chalenging obstacle

[jason glick]

this year the MOFGA LIF workshop went well except for the conditions that made any activity in the woods far from Low Impact; lots of rain. we did do some thing new, an obstacle course. tight turns, brush piles, a screaming saw and even a forwarding trailer with a loader picking up logs in a landing. seemed to be a good opportunity for those who have never driven a horse to try it without as many of the inherent risks of doing work in the woods. it was also fun for more experienced teamsters to try their skills. i’ve seen a few shots of european courses in the SFJ but no good discriptions of the courses. any ideas would be much appreciated.

[Gabe Ayers]

I bet that was a great experience, they usually have a wonderful conference and some solid practitioners at the event. I was invited to speak once a few years back but had a previous engagement so Chad Vogel went in my place and enjoyed the event.

We have thought about the obstacle course as something to include in our Biological Woodsmen’s Week activities. We haven’t done it and this is pretty much why ~ We want this activity to be as far from a show atmosphere as possible.

The BWW event is more of a combination of a logging camp, Healing Harvest Forestry Coalition group harvesting activity than a conference or seminar or any kind of show for the week we work. We generally just divide the forest into somewhat similar units and put each crew on their own patch. Usually skidding to a haul road that is accessible throughout the site. One issue with some of our guys is keeping them from being so competitive. So we try to put guys that are competitive away from the other guys that are competitive so they will just work at a normal pace, with operator safety being the first principle, sensitive harvesting and surgical silviculture being next and production being what ever it turns out to be within those principles coming first.

The main point of BWW is to be a public educational event that allows the private landowners to see “restorative forestry” in action. So each unit is visited in guided tours as groups of visitors are assembled daily throughout the week. The purpose is for folks to know this can be done and see the results of a finished job and the process of getting it there.

We do have some competitive aspects of the weeks event, but they are reserved for the last day when we have what is called “Horselogger’s Play Day”. We have a timber felling contest where poles or small sized trees are set in holes and fell toward a tin can with each crew designating their timber feller and the winner is the one that hits the can. Not as easy as you think with just a straight stem about 40 feet out of the ground. We got this from the GOL competitions, it makes sense to promote enhanced felling skills and technique. Then we have a pulling contest where we use the Cornell rules developed years ago pulling 27’6″ on a flat bottom sled loading 500 pounds at a time.

Since this is a week long event or at least five days the public gets to see plenty of obstacle course driving in the process of skidding from each unit in a real world functional setting. Each team sees the knuckleboom that travels up and down the haul road moving logs to keep the landings clear and chainsaws are screaming everywhere. So we have lots of experiences for the visitors and the participants. It is a strictly invitational event with the participating members of the group being those that have gone through our training or are going through the Biological Woodsmen apprenticeship participating. We have held several and will do more, and would love to invite anyone interested to attend.

This kind of event is a good public educational tool to be used on a community by community basis anywhere. The result of the “restorative forestry” work being neat, minimum disturbance and non-competitive is the objective. The residual condition of the forest is the most important aspect, not how much wood anyone gets out. To keep the guys from being to competitive we usually split the proceeds on the end, so if any of them get in to big a hurry, I just remind them that they are working for all of us so just take their time and concentrate of the quality of their work not the quantity.

So I don’t have any suggestions for an obstacle course, other than go out in the woods and deal with the real ones therer and then go back and see how many trees were rubbed, how many good residuals were damaged in the felling process and if there is any need for remedial work because the trail system wasn’t diverse enough. That is where the real competition comes in and it is mighty hard to make being sensitive as exciting as being just productive. But that is our intention.

We seldom have any money or prizes for the participants and the entire event is usually paid for by the proceeds from our log sales. In some cases we have harvested as much as 85,000 board feet in a four day period and that makes enough money for everyone to get a fair share. The hard part is finding just the right site to put it on. We hope to do another BWW this year and will let the DAP forum know. This and SDAD are about our only planned events for 2010 and they are still just plans, nothing solid yet.

Whatever works to get practitioners together, educate landowners and inspire new folks to become practitioners is a good thing. This is what we have done and will keep doing as a location is found.

We have gone to log skidding competitions before where the cones are twenty feet apart and the lane is twenty feet wide and you have to skid a sixteen foot pole around the course without touching the cones or stepping out of bounds and stop your horses walk around them and pick the lines up again to win.

That is cool, especially for public folks in that kind of setting. But it is a show and not what we are about. That shows people what skills the teamster has for sure, but if anyone laid out a skid trail that crooked for me more than once I would send them down the road. It there was a piece of black plastic laying it the skid trail where I was working I would pick it up and cover something with it, not make my team drive over it, might poke holes in it…

I suggest putting a more complex and appropriate face on the efforts that reflect well on the results of the work. But, if that is not possible an obstacle course would suffice and certainly allows more folks to see it at one time. But it is somewhat of a sound bite on the encyclopedia of skills the really good horse loggers have. But it may be the best we can do to educate the public. It is hard to keep folks attention for very long these days….

