Apollo, a work in progress

[cousin jack]

@jenjudkins 17394 wrote:

I’m really enjoying the progression as you work with him….keep it coming! BTW, nice feet!

Thank you for your comments. I have a good farrier and I want to keep him, so I try to help him as much as I can, I know he does not like to be mauled about by a draft horse so by doing a little at a time, when he gets to work on him, he will be easy to do. He does have good feet, they were a little long but now I can get the rasp on him they are coming back each day.

[cousin jack]

Day 15 I was half expecting some trouble today as I was going to drive him straight out of the yard, with the mare calling etc, I thought he might try it on. But, not a bit of it, straight out of the yard and up the lane no bother, we did about a mile and a half, and he has a real good stride on him, turned around and set off for home, got my wife to lean back on the traces and pull them around a bit, I kept telling her to “lean back, dig your heels in”, “I am” she says, anyway he was keen to get home but was not stupid about it, my wife was sweating by the time we got home though, I told her she should be grateful for such a work out, they would have charged her a fortune at a gym.

[cousin jack]

Day 17, decided to try him in his “home” pasture so to speak. Harnessed him up and then dragged the swingletree around him, as he was very wary of this, mainly because being on concrete, it was making a heck of a racket. Spent 10 minutes, dragging it around him, getting him used to the noise and then he became accustomed to it. Hermes was on hand and could’nt believe the fuss he was making over a bit of noise, you could almost hear her telling him to stop being such a baby, and get on with it. Anyway, drove him around pulling the swingletree on the concrete, for a few minutes and then around the field. I should say he was much better at standing tonight, perhaps it was the presense of the older horse, but on a whoa, he would stop and stand till asked to do something else, so good progress there, then introduced him to a small log, which he then pulled around the field, again, I could hear Hermes saying, “call that a log”. Finished by tying them together for a few minutes. A good evening.

[OldKat]

@cousin jack 17473 wrote:

Day 15 I was half expecting some trouble today as I was going to drive him straight out of the yard, with the mare calling etc, I thought he might try it on. But, not a bit of it, straight out of the yard and up the lane no bother, we did about a mile and a half, and he has a real good stride on him, turned around and set off for home, got my wife to lean back on the traces and pull them around a bit, I kept telling her to “lean back, dig your heels in”, “I am” she says, anyway he was keen to get home but was not stupid about it, my wife was sweating by the time we got home though, I told her she should be grateful for such a work out, they would have charged her a fortune at a gym.

Just curious, how was that received? I tried the same thing with my wife, but she didn’t fall for it. She kept saying, “Let ME drive the mare and YOU pull on the traces!” 😀

[cousin jack]

@OldKat 17652 wrote:

Just curious, how was that received? I tried the same thing with my wife, but she didn’t fall for it. She kept saying, “Let ME drive the mare and YOU pull on the traces!” 😀

Ha Ha, funnily enough she did suggest that at one point, I countered by saying the exercise would be great for her figure, I think I got another black mark for that one, 😀
I have been working away from home recently, so i have done little with Apollo other than to harness him daily while I tidy up around the field and stables in the evening.

[OldKat]

@cousin jack 17670 wrote:

Ha Ha, funnily enough she did suggest that at one point, I countered by saying the exercise would be great for her figure, I think I got another black mark for that one, 😀
I have been working away from home recently, so i have done little with Apollo other than to harness him daily while I tidy up around the field and stables in the evening.

cousin jack,

While I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer; I can ASSURE you that I would have NEVER used that approach. I am in trouble enough already around the house without looking for any more! :p

[cousin jack]

Week 5 Due to working way from home with Hermes I have not been able to do as much as i would have liked with “our young man” as we call him. This morning we had him harnessed ready to pull a small sledge, although no weight, it does make a lot of noise on our hard tracks and lanes. We set off from the yard and I made a mistake in asking him to do something before he was away from the mare and concentrating properly, I stopped and asked him to turn in his own space and come back past the sledge, as he did so, she called, he answered and quickened past the spinning sledge and he was off, I immediately dropped one line and hauled hard on the other, bringing him to a halt in a few yards, but this could have been a setback, lesson learned on my part, get him away from the distractions of the fairer sex before starting to ask him questions. Anyway, we set off again with my wife on the sledge acting as ballast, (no dear, I’m not saying you’re overweight), and we got him working and blowing a little before asking the questions, which he answered in the A+ category, Simon said this horse was special and I believe him now. He learns very quickly, you are always able to raise the bar and move on with the next step, he has a superb temperment and does not harbour any malice. Hopefully off to the wood tomorrow.
Turning in his own space

[cousin jack]

Today was our first time in the wood, no other horses to distract him, so no excuses. At home in the field when we have been pulling a small lump of wood around he dos’nt seem to have been putting in a great deal of effort, almost to the point that he seemed lethargic and i wondered if he had the stomach for logging, today has given me the answer to those thoughts. From the start when we walked up through the wood he was very “bullish” and impatient, almost as if he knew that an effort was going to be required. He would not stand whilst i chokered a log, a 10ft length of red oak that was not heavy but one that I knew would tell after a while, and i had to get my wife to stand at his head while i hitched up. Lethargy was not a problem today and he set off with a good strong stride, the problem was again with standing still when asked to whoa, he was very impatient to get on with it. After a few asks and some foolishness on his part it was time to say, “ok, if you want to walk, then we will walk untill you’re glad to stand still”, and i mentally resolved to be there all day if neccessary. Thank goodness that was’nt the case, as i could have been on my knees first 😀
It did take a good 45 minutes though, with the log on long traces to give him no lift, eventually I said whoa, and he was glad of the rest. Every time I did this, I backed him up a step and made a great play of handling the chains and swingle tree as if i was chokering a log, after another half hour of this we ended the session best of friends again, shafts next.

