[Will Stephens]

It only takes 1 year per inch to properly dry in the right conditions. My first electric guitar build (purchased a maple blank for the neck) had an ash body split with a froe out of a firewood pile (I dried it for a year after splitting it.) There are plenty of people who harvest their firewood with animal power!

[Will Stephens]

I had very god luck with Midwest Leather for my d-ring harness. They were very careful to follow my measurements. Made some recommendations to me (it was my first time ordering a draft harness). I got bio-thane. They are in Utah and I am in Massachusetts and everything workout out well and pricing was good. I have chunk Canadian. 14.2 but 1100-1200 lbs when in shape (which he is not currently and it ain’t nobody’s fault but my own darn-it!)

[Will Stephens]

Our rule of thumb is if they get wet to the skin I the winter, they come in. The last few weeks are not typical for us. Our winters have lots of 32-35 degree rain with high winds. Usually if it snows at least part of the snow event is rain. It has really been staying cold (5-25 degrees) so they have been able to stay out in m ore of that.

The funny part to me is the differences in my two horse. The former show Morgan prefers to be inside. It took him about a year to really get used to having to live like a horse (i.e.. outside)when he came to our farm and my Canadian hates being inside (but not as much s being alone outside!)
Like many of you, rub down and handling tell you how they feel about the temperature. My are more than ready to get back out in the morning if they have been in.

As a cautionary tale, the only time we get a sick horse is the Morgan if he is inside too much. This is also the first year I’ve over wintered pigs and helping a friend with a new sheep herd. They are all a lot tougher than the uninitiated would think.

In fact, we have been talking about building a three sided run in shed (this thread encourages me that we are on the right track with this thinking) so we can use the stall space in the barn more productively. Turns out living on the ocean the horses do a lot better outside than my steel equipment.

As for snow at fences, I actually ran a higher wire for the pigs on metal hold offs and I have used the front end loader to plow away from the fence line once or twice in 12 years.

[Will Stephens]

I would love to audit. Can auditors come Friday for some nuts and bolts time? I don’t own a plow yet but there is nothing like working on them to learn how to shop for them.

[Will Stephens]

Are these hames similar to Walsh Lynite Aluminum hames made by James M. Walsh Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin that I read about in the Draft horse journal a couple of years ago?

[Will Stephens]

Neck can be done with a reversible ball, etc. You could add air bladder to rear suspension to deal with increased tongue weight. Trailer brakes take care of most of the problems with the smaller capacity brakes you have on your truck. The new cross member can be done in an afternoon with wood (we did a friends ’01 f-150 last winter and its working fine.
I run a F-250 and still use trailer brakes towing anything over 3500 pounds to save brake and transmission wear. 12,000 lbs. with my F-450 I use trailer brakes.

By the time you buy all the parts you have an older rusting truck with a bunch of expensive parts and new tires that still isn’t FWD. I would try to find truck that has what you already want and sell your truck for money towards the new one. I just sold my 1997 F-250 with FWD, tow bar, electric brake controller, lots of new parts ( I’m a maintenance nut!) and destroyed front seat and 110,000 miles on it for $3500.00. Your truck is worth $1500 – $2,000 now (unless its really bad). If you have some more money, all the better. BTW not sure if it sold yet but there has been a 16 ft stock trailer for sale on the green mountain draft horse association web site for a while. Would maybe make a deal.

Too bad there is no more Car Talk on NPR 🙁

[Will Stephens]

The firewood option is of great interest to me. Producing firewood is not currently an option for me where I live (a small island 30 miles out in the Atlantic with few trees on it). I have done some considerable calculus on firewood production in doing research for a potential move to off the island and ways to make a living in rural New ENGLAND and get to work with draft horses. CRD is a family owned and operated (father, son, wives, and a few employees) manufacturer of really nice processing equipment with great customer service that is located in Williamsburg Massachusetts making portable machines that are much less expensive than other comparable machines. There are many options of machines and features but a reasonable calculation for a 2-3 cord per hour capacity portable machine with lots of wiggle room and depending on your local market is 700-1200 cords of production (not logging cost) to pay for the machine. That’s not very much and if 2-3 people are close enough to make it reasonable to share purchase and maintenance you could have a very nice and dependable income stream. This seams to be real value added produced from a silviculturist (real word?) horse logger’s most likely raw material of logs considered marginal for sale to lumber.
Scale and politics always enter our decision making process but if this fits your goals it is worth pursuing.

