[Plowboy]

Everybody likes George Strait but for that particular situation Chris Ledoux is more appropriate something like “Horsepower” or “He Rides the Wild Horses”. For plowing it’s, Jason Aldean “Amarillo Sky”. Cutting corn, Craig Morgan “International Harvester”. Hanging out with friends and family Zac Brown Band “Chicken Fried”. In the video “Chronicles of a Biological Woodsman”, Jason used a little ZZ Top for background music skidding some big timber with 4-up and that was pretty cool. Whatever it takes to get your mind right. It’s my day off gotta go paint the babies room, mark some trees for one of my customers, spread some manure with a team we haven’t used for a couple months, work on the corn binder, and check out the brakes on my wifes car. Did I say day off well at least I don’t have to go to my day job today.

[Plowboy]

Those are the joys of farming and or working for yourself. No pay for downtime or lost time. Frustrations aren’t uncommon in situations like that. I hope next week your skids are easy, your production high and we all hope that log prices will rise again. Good luck, spring and better days are ahead. I’m hoping the frost comes out soon so we can start plowing some alfalfa sod.

[Plowboy]

I am a hunter and also have a concealed weapons permit. I do not carry a gun other than hunting season or when I see something suspicious happening on my property. If I think it is a dangerous situation it is probable that I have a 44 magnum on me when I go investigate.I will protect my family and property from criminals. I do vote and I don’t agree with the recent government but I can’t change it. I choose not to stress over it and mind my own business. I am a busy hardworking person and need not stress myself over government. I oppose NAIS and would like to keep my guns and have lower taxes but it is out of my hands except for expressing my views to politicians. I will still protect my family and property with whatever means necessary. My Great Grandfather on my Dads mother’s side was a short Irishman that liked to drink at the local tavern on payday. He was small and the bigger guys started picking on him one night and shoving him around and eventually threw him out in the street even though he hadn’t bothered anyone. He walked home and knocked the handle out of his pick axe and went back to the tavern and cleaned everyones clock with it. Nobody ever bothered him again. If they take my guns I guess I can’t stop government so I would probably have to turn them in. I think it will be many years before it ever happened, like NAIS it may never get off the ground but doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on it. Bret maybe you should spend more time working your horses and less time worrying about a government that you can’t change. Enjoy life and take it one day at a time while keeping an eye on new regulations but don’t let fear of government rule your life. No matter what your cause, extremism does nothing for the cause or the solution.

[Plowboy]

What is a reasonable price and what is your experience level? There are many horses out there for cheap money and many of them are good one’s. If this is to be your first team spend a little more money if you can and get a great team. Drafts for sale, Rural Heritage and others all have horses listed in the northeast and new england. I have seen some Suffolks from Mass, Percherons in NY. With the horse market and economy where they are good horses are cheaper than ever. When we started over 20 years ago good well broke teams were bringing $4000. Now good well broke teams are topping out at $4000 and other costs have skyrocketed. You can’t raise them that cheap and the farmer you buy from is losing big time. Many of our friends left their mares open because foals are worthless right now. It’s a sad market so take advantage of it if you can. Good luck with your search and look them over good. Drive them and make sure they will work for you.

[Plowboy]

One more story to share. The same friend that had the little red crossbred team also had a herd of roan Belgians. He worked in the woods alot with his 4 favorites Teddy,Leroy,Tammy and Kelly. Most days at least two of the 4 went to work. Years ago at a work day late in the afternoon when the work was all done someone spotted a huge nubby old oak log out back. Many of the folks were weekenders and someone got a chain around the log. An informal horsepull ensued. Everyone struggled to pull that log the farthest with their teams. Our friend sauntered over to his trailer and came back with a singletree. Mouths dropped as he stripped the team lines out of his harness. Nobody had manged to pull that log more than a few feet. He took Tammy out and hitched her up to that singletree on that big log. “Tammy”, he said and she tightened up the traces to feel the load, “Here” and she walked right off with that old log like it was made of styrofoam. The truth is he would have never hitched her to it if he didn’t think she would really shine. He and Tammy were a team and she was hard as a rock but it still left alot of folks with their mouths open in disbelief. He just smiled and loaded his horses up and headed back home:)