[cousin jack]

Week Six
Ok, we have had our first major setback, and I thought it as well to tell of my mistakes as well as the good bits.
I am going to quote Gregg Caudell, with his permission, from his Horselogger’s Manual.
Page 31 says, (and I wish now that I read this book AND memorised it word for word), “Laying down the lines of a team and turning to do something else is a crap shoot that will lead to trouble”.
We took Hermes with us, for a “picnic” as my wife said, she was there to keep Apollo company. I first hitched him to a light log just to start off easy, he was fine while I hitched up, reassured by her presence, no doubt. I then made a big mistake, I shortened the traces as i would if I was pulling a heavy log, this was not necessary as there was very little weight. We set off and everything was fine, relaxed, forward going, and i was thinking that this chap is wonderful. We got to the deck and instead of going to a clear area, i confidently asked him to go in amongst some other logs, which he did no problem. I then made another mistake, it is my usual practise when working with Hermes to throw the reins to the floor, and hitch/unhitch, of course she is 16 yrs old and has seen and done it all. The chain grab had ended up under the log so I could not release it straight away, as i went to roll the log, he stepped forward and turned to see where Hermes was, I made a grab for the reins but only got one which spun him round quick, because I had short hitched the traces, there no slack in them, the swingle tree slammed into his fetlocks, he jumped forward, pulling the butt end of the log into some other lengths which rolled under him and onto his legs, at that he took off and i could not hang on and had to let go. Fortunately he lost the log in yards but the swingle tree was now bashing against his hocks. He must have gone 100yds or so then realised Hermes was still with us, so he came thundering back, lickity split and pulled up sharp when getting back to Hermes. He was alright luckily and I tried to pretend nothing had happened, just took him straight back and hitched up another log and back to the landing making sure I kept hold of the reins and got Vickie and Hermes to stand at his head, he was upset that much was obvious, mainly in the area where it all happened, I am kicking myself now.

[cousin jack]

Decided the best thing to do was to go straight back at it today, took him on his own. He was anxious, and certainly remembered what had happened yesterday, and where it had happened, pulled out some logs to start on to the ride where I could get them with the forwarder, then pulled some down to the deck where yesterdays incident had happened, he then started to play up and mess about so took him for a good walk through the wood hoping to quieten him down, this did’nt do a lot of good and although we got through a couple of hours work, things were “on the edge”, so to speak, he has definately lost confidence in me and I in him, the whoa has gone to hell and I think we are going to have to go back to the start again! Oh, how I wish I could turn back the clock 🙁

[jac]

Thank you for posting such an honest detail of your unfortunate incident.. but keep in mind that he may or may not have lost confidence in you but you must never lose confidence in him coz as you know that will travel down the lines like a telgraph. I have followed your progress from the start and wish you a safe return to where you were..
John

[cousin jack]

@jac 18269 wrote:

Thank you for posting such an honest detail of your unfortunate incident.. but keep in mind that he may or may not have lost confidence in you but you must never lose confidence in him coz as you know that will travel down the lines like a telgraph. I have followed your progress from the start and wish you a safe return to where you were..
John

John, thanks for your comments, I am sure we will get back there, but I am on a bit of a downer at the moment, we were flying and thanks to my stupidity we have crashed. Fortunatly the only scars are mental and not physical.

[Bryan]

Hang in there for yourself and the horse. If You are still there for him, he’ll come back. Mine have.

[cousin jack]

Took him back to the round pen yesterday, this did’nt do a great deal of good but probably did no harm, there were two mares in the field next to it and he spent most of his time trying to get their attention, saying something along the lines of “look at me girls, ar’nt I something special”, for their part they played hard to get and ignored him. Anyway I roped him out, put the rope everywhere, under his legs, round his legs, through his legs, snaked it , shook it, did everything but skip with it, he did’nt bat an eyelid. Then I just walked him around with the reins attached to the headcollar, nothing in his mouth, he responded pretty good and I called it a day while things were going well.
This morning with Bryan’s help we worked him in his home field where he seems more relaxed, with Hermes mooching about, laughing at him and calling him names. Again just worked him off the headcollar, had a bit in his mouth but attached the reins to the headcollar, he was perfect , right up till we attached a small log, then he got a bit anxious again not trusting this thing bouncing around behind him, likely to come and bite his bum. His latest trick after halting, is to walk back over the traces, anyway we eventually finished on a good note, so called it quits.
This is an intelligent horse, I am beginning to think he is testing me as much as the other way round. I have 30yrs experience on my side of riding horses and all the truly exceptional ones had given someone a hard time in their younger days, and I know that when we find the key to the door, I shall have a very special horse.

[jen judkins]

I sooo feel your frustration! I have been in the same shoes and I understand the feeling that you let your horse down. I have no doubt though that he will be just fine and you both will get over that rough day:D

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