[Plowboy]

I showed Ayrshires successfully for years in 4-H. I found the ones that I owned were very laid back and I had many champion cows. My last year showing I took 14 head to the shows myself. 5 were lactating cows and each morning I untied them and tossed there ropes over their backs to go to the water trough. I would clean up the stalls a little and then go grab one rope. The other four followed to the tie stall milking barn about 200 yards away and filed into stalls. They stood there to be milked untied and then followed me back in single file. I also had the top producing cow on the county fairgrounds that year which really upset the Holstein kids. They are good grazers out eating while the Holsteins were laying in the shade. If you want an Ayrshire you should be able to find a laid back one. After the first couple we bought as calves mine were all bred and owned and used top quality bulls but never had an ornery one. They are a smart breed of cattle and probably just like any other there are ornery one’s.

[Plowboy]

AI the cows. You will have more choices to improve your offspring. Two cows with good high udders will do your work for you. If you have too many calves you can sell the one you don’t want. An old friend of mine that I used to show Ayrshires with used to train a yoke of heifers every year for exhibition on the show circuit. Yearling heifers had nice ayrshire horns and he used to polish them with fine sandpaper and shine them up with olive oil. They looked great.

[Plowboy]

Don’t get me wrong there is no doubt that you are trying to do a good thing. Healthy horses are cheaper than they have been in the 20 + years I’ve been around the business.I guess I don’t understand why you would want to bring home more than you can afford to take care of yourself? Relying on others to pay for the care of unhealthy horses may not be the best option with the current economy. Many people are dumping their own stock just because it is too expensive to feed and care for them all year. I just don’t want to see you get in too deep and left holding the bag for a lot of mouths to feed. Another question. Many horse rescues bring home the sick,elderly,blind or crippled horses. Sometimes it would be more humane to put them down but they use them for a bleeding heart program to get donations. Who rescues the good young horses ? Horse Slaughter I think is a necessary evil with so many equines in our country and nobody can afford to rescue them all. The Slaughter market used to set a floor for the horse market now some can’t even get a bid for a used up horse. Personally all our workhorses will probably be buried here but some don’t have the option or the desire to do that. In some parts of the country people are just turning there horses out to fend for themselves creating a nuisance to crop farmers. To top it all off many good intentioned rescues that run out of funding are starving their horses. Asking the several year old question, Who will rescue the horses from the Horse Rescue. What your doing may be a good thing if you can place them all where people can enjoy them but don’t get in too deep. Good Luck

[Plowboy]

Keep up the good work and you’ll have a horse that you’ll be proud to own and will probably shine in competition as well. An often worked horse is sharper than a hobby horse! We have more than we can work each day and you can tell a team that hasn’t worked in a month or so they aren’t on their toes like the one’s that have been working daily even though they are well broke.

[Plowboy]

Have you been working her at all or just playing with her. If there is nothing wrong I suspect she needs a job to do. I’m not sure why you would waste money with a vet for an attitude problem. Don’t get me wrong We use a vet when we have a physical problem that we can’t handle ourselves but explosive behavior usually isn’t caused by a health issue. Usually you can tell when something is wrong and they need a vet sick, lame beyong a foot problem, etc. You now have to make up your mind wether or not you want to take the initiative to get her through it. It will require daily work and discipline making her do everything she doesn’t want to do. The trick is to do this as subtle and none invasive as possible to keep her from having a spell. If she wants to go right turn her left even if you want to go right also you can make a circle to get there. If she wants to stop make her go a little farther. If she wants to go try to keep her stopped and tell her to go before she goes on her own. Resistence is also a valuable tool. Dragging a tractor tire in an inclosed area may do the trick. The hardest part will be for you to commit the time and effort it wil take to turn things around. Good luck.

[Plowboy]

Beta does remain flexible in colder weather. We have been buying Beta for 5 years or so to replace our worn leather. We always use beta for off the farm public events. Last year I bought two sets of team harness from a friend and both had good leather lines with them so I oiled them up and we use them in our two main farm teams. There’s nothing like leather but beta will last longer with less maintenance. Beta with extensive use will eventually wear at the hame rings but only the local Amish have experienced this with daily all day use. We prefer 3/4 in width for easier handling especially for tandem hitches.I’m going to get a new set of 6 up lines in 3/4 beta for our 12 horse hitch next spring. I wont use them alot and I can hang them up until the next time and they won’t need oiling. Some guys think they need 1 in or 1 1/8 but as an old timer once told me no man can pull hard enough on a 3/4 line to break it if it’s in good shape. As far as length some guys use 21 ft team lines so they can get around obstacles in the woods when ground skidding. If you use an arch you may not want the extra to keep track of. I hope I answered your questions.

[Plowboy]

Sorry to hear about your dog. I had a Lab x Beagle when I was a kid that had a similar condition I think. I was working away from home when she was 11 or 12 and stopped into the farm for a visit. My parents told me I better go say goodbye to “Bear” as she wasn’t good. I ran to the barn and she lay still on a pile of hay her breathing shallow and her body cold to the touch. I spoke to her and she grunted and lifted her head. I sat in the hay with her for an hour until she became still again. This lasted for three days until one morning when my parents were milking one of the cows that had already been milked tried to come back in the barn which she hated. Dad said he heard her familiar snarl and bark and looked to see what he thought must be Bear’s ghost chasing a cow. She came back wagging her tail looking for praise. Bear lived 2 more years until a similar attack when she passed away. We’ve had many dogs over the years and each was different but they are all special in their own way.

