jason’s guy is probably right in using 15 – 4.5’s the wheels are pretty cheap at your tire store (stock ones pulled off rigs that got shiny wheels).

Also, check your local RV place – if they repair them, they often have to replace axles because RV’ers tend to bend them – spindles are fine. In fact my local guy said just take the one they had laying there w/ 3500# spindles on it. They just haul them for scrap. Good luck.

[near horse]

“can be distracting if you want to stop and talk to your neighbor, but chatting with the horse while working is pretty unproductive, and un-necessary at best.”

Carl – I agree that yapping at your horses CAN be distracting but if talking to your horses gets you out working them then it’s not so unproductive – might bore the horse but certainly produces “sweat under the collar” if that’s what it takes to get you out there enjoying being with your animals. If working your horses becomes too rule-laden to enjoy it, you’re not likely to want to go out and work them and that’s not good for anybody.

[near horse]

Hey Grey,

I was at Wilson Creek too and was camped with my team right next to one hitch of mules w/ yankee britchen used them in the 8 up. I can’t remember the guys last name Jim something out of Davenport I think. The Percherons in the big hitch were w/ Stan Riebold from St. John WA. Both hitches are likely to be at Colfax WA in 3 weeks (April 16-17?) same weekend as SFJ.

Where were you?

[near horse]

Hey all,

I was gone all weekend to a horse & mule plowing event in central WA state and my horses – Red and Ranger – got some serious sweat under the collar and lots of other places mostly harrowing plowed ground – plowed soil was pretty soft and dusty (even while it was sleeting and raining – they only had 5 in of rain last year – total). Really was a blast w/ somewhere around 30 to 40 animals (mules and horses) on hand. Everything from a team of Haflingers on a harrow to 8 up mules on a 2btm plow. We were trying to work up 20 acres and, of course, the weather got wicked – windy 20 -40 mph w/ some sleet and drizzle and in the 30’s. Yikes but still great fun.

Red/Ranger and I were on a forecart and hooked up to 2 sections of spike tooth harrow (it is doable on pasture) and made 2 rounds when it became apparent it was too much. The harrow “tool bar” was just dredging its way through the soil (you could only see the adjustment levers on the harrow). R&R pulled like champs and put on quite a bit of sweat in those 2 passes – and they were long rounds. We switched to a single section of harrow and life got quite a bit better for all involved. WE ended up working all afternoon on Sat and about 4 hrs on Sun AM – Finish up w/ a 4 hr drive home

A few other notes, questions, comments on the event –
1) how do you overnight your team at these type of events? Tied up to trailer? Picket line? Small, temp paddock (poly or panels)? In trailer?
2) Does that change with weather conditions?
3) After a day of work and sweat and then rain wind and cold – do you blanket?
4) ever hear of wiping down shoulders w/ a “brine solution” (just salt water to toughen them up early in the season? Just something I saw.

Also, as many of you have mentioned already, you sure see a lot of different “styles” of horsemanship – it surely helps one define what type of teamster they want to be.

Hope I can make it to one of the plowing events that are scheduled over the next 2 or 3 weeks. There won’t be much activity here at my place because it snowed a few more inches while I was gone.

I’ll try and post some pictures if my computer will be my friend.

[near horse]

Didn’t the Ford N series tractors have some type of 3pt attahcment that just ran a drive pulley? If so, maybe one of those would work – could ask on “yesterdays tractor” website.

[near horse]

I’m truly sorry for your loss OldKat. It sounds like your community will be missing him deeply as well. May your pain pass soon.

[near horse]

Congrats George. After some serious looking I also bought an IH mower that is neither in working order or identifiable (yet). Gotta get to work.

[near horse]

Well – I went and bought it – the price was alright I guess. Forgot to bring my camera but will pick the mower up next week. After looking again, I wouldn’t say the gearbox is all that flat. It does bolt on though – does a #9 do that? As far as placement goes – the gearbox on my #6 sits farther back than this one. Does that help any? I’ll try and go over and get some pics for you Donn (it’s only a few miles away).

[near horse]

@Jean 1234 wrote:

Hi, I have an idea I would like to put out there for your reactions.

I have been talking to some members of a very active draft horse club in CT and one of the fun things they do as a club is to plow a community garden with horses. The town that they work with turns this into a fun all day event. The garden is large enough for 100 families to have a plot in it. Last year they sold all the plots in that one day.

The club only uses experienced teamsters to do the plowing, because there are lots of eyes watching and they want the work to look pleasing not only once it is done, but while the ground is being worked.