[Will Stephens]

Jared,
I have never seen these either. Jelmer’s input was really interesting and has my gears turning about how to make one. But what are the advantages of this harrow and are the advantages enough to overcome the efforts needed to find/build one?

[Will Stephens]

This discussion inspired me to try leading in a new way. We only have two horses but our gates and one of the barn doors is very narrow so I have always brought them in one at a time. I have always switched up which side I lead from and make detours occasionally to make sure everyone is actually paying attention. But leading them both in together has fun. I laughed at loud at myself for not learning from Tulie about planning it out better before hand. In the end, horses did great, thunder and lighting went unnoticed while they were trying to figure out what I was trying to ask of them. Incident free and now becoming the new norm. Now I have to by a third horse to try that!

[Will Stephens]

I live in the Lyme disease capitol of the word and have served on the two separate tick/Lyme task forces here. I am currently on doxycycline myself for the fourth or fifth time in 16 years. For the horses it is no joke. I have had three horses contract Lyme disease. My mare Tess was so affected her titer was the highest readable number (3000 if memory serves) which spiked a massive fever. Fever caused laminitis resulting in her being put down after 6 months of trying to keep her going. She was a great horse. We found the tick right away and caught the fever right away and it all was still for naught. It is part of our routine to check the horses after being in tall grass or the woods just like we check our selves and the dogs every time. We seam to find them on the horses mostly around the head. It’s amazing how many we find in the longer hair under their lower jaw.

Doom and gloom sounding but I mean it as a cautionary tale to others, prevention in this case is by far the best cure. We use a fly spray that helps repel ticks also.

We have had success with the doxycycline but some pro-biotic digestive help for the horse is essential because the dosage is large and for a long time. Light walking which they very well may have no interest in doing on their own, and watch the temperature in their feet (cold water hose or cold stream if you have one.)

best of luck with it.

[Will Stephens]

Ichthammol is what we have used with success also. We soak twice a day but is very convenient for our setup. We have come up with some pretty funny looking wraps that have worked (accept the Morgan, he insists on pulling any wrap off his feet!)

[Will Stephens]

This team already has a new home (sadly not mine, they sounded great).

[Will Stephens]

I’m in SouthEast Mass and have been looking for an experienced team. I’ll call him today.

[Will Stephens]

Peyton. The Principles of Horse Shoeing by Doug Butler. version I is out of print and it may be up to a third addition. It is the best, very comprehensive book I have found. A first print copy was given to me by the woman who taught me to shoe. You can’t learn it all from a book but this will get you going and really understanding .

[Will Stephens]

Credit is the tool of the devil! If your father has a machine, rent it from him on the days you need it. Buy what you can when you can. Remember, you are not borrowing money, you are buying time. Sounds like you really would be well served to work for someone else in the woods to learn the lay of the business more comfortably. With your skills you can pick up piece work as needed. Take this free advise from a guy that bought into the “borrow now so you can grow later” school; you may end up doing work you do not enjoy to pay for equipment you wish you didn’t own. On the skid steer specifically, maybe 1 out of 10 people I know who have one use them enough to justify the cost. Around here it cost about $150/day or $450/month to rent one. lots of people will swap use of there under utilized machine for firewood or labor on one of there projects. Any equipment you buy need to increase your income by 35% +- just to break even on it. I try to use a figure of 50% as a minimum for a convenience machine and higher for pure investment. Don’t forget the taxes you have to pay on the income it takes to purchase plus operating costs and depreciation. I’m rambling now but I have paid the banker his debts and I prefer to work for myself.

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