[Ron]

Hi JMGd
If you are in south eastern Ontario you should take a swing round and contact the good people at Upper Canada Village. They have some good teamsters and Oxen on staff. Their is some people in Quebec using oxen and they will put you in touch I am sure. They are very approachable and easy to talk to.
cheers
Ron McCoy

[Ron]

Hi Erika
Should the face of a modern collar be made out of the same kind of Marine vinyl? Would that be a step forward?
Cheers
Ron

[Ron]

Hi All
The collar is a very important subject but not well understood and I don’t claim to be an expert but here is my observations. In the late 1950’s and 60’s it was still possible to get real well made collars but they became almost impossible to find by the 1970’s. As such the use of pads grew and grew as people tried to make poorly fitting and poorly made collars work without blistering shoulders. I happen to still have two collars from that golden era and I look after them like they were gold. I have yet to blister a horses neck with one of them but have done so on more then one occasion with the more modern collars. The type and length of straw used, the way the collar is packed, the leather on the collar face and design all goes into a good collar. Collar making is an art as much as a science. Pads really are a mediation attempt to correct the errors made by poor collars. Now having said all that and sounding really negative and at the risk of upsetting people, I do see that some collar makers are getting better and some of the more modern collars are beginning to display the art. Shortages of the proper straw, access to better leather and most important understanding of the way a horse moves is being relearned by the modern collar makers craft and some of the new collars are quite good. I have a whole selection of collars from the last few decades that have to be used with pads though I hate pads for all the obvious reasons but the collars just aren’t good enough to use without them.
I think of the collar just as a prosthesis for a war vet or an accident victim. If it is poorly made or ill fitting it is useless and worse down right harmful. I am amazed at the patients and steadfastness of draft animals to put up with some of the collars we use. It is a great credit to them. We should follow this topic with one on Hames as well.

[Ron]

Hi Dave
I go with all the suggestions already put out there and I would add one. I find that teaching a horse to stop and stand is one of the most important things to teach before you get to the bush with them. I train them in a coral to stand with every kind of noises and distractions I can think they might encounter before I will do any field or bush work with them. The best way to teach them to stand is each time they shy from the noise or distraction and move forward I stop them and make them back up. Backing up is not natural for a horse and they don’t much appreciate it. It does not take to long to make them understand that going ahead without a command will always end up with a long trip back wards followed by the command to stop again. Obviously this is hard to do in the bush so I like lots of repetition of this exercise in a controlled environment before I do any real work with them. This seems pretty simple but I have found it works well.
With a young green horse start and end your day with lots of small skidding logs something that will build his confidence and help him to feel good about what he is able to accomplish. For a young horse lots of easy pulls is better then one big pull and when they are ready for a rest they want to stand.
Ron

[Ron]

The other issue for first time grower of Op corn is a caution. With OP always, be prepared to share. I don’t know the number of people who wanted just a little OP corn to plant a plot. In the fall I would ask them how it did and they would say, “I will never grow that again.” When I asked why the answer was always the same, the coons, bear, deer, and porcupines ate all of it but they never touched my hybrid corn. Do wild animals know something we don’t? The moral of the story is if you want to grow OP corn plant a large enough acreage so that you can share.

[Ron]

Hi all
I have grown and breed OP corn for over 40 years and I have seen some unusual things with corn.
the one thing I will tell you as fact is that nature finds a way. By that I mean the so called pure strains of corn always cross. OP corn has a staggered pollination period some times as long as three weeks which our modern hybrid corns do not have. It is one of the reasons it is harder to dry down OP corn then hybrid but it is part of the survival mechanism of OP corn. I have seen lots of rules in the organic community of set asides but again nature finds a way. In Mexico they have created strict rules to try and keep the heritage varieties of corn away from the GMO corn. They are still finding GMO genes in OP corn that is a hundred miles down wind from the nearest GMO corn. Pollen travels. Again it is another survival mechanism.
When I started in OP the very wise man I got my first corn told me not to get myself bend out of shape about this issue and he was correct. Some out crossing actually helps the genetic diversity of the corn. Create a good sound breeding and selection process for your seed and breeding program and let the varieties do the rest. The biggest mistake people make is not growing enough OP. Small plots or acres do not give you enough diversity to breed really good corn. It is the small plots that cross pollination becomes more of an issue. Hope that is of some help.

[Ron]

Hi Sam
Nice to see a new face on Dapnet. Hope you enjoy and learn from the posts. Lots of experienced draft people here to answer your questions.
Cheers
ron

[Ron]

Hi All
I was looking at the EU video of horse logging and thinking about the equipment and wondered about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDdG_QpaMBo
The single trees are held up over the horses hocks by some kind of bungy cord I think? they also us a hitch to connect the chain to the single tree I have never seen. This is pretty dangerous work with a horse and I wondered if it is some kind of quick unhitch if the log gets going to fast on the slope?
Has any one seen them or worked with these pieces of equipment?
cheers
ron

[Ron]

Sometimes being a draft animal enthusiasm is a pretty lonely experience. When things go wrong with a hitch or an animal takes sick it is easy to question what and why we do what we do but the people of DAPNet are there. I look forward to finding out each day the struggles and rewards that others overcome in working with draft animals. I read DAPNet each day as CS Lewis would have said if he was a draft animal “nut”, “Too know I am not alone.”
Reading the forum helps me to tackle problems I have long thought about but not having enough input and stimulus kept undone. I have for example long wondered if there was a better way to break and train colts, or better biting systems, improved machinery or harness, but I have mined the back posts and questions of the forum for a field day of information.
I believe that good science and engineering will make us better draft horse farmers and loggers. The connections I have found to European horse people on the forum have shown that to be true.
I don’t think I have one event to share but I have a daily banquet of good horse senses and youthful enthusiasm keeping me going all here on the DAPNet forum. Thank you for your hard work and patience

