[wild millers]

Very nice work George. Thanks for sharing the pictures and ideas.

[wild millers]

As you all have borne witness to now… When I have a thought that I need to explore, or a problem I need to figure out, I find that I get my best start towards understanding or finding peace when I sit down and write about it. Just keep writing until thoughts stop coming, then read it all back to myself and write more.

Carl, I wish you peace, confidence and happiness in your work. Whether it may someday be with these particular horses or not. Thanks for the inspiration.

-Joel

[wild millers]

Bare with me for a long winded thought here… I have just read through the dialogue on this thread and have been enjoying all the thoughtful and insightful comments from folks. As usual when I spend some time reading around this forum, I’m always finding little bits of gold that I can either directly apply to improve my working routines or tuck into the back of my mind to call back on when I’m interacting with my animals.

When I fist started working horses 8 years ago it was a quick and rough introduction. I had no idea about human/horse communication besides what felt right to me. Didn’t grow up with horses, never heard of a round pen or lunging, we just harnessed the team and went straight to the work that needed to be done. First learned how to drive between the barn and the hay field. Its a miracle no one was ever hurt and we never had any serious runaways but I remember the feeling when heading out to hitch to a piece of farm equipment with two people handy. One to stand at the reins and one to do the hitching because we knew that we couldn’t do it alone, the horses would never be that patient. The last trace chain hitched, reins in hand, step up onto implement, heart racing, tell helper to step aside, try to hold horses still before asking them to go. Horses are nervous and tense, I’m incredibly tense, adrenaline throbbing as they almost run away and I’m just trying to get them out of the equipment yard.

They were thankfully never aggressive towards me, I owe them all my gratitude for the patience and tolerance they had of me, but they certainly didn’t trust me. We were lucky in that those horses were an older team and they had experience. As soon as I got out of the yard and into the hay field they were able to relax a little bit with the familiar round and round activity of raking or tedding and I was finally able to relax a little too and start to feel the subtleties of gentle reining and clear communication.

That was my first year living on and working a farm. My wife and I started our market gardening buisness that year and we wanted to work horses in our gardens. A whole set of equipment and tasks that I was unfamiliar with. Every piece of equipment we hitched to, I was just learning to use while also still very unaware of how my energy was feeding into the horses that felt like they would run away the second I dropped the lines or had to try to hitch something by myself. Heart racing, adrenaline always pumping, but there was always a task to be done. Not the way that I would ever introduce someone to working with horses or farming now!

8 years later, same horses, same teamster, no professional intervention. I can now harness those animals by myself, unrestrained, go out to the field and accomplish everything I need to in a quiet and timely way. Horses stand quiet, hitching/unhitching different equipment different tasks. Those older animals have now helped me train our young 5 year old team to do the same work. The difference I see is that now when I head to the field, I know exactly what I want to achieve, from what direction to approach the task, how the horses, the equipment and I link together to make it possible. The horses are comfortable and confident knowing exactly where to put their feet and with exactly how much power because I think about those things long before we ever leave the barn. I’ve spent these years focusing my intentions on being able to go out with the team alone and accomplish whatever task was at hand by myself. Not that I feel as though I need to prove something, but simply because that was the only path I could see that would bring me to a real ability to make horses work for us. With so many tasks to be done and never enough people around to always have a helper. It was clear to me early on that there must be a better way. That this craft is one that runs deep and I have much to learn. The way I’m getting there is by doing lots of reading, always observing, and slowly gaining the animals trust in me as I’m growing my skills and knowledge of what, when, where, why and how I am applying their power. I will always be learning, but now I have a clear understanding of my farming systems and plans. How and when to implement them and with which tools. These horses know this, I can feel their trust when we step into a furrow or straddle a row.

Now… where this whole novel is heading..

My farming season has ended and I had our young team back into the woods for the first time this season. A time and place that I have great reverence for, but truth be told, I have spent relatively little time working my horses in the woods, we have done this all before, but have never yet really found our zone. I know how to hitch a log and drive my horse, but I still don’t really know what my systems are for accomplishing this work with horses in the woods. So here we were with the first log hitches of this year and I felt a familiar feeling and saw a familiar reaction. The horses that have been so steady and focused for me in the fields this summer are now anxious, tense, nervous and don’t want to stand still. As I back to the hitch my heart is racing and as they step into the pull my adrenaline is pumping as the horses lunge forward ready to run off to timbuktoo. Even though we are both tense, they are still able to hear and understand me when I say whoa. I spent the afternoon frustrated with the horses. Trying to calm and steady them. Same reaction, log after log, until I decided to end the evening by just driving loops around the woods until all of our hearts calmed down and we were calm and on the same page again. It was not until I had read through this thread this evening that I remembered and needed to share all of this story because it is so quickly clear to me that I’m the one that needs to be calmed and steadied.

