[sickle hocks]

hey sir, i think that was my post wondering about loose hay systems…

i’m pretty much a newbie, so i really welcome ideas from folks with experience…

right now haying is kind of far from my mind…trying to sort out the kinks in a pretty hot green team, and lathe turning some new wooden bushings for a disc, and the fields are starting to dry out

but soon i will be working on my mower and thinking about how to put up hay

anyway, welcome to the site, hope to hear from you

murray

[sickle hocks]

Thanks all. Kind of regret starting this post, it’s like watching a train wreck. But it seemed like the thing to do the other day.

Anway brief final update if anyone’s interested.

Went to get them out their paddock. Five year old is to point where he comes up and drops his head in the halter, usually have to walk up to four year old, but he will stand. Not this time. 4years throws head up and leaves, through electric fence, roars around field with cattle like a nut, takes 5 year old with him. Go get bucket. Catch 4 years. Lead gentle, with war bridle just in case needed. I can tell I don’t have his mind though. Just about to pen, 4years bolts. He runs into war bridle and I hold him. Next bolt he blows through me and leaves, takes out a fence, hits bush running and sort of hobbles himself in a big tangle of rope and brush. Five year old keeps going off into bush.

Rub 4years all over, let him settle down and accept where he’s at. Untangle / release him. Lead back to pen.

By the time i go to find 5years a big wind has hit and trees are thrashing around. I feel like i’m doing something right as 5years comes trotting up as soon as he sees me. I don’t even halter him, he follows at my shoulder like a dog and we wade across a pond and travel through some thick brush, he is happy to have a leader.

So anyway, I’m moving on, i don’t have the time or the experience, or a big broke horse to help out…Wish I could take home a clear lesson but I have a hard time seeing it. 5years was a difficult horse but he has really transformed himself here and I’m happy with how he’s came along. 4years i really think came with the bolt while leading issue and i’ve tried what i can think of. I didn’t cut him any slack, but i was always gentle as well as firm, never rough with him. I’m not sure what I’d do differently but there are some good suggestions on this thread. I’m going to try to send them to someone good, he could save at least one good horse out of the pair.

It’s a heavy load thinking that I wasn’t able to save 4years and may have contributed to the problem.

[sickle hocks]

Right, too defensive with the ‘flame’ comment, was just reading that ‘breaking them old school’ thread…

You know, they back up to the hitch just perfectly. Stand to get hitched. Stand untied to get harnessed. I’ve been working with them lots on that and they are fine. The five year old a bit skittish but he gets through it and relaxes. They pull relaxed and pay attention.

The four year old bolt isn’t an on-the-edge fear / panic bolt, it’s an ‘i’m the boss horse and i don’t want to be here anymore. He’s learned somewhere that he can do it and get away with it. I’m sure of that.

With the five year old i can see him starting to get to the edge of his confidence, and I can work up to things and build confidence. He’s a nervous horse but we could work through that just fine.

The four year old is tough to read, he is with me and paying attention and respectful, submissive, following, and then with no really obvious trigger he throws his head up and leaves. Not very often either, but sometimes. He doesn’t give a lot of clues before it happens. He gets a bit stiffer and he is leading not following, just for a few seconds, and then decides to go.

I think someone good could probably fix him if they were willing to put the time in. I’ve agonized over hindsight, but I am really confident that I didn’t screw that horse up, I think he came with the problem. I want to give them every chance and we’ve made a lot of progress..but there are limits to the experience and the time I can bring to this

[sickle hocks]

Ed, I’ll post a photo of an old and new boxing (bushing? here when i get it done..it sounds like there was quite a variety of styles so mine might not match yours. Mine is just a cylinder shape with a hole bored in it. I’m going to take the measurements for it off the casting and the spool as the old bushings themselves are quite worn.

[sickle hocks]

Nice job… Do you find yourself having to ration your hydraulic use during the day or does that battery handle a fair number of ups and downs?

[sickle hocks]

@brigle 26484 wrote:

I made new wood bushings for my disc out of maple . I had one half of one that was good enough for a pattern . They come in two pieces, not to hard to make either. They made a great difference on the way the disc handled.

You’re handier than I am! Did you…turn on lathe, auger out the center, then rip into two pieces? I can’t imagine how to bore out the center but maybe I can find an auger that size..wait, i think a spade bit might be just long enough

Thanks guys I won’t give up on it just yet. Most of the wear is on the trailing half of the bushing so I may try to swap the bushings from the left side of the disc with the right and get another season out of them. Unless I can make some. Mcnair doesn’t have. Not sure I can find modern ones that will fit.

[sickle hocks]

Well, now that I can look at this thing closer I see that the old wood bushings are pretty much shot. I’m not into it for very much so I’m tempted to drop the project and go with an ATV disc.

