[Plowboy]

For full size horses the hole should be about 9’6″ from the end of the tongue. Really on a wooden tongue you need 2 holes and what most around here call a hammerstrap. It is a piece of bent steel bolted to the tongue behind the evener flat that goes up over the evener and your pin goes through the hammerstrap evener and tongue. The purpose of the hammerstrap is to hold the pin straight so the evener doesn’t twist which will eggshap your tongue hole and evener eventually causing a split if you don’t use one. I think Meaders has them if you can’t find them somewhere else. Any Pioneer dealer should have them as well as nose irons for wooden tongues for about 2/3 Meaders price.

[Plowboy]

Our local harness shop carries spring snaps that have a screw with a bushing for that very purpose. If you break a snap cut it off carfully with a hack saw or bolt cutters, slide the bushing in the loop put the snap over the bushing and install the screw then your back in business! No sewing or rivets and if you keep a few around no ride to the harness shop. I don’t know if everyone uses them but Warnercrest Harness shop in Masonville, N.Y. is where we do business.

[Plowboy]

Glad to hear your colt is doing well. The best ingredient to make an excellent work horse is a sweaty collar. Driving them often and doing meaningfull work will be beneficial to both of you when he comes home. We started out with two Percheron weanlings because good teams were $4000 at the time. When they got old enough we thought we needed to take them to a professional for training. The mindset in the beginning makes you think it’s a big undertaking. In a discussion with the folks we got our weanlings from about who to get to train them they offered to help us do it ourselves. During my February break from school we took them back where they came from and teamed them each with an experienced team mate. For the next week they skidded firewood, hauled wood on a bobsled, and moved roundbales learning from Pet and Dolly. The following week they did more of the same work together as a team Maude was solid as a rock and Mike more nervous but Maude kept him in check. I as a young boy learned to go solo with a big young well trained team of grey mares Dixie and Maggie while we were there. At the end of a two week period we loaded up our young team our friends Dick and Herb said, “Drive them often and you’ll have a great team there”. Since then we have trained all our own and helped others get some going. Also each winter on sunny Sunday afternoons we still go back and help Dick start his two year olds. I guess we got the bug from them. Dicks uncle Herb is gone now but often when I’m out in the field or the woods working horses I remember the things he said and taught me all those years ago. Good Luck with your colt.

[Plowboy]

How does a person “succeed” in small scale organic farming? To grow meat, vegetables, milk or other such products enough for your own use and enough to sell and make a living with the intense labor and increasing costs like taxes, mortgage, insurance etc. seems costs prohibitive without off farm income. Unless Grandpa gives you the farm and equipment the start up cost of stock and other essentials based on return of investment is a losing proposition just like conventional farming. Don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to be negative just asking you folks to show everyone the way. I was talking to a friend yesterday at a horse auction and he told me of a conversation he had with an old farmer. He asked the old timer how he could live off the land on a small scale. The oldtimer started off ” You’ll need at least one horse, a cow, some hens, You can’t do it”. ” What” . “You can’t do it”. “Why not?”. “Because you’ll lose the farm for taxes withoutr a good product or outside income nowadays”. This is scary but true unless your working your fingers to the bone trying to scratch out a meager existence with no debt it is difficult with today’s operating costs. A mortgage alone on a sizeable acreage with house and barn in most areas is scary without a good income. If you were in a suburban area with a high traffic farm stand you might do well. My parents have a self serve farm stand on a state road. There isn’t enough business to staff the stand but because it isn’t staffed they only get paid for 50% of there produce. They are busy running a mixed power dairy farm so the stand isn’t the biggest priority during summer and fall when haying and harvesting crops to feed the cattle and horses that support the farm is more important than hanging out in the stand all day for $50 so they get $25 instead. If some of you have a plan from purchasing land to marketing crops to pay all the bills while living a comfortable life please make it known so others can follow your path to success. Again I apologize for being gloomy but these modern times are tough for the small farmer especially if they are just starting out with a mortgage. This is something we all need to consider given the current market and economy.

[Plowboy]

We do have bundle carriers but haven’t yet used them to any extent. We have a large gathering of 12-20 teams and put up around 12-15 acres in a silo in a September weekend. The McCormick will get restored this winter and I think the John Deere will serve as a spare as it takes noticeably more power to operate. We have plenty of horses but the more work we can get done without wearing the horses down the better. When you have that much help coming you have to have everything click in order to be productive and that means cutting alot of corn on Friday to stay ahead of the wagon teams picking up on Saturday and Sunday. I would like to keep the John Deere up and get it back to like new condition but it will be a slow process with parts availability as it is. I think McCormick manufactured alot more of these machines during that era than John Deere. I dare say McCormick engineering was superior on many machines mowers, hayloaders, reaper binders and corn binders are all preferred over John Deere by the practical user.