[Plowboy]

Many of these things are hard to put into words. For me it has become second nature to rest them before they are spent. I couldn’t tell you the signals but I have learned when they need a break. I’ve learned when I can get a little more from them and when I shouldn’t ask. I have tried to keep up with the big boys with a young team and got stuck with a big log. One of my mentors met me on the trail and took his saw off his cart and cut 4 ft off that log and said I think they’ve got it now. I started them off and they happily took that log to the landing. It was only firewood so cutting it down didn’t do any hurt. The horses never lost faith in themselves or me and my mentor never mentioned it again. He knew that I knew I should have never hooked them that heavy and it never came up again. Now for me so many things are done without conscious thought and become habit. Like training young horses many folks think I am somewhat of a barbarian because when they are old enough we harness them and go drive them. To outsiders we are skipping crucial steps because the early training goes unnoticed because it is habit to handle our animals daily and work on important steps gradually so even we don’t notice. When we hitch them up they are ready to learn and when they are mature enough and we need to move a big load we will call on them and they will give us all they have. Conditioning is very important when moving heavy loads. “Hard” horses will do it much easier than soft horses. Hard horses are less likely to become injured or sore. Whenever we really put demand on our teams they just came off fall plowing and were in shape. We are not loggers just farmers that like going to the woods. These discussions are good to make us think because I have such a hard time explaining to beginners all the steps. We raised all of the horses we have now and training is such a gradual process I don’t even think about every detail. We just go through our daily routine which creates some animals we are very proud of.

[Plowboy]

Thanks Howie that’s good to know. We built a wagon out of Larch 16 years ago and put Linseed oil on it twice, it has never been inside and is still solid. We started using it on kicker hay wagons now that the smaller mills aren’t handling white oak as much anymore.

[Plowboy]

Our Amish here say the same but we don’t have the hedgerow models around here to borrow parts from. If we do we haven’t located them yet. Our cutter bar assembly is worn bad and I think we get some side wobble that contributes to the problem. It ties good and everything but takes alot of power to run it. We’ll have to dig up some parts before September.

[Plowboy]

I flip through the mounted shooting magazine whenever I’m at tractor supply. I’ve never bought it though it does look like fun. Probably an expensive sport by the time you bought a good horse, two more revolvers, fancy boots, expensive hat, saddle that cost more than the horse, etc. Like anything else it would be alot of fun with friends but when you get into big competition it gets cutthroat and expensive.

[Plowboy]

Abreast hitches were primarily for field work. Tandems were used on the roads to keep them as narrow as the vehicle they were towing. Look at old pictures from England,Ireland,Scotland or Wales. The lanes were so narrow they put one in front of another on a haywagon. Abreast has it’s limitations also. I think more than 4 abreast creates other problems like on turns if one or more slows down on one side they can pull the neckyoke off the tongue because there is so much play in a long evener. If we need more than 4 we start stretching them out which is very easy with a rope and pulley hitch from Pioneer or White Horse. See my post plow day photos the 6 on the plow and eight on the harrow are all using the rope and pulley system.

[Plowboy]

Those are some nice horses that fellow has! Glad to hear he loves what he does. I saw a hydrafork in the Mishka calendar several years ago and I think they used 6 abreast and the sled seemed to be a flat bottom thing like a huge stoneboat. seems like it would be hard to move on heavy snow but would stay on top. This guy had his on a heavy bobsled which would be easier to pull. Thanks for sharing the info it was good to see.

[Plowboy]

Jen if you Pm me your email I can send you a bunch of working mini photos. Hauling corn and even plowing with a plow beam from an old gravely walk behind garden tractor mounted on a little forecart. I still haven’t figured out how to post pictures on the photo page. We can’t seem to shrink them enough. I posted some last week but my space for that particular option is used up. I might have to use a photo page again and just post the link.