I’m not having any luck finding replacements for the old wood bushings. Anyone ever made replacements? Maybe delrin or HDPE, or even maple?

[sickle hocks]

Computers are frustrating. Nice looking disc, I wish I had the tongue truck. I think I will go for a pole for now just to keep it simple…I hope it’s not too much tongue weight or sway, don’t need sore shoulders.

Thanks for the thoughts Wally.

Do you think there are seals on those old bushings, or can I just squeeze grease in the zirc fitting until I see it come out??

[sickle hocks]

..as well as cardio and muscle conditioning, how much of an issue is getting the shoulders accustomed to the collar again??…some of the old-timers around here talk about soaking shoulders in saltwater for a few days to ‘toughen up the skin’ if the horse hasn’t been worked for a while. Old wive’s tale or sound advice???

[sickle hocks]

Thanks for posting, Andy…I didn’t realize your disc was D.I.Y. as well, but of course it is 🙂 It looks great.

[sickle hocks]

Thanks everyone, it’s helpful…I know I’ll need to adapt all of this to my local conditions, really it’s going to be an experiment…

Tom, your clumpy surface system is interesting. My situation is like Andy’s…discing unplowed ground. Even before the advent of modern zero-till methods, plowing was pretty rare in my area…people used to work their land with a cultivator (shovels or maybe spikes) or disc before drill seeding. I have a sandy loam. I don’t think there is much of a sod, it has been in small grains and canola for decades…the last few years have been ‘zero-tilled’ but it was still torn up a bit for anhydrous ammonia application and seeding. Dad is used to the idea of a fine seedbed and is skeptical about broadcasting, and thinks the disc might not incorporate the stubble residue well enough…he’s probably right.

As I’m not trying to harvest grain, uneven germination times from variable seed depth probably won’t matter so much. We will have good soil moisture to start with this year, and a cool spring, but it can dry up in a hurry here..blizzard yesterday so it still looks like winter now

I want to interseed or underseed legumes mostly for soil building and nitrogen, if it’s not too much of a headache.

I want to try a rye + low coumarin sweet clover mix and hope to get some rotational grazing on it mid summer and late fall, and maybe even a bit next spring if it doesn’t winter kill.

I wanted to try oats with a red clover…it will be cut and windrowed at a late dough stage in the fall…ideally it is a bit late maturing so you don’t have to cut it while it is still warm and moist here to avoid mold…the swaths will be grazed after the snow, behind a moving electric fence.

And I’d like to start some perennial pasture with a grass legume mix.

..almost starting to wish I’d bought a tractor…well, the partners look like they are almost done their hay so I’m going to get the harness on and give us all a bit of practice

murray

[sickle hocks]

Andy, if you don’t mind, just so i have it straight…you broadcast your rye and oats, and then just followed with a roller, no harrow? And you broadcast clover and turnips in the same pass as the cereals?

I hope I’m not hijacking your thread.

I want to seed oats for swath grazing. I would like to spring seed some fall rye, hopefully with a legume, perhaps sweet clover. Also a grass / legume mix. Everyone I read has a different take on broadcast seeding…there are so many variables I guess. If I follow the broadcast with a harrow or disc to get the grains a bit deeper then I would worry about the legumes being too deep…I suppose I could seed a second pass with the legume, but there is only so much time…

[sickle hocks]

Somebody said something once about a round pen being the quickest way to win your horse’s mind or the quickest way to ruin it. So, it won’t train your horse by itself…I know you know that already, just making the point that you will also need to make an investment in learning how horses work before you can get the most out of the pen.

Having said that, I think it’s a great tool. You can definitely train a horse without one…but you will need someplace safe to work, and if you need to build something it might as well be round as square.

My most important tools I carry in my head..I got them from spending lots of time with a really good mentor (i really wish it could have been longer, i would be better off)…if I were you, finding someone like that would be the first priority. I would also start working on a round pen. Good Luck!

[sickle hocks]

the book’s online if you want to have a look…you can click on the ‘read online’ hyperlink

http://www.archive.org/details/fencesgatesbridg00martiala

[sickle hocks]

I’ve never worked with stone.

I do have a reprint of an 1892 book called ‘Fences, Gates, and Bridges: A practical manual.’ It has a brief chapter on stone and sod fences.

Amongst some information on laying stone they show a ‘truck for moving stones’. I don’t know if you could find this online. The truck is very low to the ground with four small iron wheels. Two handles extend to the rear, wheel-barrow style. Heavy planks are laid as a ramp to the top of the wall. The truck is pushed up this ramp, and as it reaches the top, the front pair of wheels drop into a notch carved into the end of the ramp-planks. At this point the truck is lifted by the handles, with the front wheels in the notch as the fulcrum…the stone slides off and onto the top of the wall.

Watch your back 🙂 ….

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