Perhaps it is just the unfamiliar that has made me nervous, perhaps it has been becoming a father that has made me more cautious in life. I have a healthy respect for the dangers of logging and farming in general, but I guess my current trial is separating my caution from nervousness so that I can do this work confidently and regain my horses trust. At the end of all this, there is still work that needs to be done and I do need to find my confidence to be able to do it safely and effectively.

The whole relevance of this long winded post in regards to this thread is that I wanted to make the point that here we have again…same experienced horses, same somewhat experienced teamster, different environment (or stimulus) completely different experience.

[wild millers]

Lots of sun the next 4 days here it seems like every hay field in the neighborhood got cut today.

Nice idea with the sheepskin. After a few hours of mowing that bolt head sure starts to get uncomfortable.

[wild millers]

We got our first round of hay in last week successfully! Great looking weather window opened up today and we cut the remaining 4 acres of our first crop this morning.

To answer Daniel’s question posted earlier on.. we have two # 9 mowers that we have fixed up, one with a 5 ft. bar on new rubber wheels and one with a 6 ft bar on steel wheels with semi decent lugs on them still.

This morning was the first time I have cut hay with the 6 ft machine after we acquired it and fixed it up. So far I’m not sure that I like the extra foot on the cutter bar. It obviously saves passes and time, that is nice. It just feels a little awkward with that much more weight and length out there. Also I can see that so far I prefer the rubber wheels over the steel even though I’m not going down the road or over any hard ground, it is still feels like a noticeably smoother ride on the rubber than steel. I was having some issues with losing wheel traction and the resulting clogging on a few wetter spots in the field that I don’t think would have been an issue with the rubber tires. I have never yet lost wheel traction with the rubber wheels. Has anyone else found traction trouble more readily with the steel wheels on their machines?

[wild millers]

George, that sounds like it must have been quite a test of patience. One way or another you got it though.

We also got after our first cutting today, about 3 acres down and tedded. This is our first go of managing our own hay operation on our own land…what a thrill! I’m sure that I will have days with conditions like George was dealing with, at some point it is inevitable.

Not today though…

#9 ran smooth and clean, the Grimm tedder also did it’s job. The crop in this old field was fairly thin in most spots and had a large swath of very dense red clover down the center. I’ve never mowed through such thick red clover before, there was Timothy growing with it but the clover was so dense and matted that the grass board was useless at clearing a swath for the next pass. No real clogging to speak of all morning though.

I had a brush with pure and complete contentment for a while with the mower running smooth, horses going good, mostly easy mowing conditions, comfortable breeze blowing and our local flock of Barn/Tree Swallows dancing all over the field around me. I’m sure some of you have mowed through a similar picture at some point. I’m very grateful for the memory.

Now crossing our fingers to keep the good weather until it’s in the barn.

Happy hay season all-

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[wild millers]

Good thoughts guys

Bob- I am right handed.

J.L Holt- I agree, I like the job well done and evenly turned. It is not that my off horse can’t walk the furrow, he can and will if we work on it together. It may be a combination though of off horse being a little less graceful in the furrow and the near horse being a little less sure of himself when he’s out of the furrow.

That lead’s to Carl’s thoughts- I do find myself more often than not turning left with the cultivator and harrows now that I think of it.

I have been dissatisfied enough with the right hand furrow to avoid it entirely while breaking this new ground. I think that is mainly attributed to a fear of not being able to properly turn the old sod that I need to have thoroughly broken down by next spring.
For now I will keep plowing left since I don’t mind breaking the field into lands anyway. Sometimes a long sweeping turn at the headland is smoother and flows better than stopping the team to swing 180 degrees back into the furrow.

I’m sure that Carl is right saying it would be a good exercise for my horses and myself to really work at the right turn more, I just need to find a chance to do that when not so much is at stake in the quality of the finished job. Perhaps a way to approach the right hand plowing aspect is to find more chances to work on turning/swinging right in other aspects of our farm work for a while before putting more time into the plowing.

Maybe some cross over brain exercises would be a good thing to work on with our daughter to stimulate both of our brains!

[wild millers]

Thanks Ed, good luck to you as well.

[wild millers]

KMichelle, I have had the chance to visit White Oak Nursery in Strasburg, PA. It is owned and managed by and Amishman named Amos Fisher and his family. They grow nursery stock, and have extensive orchards, all managed with horses. He had some interesting thoughts and specialized equipment that he had custom made for managing his orchards with horse power. Including a motorized, horse drawn tree digger for his nursery stock.

He was great to visit with, lots of knowledge, really nice, and spent quite a bit of time with me touring his very well planned out and maintained orchards. Has a great little farm store on site selling produce, apples, and orcharding supplies as well as nursery stock.

If it is a long drive for you to that area of PA, the trip could be sweetened a bit since his nursery is just minutes down the road from Peach Lane Harness (Amish shop, they are makers of really nice harness for really good prices) also just minutes from another Amish shop making collars. All hand stitched leather with Rye straw stuffing. Really high quality and the best prices that I have found anywhere. My harness and collars come from these shops.

