Greetings from the Finger Lakes

[Howling Farmer]

Just thought I’d take a moment this very rainy morning to introduce myself. I have a small homestead and an 8-year-old haflinger gelding named Milt. When I bought him five years ago, I had no experience driving or working horses, although I had ridden extensively and owned horses when I was younger. Even though Milt was only three years old when I got him, I was drawn to his ad which read “ignores school buses and semis.” The first time I took him out on a drive, we did in fact encounter two school buses, which he did in fact ignore. He did not, however, ignore the neighbor’s pasture of goats….

Most of our learning has been by the seat of our pants (mine, on occasion, being dragged through the dirt), but Milt has turned into a very reliable work horse who has done everything from plowing the snow off our quarter mile driveway to hauling the broken down lawn tractor. Most recently we have started mowing and went out to work with Donn and his animals. Now I now how much easier it is to have some mentoring.

So glad to have found this forum and I look forward to getting to know you all better.

Leslie

[LStone]

Welcome Leslie,

I won’t speak for anyone other than myself, but my pants have been drug through the mud on more than one occasion. I find it to be a very effective teaching aid although I try not to make it a common occurance. Somehow I don’t think we are alone.

Larry

[Marshall]

Your beginning with the horses sound about like mine. I have had them for a few years now and thing go much better. You live in a very beautiful area. We were there a few years ago doing some geneology research. I hope to make it back again some day.

[Pammy]

@LStone 19851 wrote:

Welcome Leslie,

I won’t speak for anyone other than myself, but my pants have been drug through the mud on more than one occasion. I find it to be a very effective teaching aid although I try not to make it a common occurance. Somehow I don’t think we are alone.

Larry

What have I let myself in for:eek:

I never thought about plowing the snow, how is this done?

[Scott G]

Thats where the occasional use of the phrase “stumps up your butt” comes into play as it relates to the vocation of horse logging. 🙂

Welcome and way to go by hanging in there.

[Howling Farmer]

Thanks for the welcomes and making me feel like I’m not the only one who has had some mishaps along the way…

Scott — “stumps up the butt” made me laugh!

Pammy — we use a homemade snow plow. It’s two heavy boards nailed together to a short piece of 4″X4″ to form a “V.” Then more heavy boards going across the top to brace it. I nailed a small wooden box to the top to sit on. Sometimes my daughter sits on it too, if we need it to be heavier to plow deeper (we’re each only 100 lbs. each). Easy enough to build (if I can do it, anyone can do it…) Let me know if you’re interested and want a picture or dimensions. If I’m remembering correctly, your horse is about the same size as mine. It works well if you plow right after it snows. If you let the snow build up or get icy, it tends to ride on top and act more like a sled than a plow.
Leslie

[Pammy]

@Howling Farmer 19973 wrote:

Thanks for the welcomes and making me feel like I’m not the only one who has had some mishaps along the way…

Scott — “stumps up the butt” made me laugh!

Pammy — we use a homemade snow plow. It’s two heavy boards nailed together to a short piece of 4″X4″ to form a “V.” Then more heavy boards going across the top to brace it. I nailed a small wooden box to the top to sit on. Sometimes my daughter sits on it too, if we need it to be heavier to plow deeper (we’re each only 100 lbs. each). Easy enough to build (if I can do it, anyone can do it…) Let me know if you’re interested and want a picture or dimensions. If I’m remembering correctly, your horse is about the same size as mine. It works well if you plow right after it snows. If you let the snow build up or get icy, it tends to ride on top and act more like a sled than a plow.
Leslie

Thanks Leslie, I would love to see pics!

I am looking forward(almost)to the snow coming, may as well have some fun and work the pony too!
When I told my neighbour about what I was planning on doing he said I would get a reputation for being the crazy Scottish Canadian Kennel lady(I own a dog/cat boarding place), emm….what do his horses do all winter…how much does it cost to run his bobcat….who is crazy now?!

[Howling Farmer]

Pammy — Here are some pictures we took last winter. Let me know if you want some when the plow isn’t covered with snow and I can take more.
Leslie

[Pammy]

@Howling Farmer 19989 wrote:

Pammy — Here are some pictures we took last winter. Let me know if you want some when the plow isn’t covered with snow and I can take more.
Leslie

Thanks, tell me how long does it take you to do your driveway, does it do an adequate job?
I am awful on the quad, it does not have power steering and I dont have the upper body strength to pull it round too good and I am prone to tipping it on slopes!….I promise my equine skills are much better…although saying that I have yet to harness up and try all this stuff!

I have put an ad on Kijiji for collar & hanes harness but had no replies yet, I know there is a weekly auction close by but am unsure what to look for, I had a search online but it all look much the same to me, cripes I never knew this would be so complicated, in my mind I thought any harness, stick it on, attach pony to something and away we go:rolleyes:ignorance is bliss as they say;)

[Howling Farmer]

Pammy — the plow plows the width of the driveway, or enough to get a vehicle through, so it only takes as long as it takes to walk the horse up and down the driveway. How well it works really depends on the conditions. My driveway is almost a quarter mile, slight incline, right in the middle of fields and prone to terrible drifting. If the snow is light and fluffy, the plow works great. If the drifts get too bad, the plow tends to zig zag around them. Not sure if this is because it isn’t heavy enough. If the snow piles up too much, the plow tends to compact it rather than plow through it. If you plow right after it snows and don’t get bad drifting, I think it would be adequate. Last winter, I was able to keep the top of my driveway, where there’s no drifting, open. The bottom became impassible about halfway through when the snow started piling up and we got some big dumps.
Leslie

[8BitFarm]

this is a really interesting topic, plowing snow with the horse… do you have any other pictures of your plow, Leslie? It’s one of the things I thought we could do with Tank to keep him in condition over the winter, but I couldn’t quite figure out how to do it. I didn’t really want to try figuring out a backblade for him, being that he’s small, but if your Milt can do it, i feel like Tank probably can, too, especially since our driveway is pretty short.
Anyway, any more pics of your snow plow setup would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Anya

[CharlyBonifaz]

what about using a slip scraper?

[8BitFarm]

what’s a slip scraper? (yes, it’s true, I’m really *that* green when it comes to the actually machinery part of draft animal work…)

[dlskidmore]

@8BitFarm 20238 wrote:

what’s a slip scraper? (yes, it’s true, I’m really *that* green when it comes to the actually machinery part of draft animal work…)

Me too, but Google Image Search is wonderful for that sort of thing.

[dlskidmore]

@LStone 19851 wrote:

my pants have been drug through the mud on more than one occasion. I find it to be a very effective teaching aid

Effective for teaching the horse or yourself? 🙂

[Author]

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