haflingers

[michaelk]

Curious if anyone uses Haflingers, single or double, for woods work and if this work is on a professional or personal level. I have a strong interest in beginning work on my tree farm with animal power instead of my atv. Everything about our life is small. Small house, small(2 stall for now) barn, and very small (but growing) pasture so a small horse is a much more comfortable thought than a full size draft showing up in the yard. My research here and elsewhere on the web indicate the smaller breeds can do an exceptional amount of work in relation to their size. It is an endeavour I would like to see grow into a full time occupation both on my lot and as a contracted logger. Starting with a small Haflinger feels right to me for many reasons, but if a full sized draft comes overly reccommended by everyone here, I would certainly take that reccommendation quite seriously. I have very little interest in riding but I’m afraid driving and logging has certainly caught my attention like nothing else. The amount of knowlege on this site is incredible! Thanks
Mike

[Marshall]

I can’t say anything about logging but for general farm work mine work out very well. I am just getting started growing produce, but I plan on using them as much as possible. I have used them to pull wagons, spread manure, pull a disc, and pull the drill for planting oats and hay. This spring they are going to learn to plow, they just don’t know it yet. Good luck.

[Andy Carson]

I, for one, have tremendous respect for the work haflinger sized horses can do. Even if you get into heavy logging someday, I have a hard time imagining a diversified farm where a haflinger type could not earn his or her keep. As you are horse shopping, you might want to try out a few horses that are haflinger sized, but not purebreds. Sometimes these horses get overlooked and you might find some real gems in terms of training and temperament.

[Does’ Leap]

I use a halflinger single for twitching firewood and use my full sized team for pulling saw logs. Halflinger is great, but I would feel limited in pulling larger wood with a halflinger team. Farmwork is one thing, but I think they would lack the requisite power for commercial logging.

George

[TBigLug]

I second George’s notion above. We had Haflingers growing up (mainly for pulling) but we used them around the farm for misc chores and they are definitely respectable little powerhouses.

[Marshall]

I had not thought of what Countymouse said about finding something that is not pure bred. My best one is partly quarter horse. I am not sure how much. He has more heart than the rest and will out pull them even though he is not as big. I wouldn’t give him up for anything.

[michaelk]

Thanks for the response everyone. The beginnings of this for me will primarily be working my own property for a while getting experience, knowledge, and a feel for working with horses in the woods. Our property was logged very hard in 1960 and the result is too many trees trying to grow. Most of what I cut is firewood to thin out the future sawlogs and sugarbush, so a single draft pony would work quite well I believe. I know of a fellow about an hour away who logs with horses and I’ll be contacting him soon to inquire on a sort of internship. A local farm has a team of belgian/haflinger crosses and they are apparently quite a handful. They came from amish background and you can tell they were minimally trained and probably worked quite hard. I’m confident I won’t end up with such a cluster as I have a fairly good idea of what to look for in terms of temperment and training. I am certainly open to a cross breed and actually have more concern for personality and conviction than breed. Our ‘best’ dogs have always been mutts and I believe ‘best’ horses can be too. Anyway, thank you all for your response.

[Vand]

I don’t know about logging, although, I’m sure they’d do fine; but a friend of mine uses a halflinger team for plowing. They’re built like little tanks and do a great job for her. One word of warning though, halflingers are smart little buggars–as pony-types tend to be. If you aren’t a confident teamster, hook up with someone who is because they’ll take advantage of you. 😮

[Joshua Kingsley]

I am quite supprised at what the little team of haflingers I just got can do. I had them hooked to a cherry log that was 14 foot long and about 15 inches at the butt and 13 at the tip yesterday. They have been turned out for quite a while and they still didn’t balk at the load, they dug in there and took it out of the woods. We have a 1/2 mile of farm road from where we are cutting to the house and they stopped 3 times with the log and only because I made them.
I will second that they are smart! Another thing that I have noticed over the weekend is that they can be as nice as pie or as hot as can be all within the blink of an eye. The biggest chalange with these two is hooking them to the forecart, they act like they have never worked with a pole so that can make for an adventure hooking up the first time, nothing some sweat and many times hooking and un-hooking won’t cure.
Joshua

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