[Plowboy]

In recent times all the books videos and articles from the self proclaimed trainers stress endless ground work. While some is necessary so the transition to work isn’t a complete shock. We halter break ours young, usually get harnessed and ground driven a little as yearlings. At two we hitch them up and start them on light work and by three they can earn there keep with the rest of the herd. It sounds like your horse needs a small job to keep his mind occupied, he is nearly an adult now and should start taking on some sort of a task even if he just thinks it is a task. Dragging a stoneboat or small log around your roundpen might just do it. You have done right getting some experienced help. Learn all you can from the trainer and the next one will be a breeze. Good luck he looks like a nice horse and I hope he turns out well for you.

[Plowboy]

We have a strong local draft horse community hear which we are thankfull for. We have had as many as 24 teams working at our events but we see the culture slipping away. At 30 I’m the youngest active teamster in the area. We have some young people that enjoy it but if they don’t stick with it through the teen years they lose track of the draft animal world. Horse prices at an all time low and feed prices higher than ever doesn’t help the business. Those that are in it can’t afford to operate and those that would like to be in it can’t afford the feed if they could afford the horses. Good horses can be got for free but unless they work to earn their keep who can afford to keep them with feed costs as high as they are? It’s a sad state of affairs we’re in right now. Just looked at three free draft horses today for a friend, good stock but if we don’t find them a good home who knows where they might end up. Meanwhile we’re trying to keep the community and culture alive in our area with a faint hope things might turn around someday.

[Plowboy]

Jason,
I hope someone gets something positive out of it. If their conditions aren’t too constrictive to the folks actually doing the work it may be a good opportunity for some. The sizes of the tracts would probably keep several animal powered loggers busy perpetually.

[Plowboy]

That bobsled must pull pretty hard to need 12 head to pull a load of people. Just kidding I see the wheelers are the only ones pulling the other traces are slack. I guess it’s something to play with on a winter day.

[Plowboy]

Thanks for the replies. I guess maybe he’s not a freak if it is common. We have raised quite a few drafts but most have been fillies just by luck of the draw. The good news is he dropped one on Thursday so I guess we’ll give him some more time before we go to the extra expense. He doesn’t act studdy at all yet and is very well behaved. We did have one friend that got 9 unwanted foals from a yearling stud colt. We haven’t seen him being aggressive towards the mares and we don’t need 5 colts with little value. As the old timers around here say, ” the bull and the stallion work while you’re asleep!”.

[Plowboy]

I have to agree that the truck is a good idea no matter what kind of horse or harness you use. We too have never had a horse blemished by anything. We use all kinds of harness but it is well fitted. We use many different implements also with full size Percherons. While haflingers are pound for pound all horse a few adaptations may be necessary with equipment but they have the power. The truck is a good idea. We have one with and one without and the trucked mower is much nicer to use.
I will have to get Les Bardens video because we have one nice set of Mervin Martin heavy D-ring and while it is a good harness I don’t see the miracle. We have 5 sets of belly backer style harness and haven’t had any problems with that either.
I think we should all take in as much information from each other and learn all we can with an open mind. We all may be able to learn a thing or two from each other after all isn’t that what this is all about?

[Plowboy]

I have a friend with a good 17 hand Stallion that is real quiet. He is 7 and only been driven a little but is very quiet natured and passes that on to his offspring. We have two foals out of him and both are docile and good learners. I think when Dan gets old enough to work with his sister we will have one hell of a walking plow team. They are both easy going and will walk slow. It’s a hike from central Maine but I could email you some photo’s if you’d like to see him. At least you’d know there are a few out there.

[Plowboy]

It’s nice to see someone else breeding work stock Percherons. Nice batch of blocky looking foals!

[Plowboy]

Jason, too bad about Sabre he looked to have promise but I guess his age was against you. Nothing beats owning an animal in it’s formative years. The handling makes the learning process so much easier. It seems the older they are when the training begins the more bullheaded and set in their ways they become. With a stallion you also have to deal with hormones also which is interesting also. An old timer once told me that “A rank stud horse can make you pretty damn nervous”. I hope he gives you some nice offspring to offset your efforts of trying to train him. Whenever I see this happen I wonder how much better the horse would have been if the previous owner had taken the time to train the basics. Sort of gets me when I see exceptional horses sold as outlaws because someone didn’t know what to do or didn’t take the time to do it. Oh well maybe he’ll get better and you can keep him but I bet he’ll never be like old Rudy.

[Plowboy]

This was done at an informal gathering just for fun so probably wouldn’t be worth the drive. There were 12 other teams of draft horses working at the same time but if mini’s are your forte then it wasn’t a big show. His hometown show is on labor day at Fonda N.Y. That is where he drives six Percherons, six Haflingers and six mini’s consecutively. Mike and Pete are the best mini’s around. They are the lead for the six hitch and they keep everything tight throwing dirt on the other four with their feet if they don’t keep up. They are regulars at our events shuttling kids around and even haul corn at our silo fill.

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