Maybe someone else will chime in with a better idea for an actual course.

~

[mitchmaine]

hey jason and jason, i didn’t see the obstacle course at lif as competition or carnival but more as a diversion from a mudded out woodlot. the guys pulled it together out of nothing in a heartbeat and it served as a great learning tool that day. teamsters tried their hands, tuning up their own skills on whatever level they were on with lots of help from all directions and turned a poor chance into an opportunity. even paul birdsal joined in and a good time was had by all. mitch

[john plowden]

Thank you Mitch – John

[jen judkins]

I agree with Mitch. Maybe its just the nature of those ‘maineiacs’, but I didn’t see any competitive angle to the course at all. It was just plain fun and was useful to highlight areas where skills needed work. I was dissappointed we couldn’t spend more time in the woods, but have a great deal of respect for the course organizers for sticking to the principles of low-impact forestry.

[Carl Russell]

There are two aspects to this.

One is the exposure/challenge that is both educational and instructive, both for the people performing the course, and for those watching.

The other, is the opportunity for folks to have enjoyment challenging themselves and their teams to take on a series of obstacles.

I like the idea of a working obstacle course. I see no point in competitions for competition sake, but I think that most of the people I associate with in this community of interest are pretty comfortable and could handle a friendly competition.

I would love to see an obstacle course that actually was enacted in the woods. Each person drew a number for a tree. Each tree, or perhaps section would have certain criterion to the fell. Felling, processing, skidding to a landing with sawmill or log loader working there, using sleds, or perhaps carts. This could highlight not only the individual’s skills, but the skills themselves, as well as the performance of the equipment and how to use it, and even portraying the different potential distractions and threatening situations that can occur.

One of the reasons why staging these things in the open, fairgrounds, fields, is that there is more room for people to witness them safely.

We have stayed away from “entertainment” at NEAPFD for much the same reason that Jason R. mentioned, but I have come close, considering the positives, not to mention that people, in and out of this community, love to watch. Perhaps 2010 is the year????

Carl

[simon lenihan]

The horselogging competition at pferde starke in germany is a very difficult and challenging course for singles and teams, this years even was watched by several thousand people and was one of the highlights of the show along with the pulling competition. The teamster has to guide his horse or horses through narrow posts approx 4 foot high with only a couple of inches to spare at either side, there are small timber cones on top of the posts which they must avoid knocking off [ pic 1, 067] pic 1 is the start of the course they proceed from here through more obstacles across a timber bridge over a stationary log in which they are supposed to balance the pole, another part of the course involves turning the horse or team around so they are facing the end of the pole, they then have to push the log backwards between two posts with cones on top and push a post that is lying flat on the ground with a flat board nailed to the top of the post backwards, [ fig 2, 217 ], they finish off by placing the log they are skidding on top of two stationary logs. [ fig 3, 063 ]
simon lenihan

[Scott G]

Wow Simon what a show! A thousand people at a horse logging competition! Hell, we have a hard time getting a hundred or two to attend our local draft horse shows. Other than the evening pulls at the local County fairs you literally could only have a handful at the rest of the show during the day. The Weld County fair east of where I live (Larimer County) probably had an average attendance throughout the day of thirty or less, including myself. Larimer County maybe averaged 75-100. Drafts aren’t near as big here as they are in other parts of North America, though.

Great pics. The first pic is what we would call a huntin’ blind out here!:D

[jason glick]

thanks simon for those shots. could you discribe the last photo i’m not quite sure what’s going on. are they tring to stack the logs?? thanks again for all the comments, got a few more months till this years workshop so we should be able to come up with some decent challenges.. cheers, jason

[simon lenihan]

Jason,
The bottom two logs are secured together with small stakes driven into the ground on both sides and in front to stop them moving,the aim of horse and handler is to pull the pole on top of these two logs and try and get it flush with the bottom two.
simon lenihan

[simon lenihan]

jason,
first pic should explain previous text better, second one is where handler has to move posts between stakes while horse stands quietly another part of the course is where a large log is again wedged so it cannot move, the handler has to pull the pole over the log and try and find the point of balance.
simon lenihan

[CharlyBonifaz]

to demonstrate the parcours:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfEq7u-__Y4

[Does’ Leap]

Charly:

Is that you? Thanks for the link. I thought the teamster was insistent and supportive and the horse did well given all the stimuli. What kind of horse is that? Maybe in another thread you can educate us about the different types of German draft horses. I see some beauties in Small Farmer’s journal.

George

[Author]

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