[Plowboy]

We just started our 19 month stud colt Dan on Sunday. I walked out in the pasture with a halter and rope, he came over and stuck his nose in the halter and followed me out to the hitch rail on a slack rope. We fit him with a collar and he stood there like a statue while I went to get his harness he will wear for all of his working life. I slid the harness on him fitted the hames and buckled the hamestrap. We worked our way around him adjusted the harness. As we got it fitted and put on his bridle we stepped back to see how he looked. He just looked back unconcerned. I said to my Dad, “I’ll go get your new single lines, you won’t be happy until you drive him”. Reply, “We might as well he’s all harnessed”. Dad drove him around for about 20 minutes he did have one small burst of energy and bucked once but then settled right in. Next time he’ll drag a fence post or two just to get the idea.
Dan’s sister Dixie our 3 yr old is just as laid back. In the past year she has took us for sleigh rides, raked and mowed hay,spread manure, plowed, cultivated, and cut corn for 3 days on a binder this fall. Her temperment is just like her brothers and by next year we should have a good quiet team of stocky blacks that should be about 16.2 1800# when mature. This is the easiest team we have trained in 20 years even though most haven’t been bad. We have had a couple that were difficult but they came around with a little work. I guess we’ll have no excitement here this winter so we’ll have to go help a friend train some colts this winter to get the adrenalin going and make the winter go faster.

[Plowboy]

To cover that much ground extensively enough to harvest a good crop you may want to consider a team. Much of the equipment except for walking cultivators is designed for a team. You’ll tire a single horse quick on a 12in plow and also if your horse isn’t accustomed to pulling a plow it may be hard to drive him especially if he’s not used to hard pulling. In this case a team is easier to drive and the work will be easier. Horses are at an all time low so go for a team. It was a little dry this fall when we dug potatoes on our 1/2 acre plot and our seasoned work horses had a time pulling the potatoe plow. They had to get at it like pulling horses even in my river bottom soil.

[Plowboy]

Robin,
We are an informal group of renegade draft animal folks that have had bad luck with the club scene politics and socializing taking priority over working. Most want a picnic and tell the others that are doing the work how to do it. We get together to work our animals and accomplish a common goal. Our numbers are many and we cover a 50 mile radius of Oneonta New York. The events are scattered and our farming is done year round. The events are hosted by folks in our group when there is a need or want to get together and do something. The rest of the time we toil individually but we all look forward to getting together and doing a big job together often with 15-20 teams plowing a large field or filling my Parents silo with corn, in the past we have skidded firewood,sawlogs,planted and harvested crops etc. Our group was named by two deceased members. One said “We need a name for our club”. A bystander said, “We can’t be a club or we’ll have a mess like

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draft horse club did”. An old timer piped in, “We’ll have to be a gang then”.
The first man then replied, ” Yup we’ll have to be the “No Name Gang” and so it came to be. It was named about 12 years ago and still going strong. Some newbies have came and went but the core members stay with it and new diehard teamsters come along all the time. We have no memberships, no dues, no arguements and therefore no friction. Everyone pitches in and works together like country folks did decades ago.We have no website but any one of us could be a contact person. If I didn’t answer all of your questions you can contact me by private message or email.

[Plowboy]

We use Ironwood poles here in N.Y. for cheap tongues. 2-3 inch steel pipe works good and is durable. Pioneer makes good tapered wood tongues for a reasonable price if you have a dealer close by.

[Plowboy]

Our filly “Dixie” has been in an open bridle for over a year now and is doing well. I plan to take her bridle to the harness shop and have one made to match for her younger brother who will start his education late this winter. These youngsters are very laid back and will soon be working public appearances ,parades, wagon rides, and all around farm work. I believe that you still need a bag of tricks and assess each horse individually. Not every horse should be worked in an open bridle and probably that decision should be made by someone with experience. We have never trained any others open but by pure coincidence we started “Dixie” that way and I have every reason to believe that we’ll be just as successfull with “Dan”. The next one we raise we’ll have to wait and see. There is an Amish man north of here that works his entire string of Belgians by snapping a bit into their halter. Keep in mind though his horses work hard every day and even the more nervous one’s mind their manners hoping to catch a break. Also I would not hesitate to put blinders on “Dixie” and “Dan” at the first sign they might need them but they are by far the most laid back pair of colts we have owned.

[Plowboy]

We feed good grass hay, at least a bale per horse per day, a little sweet feed once a day when they come in the barn -more for the growing colts. Oats when they are working hard plowing and such. A few ears of dry ear corn in the winter to help with energy to ward off the cold. In the fall we feed 8 of them several armloads of green cornstalks from sweetcorn or opening up a field of cow corn. The old timers say it helps horses get rid of worms which may be true because when we worm twice a year we don’t see the horses pass any worms. All of them are fat and slick and give 150% just for the asking and we have had very few health problems.

[Plowboy]

Thanks Jason it was sort of a last minute thing but it worked great with our four out front. The secret to bigger hitches is really good voice broke lead horses. The wheel team was pretty good too. The big white mare in the wheel team was a Windermere hitch mare a few years ago. This spring we are planning a 12 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 12 hitch that some of our mentors helped put together. Richard, the fellow riding with me in the picture did alot of the driving on the 12 so if I get in a jam I can hand him the lines. We didn’t know about the picture until we got a letter from Mishka Press just before it went to press. Maybe someday we’ll get a big picture like you did a few years ago with Skidder and Wedge.

[Plowboy]

Carl, I was thinking of a similar response but you hit the nail on the head. Too bad that someone with so much experience can’t use it in a more positive manner and help grow the industry instead of boasting about his accomplishments and running down those with a different view. There is so much to learn and everyone can learn a thing or two no matter how long they’ve been at it.

[Author]

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