[Ron]

Hi JHAAS
I think if it was founder you would likely know it by now the heat in the feet usually are obvious. I am not a vet just someone who has seen a lot of foundered horses. It sounds to me like a poisoning. A horse who has even had mild rotation of the pedal bone does not want to move those feet and will stand pointing the foot or feet. Founder usually hits the front feet the worst and they will stand leaning back on the hind feet trying to take the weight off of them. The hind feet will be tucked right in under them. If it is in all four feet from a grass founder your farrier should be seeing it pretty clearly. I did lend a horse to some one one time and they foundered the horse on grain in the right front foot. At the time it was easy to tell what was going on she pointed the one foot and did not want to walk on it. We looked after it well and it came along but every year when she went out on grass she would go lame in the one foot. The only way that you would know the rest of the year that the foot was foundered was by a radiography. If a horse is sick enough from a fever or poisoning the will also founder and those are really nasty founders
Ron

[Ron]

Hi Dylan
I usually tie each knot of the halter then untie them as I make them and put the ring in it. sounds silly but that way you get the ring in the correct folds. When I try and put the rings in as I tie I usually end up with the ring not where I intended.
As for stopping I am really particular when breaking a colt about stopping. I spend a lot of time teaching start and stop in the coral making the horses turn right back to me and stop. It is hard to run away if they are facing you. From that I advance to stopping at different angles always using my voice command with the line or lead. By the time I get to the actually halter/bridle stopping is already second nature to them. The bridle is just one more way of accentuating that. It pulls the head down nicely and tucks the lower jaw in towards the chest if you pull hard enough. That is a tough place to keep going for a horse. It just makes it easier to stop then to go ahead. This halter gives you control over the whole head not just the bit. Where the head goes so goes the horse. Most colts learn quick how to evade the bit when they want to. With this that is difficult to do. If the horse is fussy they still can go forward on you but they will do that with a bit. It is easier to just work through the fussiness and keep coming back to the lessons learned in the corral.
Hope that helps
Ron

[Ron]

The picture with out the lines and just halter and rings appears like it did not make the transition from my computer to the forum. I told you I was dreadful with computers????Sorry.
Hope you can still see it.
Ron

[Ron]

Hi Dylan
Hope the pictures work and you can see them. It is hard to see with all the ropes so I took one picture with only the halter and rings the next with lines attached. The bridle/halter must stay tight so the purple lead rope you see is tied in a bosal to keep the nose band snug. I then take the loose end of the lead and pass it over the hame if I need to tie the horse up some where. The driving line goes through the ring at the nose band then under the jaw and anchors on the ring at the cheek piece. The same is done for both lines which makes an X shape under the jaw. When you tighten a line it gives pressure first on the nose band and if the horse does not response more pressure puts force around and up to the cheek ring which applies force to the top of the head.
This set up should have been a little tighter and cleaner but it was to try and make things stand out in the pictures and not for actual driving. It has rained here for two weeks and I have not been able to hitch any thing for fear of floating away.
I also liked the straight Bosal I broke the mare with it worked very well and I use a similar halter with a good tight Bosal knot on it. the down side of it is tying it each time I hitch and getting the adjustments just right. That too could be over come.
If I can answer anything else let me know. Hope the pictures work?
cheers
Ron

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Ron]

I am notoriously bad with computers and pictures but I can try. It was pretty simply I made a rope halter like I usually do and put the four rings in the knots as I did it. I had never actually seen the bridle for real but had seen pictures and my daughter had used one before. The rings are a pain putting them in just right but not impossible. I expected to have very little control and the feel to be very slow and sluggish but the horse responded quite well and with very little pressure. However if I need to put pressure on him I am not afraid of hurting his mouth and I can give a quite firm pull to make him come down on the line (can’t say bit). I think it was probably the nicest thing I have ever broken a colt with. Both the Belgium’s are my own breeding an have a really good head so maybe I just got lucky with this, I don’t know, that is why I wanted to ask about other experience. I will try and get pictures.
Cheers
Ron

[Ron]

Hi Tyler
I agree with all the comments so far. I would suggest an alternative to buying a tractor and that is to rent from someone close by. I have found that there is lots of smaller tractors bought for doing specific jobs on farms and business that only work a few weeks a year and most owners see them as a necessity but a bleed on their finances. If you know them it sometimes works out well for them to rent and you both win. On the farm I like working with my horses but my tractors are a trap. As everyone has noted they are a capital cost expense and in order to maximize that expense you have to use them. However there is another trap with tractors. No mater how level headed we all are tractors become a source of pride. I can plow five acres a day more then my nieghbour or I can cut three cord more wood a day then my brother,therefore if I only had a few more tractor hp … soon you have a hundred horse tractor and looking for a second. Horses tend to be self limiting while I think my horses are the best they are like me made of flesh and blood. They think they feel and can be offended and time is their enemy just like it is mine. Tractors seem to play right into the worst parts of us and we forget who we are. Keeping the tractor strictly as a business expense by leasing or renting I find makes sense when the rent is done the tractor and its expenses and its lure goes out my lane and over to my friend who gets the joy of feeling his tractor isn’t big enough and his payments and repairs are killing him.
cheers
ron

[Author]

Posts