[PeytonM]

thats a big 10-4 I’m gonna go pick it up this weekend I hope. we just got pounded with snow.

[PeytonM]

I dont know, I didnt know how much they go for.

[PeytonM]

yes dan any help would be great! you can post here or e-mail them to me. moonshinexpress@outlook.com whats a auto steer set up? never heard of it.

[PeytonM]

how could you make a stay chain if it was on a regular style running gear? would it be ok if i just made a stop that would hit the spindle? or what else should i hook on?

[PeytonM]

well hes askin 250.

[PeytonM]

well I have yet to catch her, she now just turns her butt towards me ever since that one day when I would just stay in front of her. I haven’t had a lot of time to deal with her, I spend a lot of time with her filly, I can walk right up to her and shes really really mellow now. If I would do something to make her jump or flinch I would wait a bit and keep doing it up till she would stop doing it, the one thing was when she was eating I would raise my arm, and she would follow my hand up, so the next time I did it I just left my hand up for a little bit, and after that she wouldn’t follow it. she would just stand there.

[PeytonM]

@Donn Hewes 34776 wrote:

I think there are some real skills involved in working / training this horse on pasture. His previous experiences with the grain bucket will be working against us to start with. He probably has been having his way in other ways as well, but catching him on pasture is as good a place to start as any. First some questions. Is he on pasture by himself? How big is it? What kind of fences does it have? Basically I am using round pen techniques in a larger area. If the area is too large it can be more difficult to get the proper message across, but it can be done. In some cases (tough) it might be worth the effort to make the paddock smaller. 250′ by 250′ is a good size. Ten times that is a little big.

The principals are pretty simple, the patience and skill to make it work are the hard parts. Here the rules. You pick the place in the paddock where you are willing to put the halter on. Anywhere in the middle, something like that. Corners and fences are out. We are not trying to corner or trap this horse. Those methods might catch a horse, but won’t teach what we want. Never approach the horse unless it is standing still, looking at you. In the ideal world it would be standing facing you, but we will leave that for the round pen. It could be perpendicular with its head your way. Never approach the butt, approach by walking to the shoulder or head. But the horse is not standing still you say. The object here is to tell the horse to move (read run). You may want to modulate the speed and change directions, but never let it eat. Any attempt to turn it’s butt toward you should increase the need for him to move. He will learn to keep an eye on you. When he stops in the right area, ( he will stop if he has used up some energy, and you lighten up the pressure on him.) ask him if he will stand as you approach. If or when he decides to move or or turn away from you, you continue to drive him froward. He doesn’t need to run wildly, but he needs to keep moving.

The problem quickly becomes; how far do you have to run to make him move and keep his head up. This is where size of paddock can make a difference. Only the really zany like me will attempt this in a large apple orchard. I pretty much do it where ever they choose. There are tricks to making them run more than us. If they want a spot or the gate or to be with other animals, you go back and forth and exclude them from the place they want. My herd of horses have seen all this before. It is funny to watch them cavort for a couple laps with the untrained animal, and then they slowly say “your own your own” Then they stand at the gate and watch the show. In any case the trick is to not run as far as the horse. In fact most of us will need to run a lot less than the horse in order to make our point before we fall over.

It can be fun work. The trainer should be calm, and relaxed, not impatient. The horse is making all the choices and eventually he will realize the way out of this silly predicament is to let you approach and halter them. Then give them a little pat / rub and lead them as if nothing ever happened. A tough case will try again the next day. But because of your growing skill and their high intelligence it will not take nearly so long. Some young horses and mules will take a refresher about once a year. Usually some particularly sunny, fresh spring day, when you have absolutely no time for such nonsense.

Don,

I used what you said here to a point, the pen she is in currently is about 10-15 acres. I had her in a round pen but due to my stupidity she ended up jumping over the gate and got to run with all the other horses. her filly is still in the round pen and is doing great! before it took about 10 mins before she would come up by you and now you walk in and you can walk right up to her. today I worked on catching the mom, I walked up to her super slow and would just stay in front of her if she would move to the right I would step to the left. I got so close to her im sure I could have caught her but ever time i would put my hand out she would get rather nervous and start to back up. at one point I got really close and just let her sit there and think it over and relax and was talking to her very softly saying ” your ok” and then after a while she started to back up again.

I ran out of time to fuss with her, I had to get going to work I think I might have sent a mixed message to her.