Call 717-687-8861 from 6-8 p.m to request a White Oak catalog

717-687-5122 For Peach Lane Harness Catalog

Spring fruit tree planting is such an exciting task at the start of a new season! 3-4 acres will be quite an orchard, good luck!

[wild millers]

We pulled the home made seed roller out of the barn today to pack in our cross country ski trail and give the boys some exercise. Another 12-18″ coming our way Saturday-Sunday.

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[wild millers]

Thanks Carl, Those pictures are really helpful. I like the look of the first hook pictured, though I assume they are not commercially available today? The hooks pictured at the bottom also look good and they look like they still have barcode stickers on them. Is that so? Do you remember where they came from?

The second hooks pictured look like the description Mark gave of the hooks the Meader’s carries. Anyone else have any thoughts of availability of these today?

[wild millers]

Would one of you mind explaining what you mean when you say it is easier to hitch lower with the D-ring? My log arch has a high pole as well, with the evener on top of the pole. It doesn’t really seem harder to hitch than on my regular for cart with a lower evener. With the evener under the pole it might even be a little harder to hitch for having to reach down under and around to get the links hooked in.

My slip and grab hooks on the back are at the same height as the evener in the front set on top of the pole. Is this what you mean by a straight line of draft?

[wild millers]

I should also mention that Mark Cowdry makes a nice looking “Piggyback” bolt on firewood arch for the Pioneer cart at a reasonable price. There is an ad for it on this website somewhere.-Joel

[wild millers]

Hi Lizzy, I don’t know specifically about the 606 or 607 but I think they are quite heavy duty?

I would consider what sort of equipment you hope to move with the cart and what sort of tongue weights you might expect.. A heavy duty cart may be more than you need for most market garden work.

I have used a white horse for cart before that had an adjustable axle. You could move it forward or backwards depending on how much tongue weight was hitched behind. This was a nice feature for moving around heavy, two wheeled, trailers full of fire wood, or two wheeled ground driven manure spreaders because you could put more of the trailer tongue weight on the axle and stop the pole from lifting up by the horses’ heads. I have never used a cart with a steering lever, though I once heard an Amishman scoffing at how much his children used the steering lever to steer the cart rather than steering the horses.

For simple drag work around the market gardens..harrows, wagons, rollers/cultipackers, etc. a lighter cart might be just the ticket.

We use a Pioneer cart that I believe we got for around $600, and these carts are so common they seem to pop up on craigs list quite often. It has always done the work I needed it to around the market gardens as well as pulling hay rakes and wagons in the hay field. Pioneer also makes other useful attachments that can be added to make it more than just a for cart. We use the scraper blade for snow plowing, I don’t own one but they sell a potato plow that will bolt onto the same lifting mechanism. I would like to find a small york rake that could mount onto this system as well for grading work. 2 to 3 horse adjustment is easy, pole to shafts adjustment is easy, it has drum brakes rather than hydraulic but they work fine for what I have needed them. They will lock the wheels with very little effort and I never could figure out how the expense of a hydraulic system could serve that function any better.

Good luck-
P.S you can try out our Pioneer cart when you come for a visit if you like.

-Joel

[wild millers]

Several different perspectives here are all helpful to read about. Thank you for the thought out responses.

Donn, I had thought of that option for slipping the down facing hooks into the side strap of the jockey yoke instead of the ring. I wasn’t able to picture the size of the hooks though and wasn’t sure if they would fit or work well that way. Have you ever seen anyone use this method?

I agree with Brad that I don’t have any problem leaving halters on under bridles and my horses have never shown any discomfort from this. I don’t do it for any field work but working in the woods is such a different environment than any other kind of farming. I guess it provides more straps to get hooked or caught on things but it seems to me if a halter is going to get hooked on something then the bridle would have been hooked anyway.

That said though, after reading about George’s experience with the clip in the mouth and a few other people voicing having this same issue, I will not tie my horses in the woods again until I switch over my hooks. I have also experienced those hooks catching bits and even driving lines during regular field work in the summer.

Following Donn’s line of thought I have never felt quite comfortable enough to chain from behind for similar reasons that he stated, especially after hearing Brad’s story.

I like how clean and simple George’s Bridle/halter design is, the pictures were very helpful to understand what you were talking about. Though I still think I would rather the halter under the bridle. One thing that would worry me is if the horses were tied with this design, and had a panic moment for whatever reason, I think the halter is built more for heavy restraint to get them past the initial fright (since were talking about the teamster not being at the lines for this moment). Bridles, not being built for restraint, could part and become a real problem.

I have made the mistake in the past of tying a bridled horse (in the barn) by the ring on the side of the bridle (not the bit ring) rather than switch over to the halter or to clip into the halter if there was one on underneath. For who knows what reason (possibly a loose chicken flew up into the manger) The horses backed in fear and tore the crown off of both of their bridles at the same time.

As of tomorrow we will have around 40″ of loose powder in our woods. I don’t think I can be productive in those conditions no matter how “bullish” I’m feeling. Time, I think, for me to switch over to some projects in the barn/house and possibly take some off farm carpentry work.
-Joel

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