I would like to find a town in Vermont that would welcome a group of teamsters to come and plow their garden space, make a day of it and open the eyes to a few more people about how great life can be with draft horses.

Anybody here have any thoughts on this idea?

Jean

Hi Jean,

I just noticed this and wanted to comment. The fellow that I bought my horses from is/was pres of a daft club in Michigan and they mostly work their horses plowing each others garden plots and other miscellaneous ground. They seem to really have a good time with it so the idea of doing a community plow day would be great – and Vermont is only a hop, skip and a jump from ID (big jump).

I wish I would have been more on top of things because my daughter just graduated last spring after 4 yrs in Hanover, NH. And I had no idea about all of the good draft folks right nearby. Dang.

[near horse]

I know this is an old thread but I’m getting all excited about cutting hay as well. I can see the ground for the first time in many months – Ooohhhh boy!

I did want to add that you can adjust the floatation of the cutter bar as well as the pitch (angle forward) on your mower so that some of those humps and ant hills (gophers and ground squirrels here) don’t spin your team around.

Just as an aside, once I was mowing with a 7’sickle behind an 8N tractor and went right over a deer fawn hiding in the grass. It screamed and ran off with me thinking I’d hurt it pretty badly. I hunted around and finally noticed it hiding right by my feet in already mowed ground. It was unscathed. The fawn had been curled up against a “clump” of orchardgrass and my bar had just floated right over its back:) Lucky.

Happy mowing George.

[near horse]

Wow – What is up with all the touchy feelings now? Plowboy, nothing I said was addressed to you or anyone else in particular. They were general comments meant to be taken as such. As I continue to state, I and many others on here are trying to “figure it out”. That’s all. Whether the information comes from this thread, or a Steve Bowers’ book – I don’t particularly care. In fact, I don’t see that much difference between authorship of a book or “authorship” of a blog (other than the royalties) – people are trying to convey ideas in words.

What’s it matter if nobody follows any of our advice?

My advice seems to be dismissed

I just feel like I’m wasting my time here

How do you know this to be true? If this has anything to do with my post, I’m sorry because it was not meant to be critical of anyone’s method. But if experienced teamsters are going to stop providing advice and help because of misconceptions and hypersensitivity, then I guess I’ll have to go read some books. For some of us, there are no teamsters nearby to work with.

Again, sorry.

[near horse]

I agree with Donn’s principle but obviously it needs to be learned by both teamster and team. And used regularly. My horses and I are working through this now – they think slack lines mean they decide what they pace will be working at – wrong. So I slow ’em down and when we get the right pace, relax the lines a little. If they step it up w/o my request, pressure comes back on. We’re getting it I think – at least today.

Steve Bower(s)? made a good point of this w/ regard to stopping your horses. He said, when we stop them w/ whoa and pressure to keep the pressure on and let the horses stop and step back off the bit – not to release the pressure too early (great – now I forgot the explanation but it made snese when I read it:o). Anyway – keep working with ’em. I think (and this is from the inexperienced guy so take it for what it’s worth) running them to take the piss and vinegar out of them will likely mean that you’ll have to do that each time you want to work with them – not something I’d want to do. Instead, I’d work towards getting them used to the routine that we’re not in the Kentucky Derby so cool your jets fellas. I know easier said then done and coming from a guy who just had a good day w/ his horses. 🙂

All the best.

[near horse]

One of the most important things to remember about working horses, draft animals in general, is that it requires a lot of human time and labor.

The other thing to know is that this can be a very frustrating situation, leading to a feeling of defeat when it is so much work to get so little accomplished, but it is reversible with time and consistency.

Carl – IMO you hit THE basic solution to many horse problems. As a newer teamster, I think the time investment can be seriously overlooked (I have to admit – it surprised me). And most folks that you meet w/ drafts (and to some extent saddle horses) comment on how they are so busy they can’t spend the time they wish they could with their animals. IF you can use them for “work” – whether riding fences or skidding logs – you kind of kill 2 birds w/ one stone. The challenge is for those who have other day jobs to get in as much horse contact time as possible. Throw in crummy weather and …… suddenly you(I) struggle getting in good amounts of horse time.

Don’t get me wrong – I am not making excuses at all but rather agreeing with your comment and reinforcing the commitment necessary to develop and maintain a good relationship w/ your animals – and I’m still, and always will be, working at it.

Antsy to get out in the dirt. Geoff

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