Would harnessing her help out or no? once I catch her I have a smaller pen at my place I want to put her in so shes use to me walking back and forth and hopefully she wont get so jumpy.

thanks for the help Don, it helped greatly, I just didnt have enough time today.

[PeytonM]

well today at work I was thinking about this, I know breaking a young one can take you on a wild ride every now and again but this is what I was thinking, The mare was bred back do another stud, I think I got a collar that would fit on her, and I know that the one harness I have I could make small enough to fit her, shes about 16H and my smaller Belgian is 17.2H. when you do catch her she leads fine. some times likes to crowd you but for the most part she follows you around and walks really nice. I wanted to have hooked on the stone boat empty with my other Belgian, I figured this way she would have another horse near her that she could have a safety feeling cause shes not alone and yet with that stone boat, its heavy enough that they could pull it and if she trys to run away on me my Belgian will listen to me.

When I first got my team I watch the movie “Buck” I really think that most people can do what he does, just got to take the time to understand a few things, well I had them hooked on this wagon and the neck yoke was sitting alittle low and I had to get some smaller links out of my shop and I had them stop and left the lines in the wagon, I heard a rock get kicked and I knew one of them was starting to walk, it was my bigger horse and I come out of the shop at a rather fast very upset walk right straight at him and looked him dead in the eye. I know he thought he was going to get a beating of a life time but i just pulled his head down to mine and I said very forceful ” don’t you ever take another step on me” and to this day when I tell my team whoa and they stop I could drop the lines and walk away and they might turn their heads and look at me but their feet stay put.

the other thing is what works good for catching a flighty horse? I know the guy I got her from would use feed but I dont want to be giving her things she would think are treats unless she earns it. I also know that oats and corn makes them even more spunky

I dont want to jump the gun with this mare, I think shes a little rowdy to throw a saddle on and I dont want her to get in to bucking and kicking cause she hasnt done it yet. would my idea work or no? I talked it over with a friend of mine and she thinking im gonna get killed but my stone boat is about 1700 I’d say empty, where I would pull it the ground is all tilled so I figured that would make it a little harder on her even still to run away, I’m not saying I’m gonna stand out there with a whip till she falls over also. just have her pull it till she gets tired and then stop then go when she gets ready again. I know the belgian will out pull her on his bad day but I figured I’d could set her in the hole and leave him out a little bit.

what are your thoughts? thanks

[PeytonM]

yeah I found my self doing that my self, leaving as soon as I could just to work my team. haha I hate getting the pay check and going “man I thought I should of got more… oh wait… I was always leaving”

[PeytonM]

I think personally with say that horses have changed my attitude. I am really calm and easy going if I’m working them and don’t get something done that I would liked to get done I figure I always have tomorrow. Gramps really made me understand things after he passes and I’ve started getting a friend of mine in them, she is buying the team I have and I have a down payment on a current 5 & 6 year old team!
thanks for the reply’s!

[PeytonM]

I wanted to make it so it would fit in the back of my trailer, I have a wagon i use and that fits perfect in the front half on my goose neck then i throw the divider gate and put the horses in side by side in the back, I wanted to do the same thing but have the arch angled at a 45 in the front and then have the horses in at 45’s

Jim,
A friend of mine has an arch like that but his sits a lot taller than yours does. what is the deal with having 4 wheels over the 2?

[PeytonM]

I’m in WI, the first job I got is part of my uncles land right by his farm, its a on top of a small hill and isn’t a steep grade, its a rolling hill. He said there is a lot of white Birch on the out side and Oak and maple when you get inside. My dad has a running gear that I could put them up on but the hard part i think for me is going to be loading them up by my self cause that running gear is a little on the High side whats a Go- devil? should I have trees down for them to just go out and pull out or cut them down and then limb them? I was thinking about going out and cutting down a few trees and limb them, enough for them to work for a few hours till dark after I’m done with work.

thanks for all the help,

[PeytonM]

how do you guys charge for labor that log with horses? I got a small woods for my uncle to clear off. thanks

[PeytonM]

Hey thanks alot for all the help. how do you guys feel about using the tongs or what are they are called with the spikes that stick in the end of a log over chain?

[PeytonM]

before I got this team they were used on an arch, and then also single with out any thing to skid them out of the brush. I have a bunch of white birch to cut and then there are 3 really big oaks that are down already. A friend has a few Ash trees that she wants down for fire wood and some smaller oak that are dead. You loggin boys feed anything special? I was feeding oats for a while and man where they hyper, I don’t what them to be hyper but if there is something they could eat that would help give them a little steam

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