[Plowboy]

Jen we have a good friend that shows and we crew for him at his hometown fair in Fonda N.Y. He shows a 6up of Percherons and partners with his buddy for a 6up of Haflingers and then he shows 6up of minis. We have 18 horses harnessed hitched and standing quietly all at one time. He comes thundering back to the barn, the headers grab the horses and he goes and jumps on the next wagon. It takes coordination and communication to pull it all off. We joke with him because he seems to have the most fun with the minis even though he’s a Percheron man. This year he was showing off with the minis and the judge went to walk across the ring. He called out to him,”stay where you are”. He went over and spun circles around the judge with 6 minis like he was circling the wagons. He has the best team of minis I’ve ever seen for leaders they spin up dirt pulling if the swing team can’t keep up. Good luck with your venture. If you want to see it in person he will be at Fonda fair on Labor day and we will be there helping. Good luck with your 4 up but you better not ride any of those, your feet will drag and slow them down.

[Plowboy]

The wheel team is closest to the implement or wagon. To put horses in a big hitch the faster more upheaded go up in the lead to keep everything tight. If they are slow the wheel team may walk up on them. You would want stout wheelers to hold back a heavy load because the wheel team is all you have to hold back. There is a fair amount of linesmanship involved in tandem driving. For plowing we use the Pioneer rope and pulley hitch you have to hold the wheelers in and let the leaders out to keep the neckyoke in place and keep everyone working evenly. It is a game of give and take and the only way to learn is to hold those lines in your hands. My Dad and I are self taught driving 4up on a wagon after milking one summer. I would get home from work and harness 4 horses so we could play when he got done for an hr. Someone told us if one person drives the leaders and the other drives the wheelers it is a good way to learn. The first night we tried it and it was a disaster the horses dogtracked terrible. After the second trip around the field
I asked for the second set of lines and drove all four a while and then handed them over to my Dad. We weren’t great at it but we got better each time we went out. At present he’s not as comfortable driving tandems in front of people as I am but he’s certainly capable. We were going to try for a 12 horse this spring but I think some of the horses we were going to use are going to be sold the month before. I have never driven 3 seperate teams as in 2-2-2 or 3-3-3 or 4-4-4 only 2-2 or 3-3 or 4-4. I’m sure if we make it happen it will be a learning experience to handle that extra set of lines and get the feel of it but if I set myself on it I’m confident I could get it done with the local teamster network we have locally and the guy that did it near her 20 yrs ago as a co-pilot. Jen I get the sneeking suspicion you have big hitch driving in your future??
As far as riding one of the horses the freight teams used to ride a wheel horse and drive with a jerk line to a leader. One jerk meant one direction and two meant the other. I can’t remember which. A gentleman named Lapp a belgian man used to do a six up this way for exhibitions until just before he passed away. I’m sure that to drive this way you would also depend largely on voice commands to bring them around where you want them.

[Plowboy]

You can make a horse stand for groundwork or healthcare footwork etc. However when you are driving them and they don’t want to stand quietly you can only hold them for a brief amount of time if they really want to go. If they can’t go ahead they will go sideways or start backing up. If they try to start up we will remind them to stand a couple times verbally with a whoa and light line tension. If this doesn’t work we tell them to go and we go a while and then ask them to stand. If they stand we let them stand for quiet a while until they appear they might be ready to go again. Before they have the chance to make the decision we ask them to go and we go awhile and then stop and let them stand again. Once they get used to it they will stand regularly as long as you make it part of your routine. We plow alot and our horses are glad to stand because they know they should rest a few minutes. We get off the plow and pull their manes out of the collars and if others are here we might BS a few minutes before going again. Our horses all stand well and even stand unattended while we load manure but the lines are tied on the lever on the near side of the spreader just in case. It takes a while and alot of work to get them that good though.

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