Line adjustment

[Donn Hewes]

I often find photos that seem to suggest horses walking with there heads close together or facing each other to some degree. Occasionally you will find a picture of horses looking away from each other while they work. I never feel like questioning any particular photo because I know how easy it is to take a picture at just the moment when one of the horses needed to see something and it makes the hitch / lines adjustment look different from how it really is. I just wanted to suggest to teamsters that it can be really valuable to look at your team in photos, or when some on else is driving them. Are their heads really maintaining the distance apart that the rest of their body, and especially the evener is suggesting they should? Are they both looking straight ahead when you point them that way? This should be the most obvious when they are walking. At rest they are going to move their heads a little more freely.

Some folks may not realize the important role this plays in a teams working comfort and power. Learning to adjust the lines to make a better alignment can take some time. In the beginning it is confusing. At first I would make all the changes equally to both sides; making the stub lines longer will move the horses heads further apart. Making them shorter will make them closer together. Sometimes you just need to take the lines off the harness and see how they are actually set up; I have found some surprising things this way. In helping beginning teamster I always remind them long one (stub line) to the inside short one (line) to the outside!

Ultimately some teamsters will want to adjust the two sides differently to accommodate two different horses. Adjusting one side can account for a horse with a high or low head carriage, or where one horse is more “up on the bit” than the other. These adjustments only really work if you keep the same lines on the same harnesses all the time.

Finally, don’t be afraid to fine tune these things if you need to adjust them while you work. All my lines are set up in a standard way for a standard spacing but I have drop rings and other means of lengthening or shorting at the hames to move a horse in or out. This has allowed me to work horses, mules, and donkeys of different sizes in teams of two, three, or four and keep all the heads pointed forward.

Now I just hope it shows up in the next picture I take. Donn

• This topic was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by Donn Hewes.

[Mark Cowdrey]

Donn,
Good post. You could be talking about me. Actually I would think you were talking about me if you had “liked” the video I posted on FB yesterday :)! And I agree, looking at visual documentation after the fact shows me things I did not notice as they were happening, although in this case it is partly due to being distracted by something of an advertising/vanity project. I can’t be videoing & giving full attention to my driving. In this case the near horse’s inside line was slack because he was lagging.
The few times I have experimented w making adjustments in order to try to improve overall bit contact and head position, I have not noticed any consistent effect. Perhaps I was not making enough of an adjustment. Another possibility is that I let my horses get away with too much “moving around in the hitch”, up and back, maybe one this time and the other another. I might make an adjustment, drive my team loose, see that they walk about the same spacing as they should when on a pole, put them on a pole and find I still have an issue. I might notice that one horse has a slack inside line but has his head turned that way. I guess that would be a different issue.
This would be a great demo for Cummington.
Thanks,
Mark

[dominiquer60]

Great points Donn. Photos only capture a moment, but sometimes they show us things that we don’t notice or can’t perceive well while we are on the lines. Some times it is a line adjustment problem, but it can also be a multitude of other factors or combinations.

Two years ago one of Sam’s black mares started to hold herself oddly. The harness and lines had not been changed and she had been working well all summer. Sam swapped sides, adjusted the lines, checked her shoulders for sores and collar fit, checked her harness over for any changes that may be irritating, but nothing seemed to get her pointed straight as usual. I decided one day that it was time for hair cuts (we roach manes) and as I took the clippers to the mane at the base of her neck, she jumped. There were no visual signs that she had a problem, her mane was at least an inch long, and to gently palpate the area it seemed fine. Upon closer inspection and some careful clipping, it became apparent that she had a large sore under all that hair and the cause of it seemed to be a tick. Once clipped and clean she had a quarter sized open sore. After 2 weeks rest and some TLC, she was back to her normal “straight in the traces” self.

Another example is Sam’s old Dillon horse, he is a champion on many levels, including the most important, being the “go to” horse at home when you need some real grunt for a project. Dillon is easily recognized in recent photos as Sam’s grey near horse that almost always has his head cocked to the left. Now 18 years old, Dillon has developed some arthritis in is neck and after some dental and chiropractic work, and quite a bit of experimenting with the lines, we have decided that he is just more comfortable going forward with his head cocked to the left. He is a “behind the bit” kind of horse, this bothers us, so we have been working with a couple different bits to find him something that works best with his compromised breathing and large tongue (he is a roarer). Maybe he carries his head that way to help his breathing? We hope to find a high ported curb bit to give his tongue more room, in theory, this may help him swallow and breath better while he is working, it may help straighten him out some too. Who knows? It won’t hurt trying something new.

Horses are dynamic creatures, like humans, so many factors can change during the year and years: weight, Body Mass Index, fitness, etc. We use the same horse on a regular basis, once in a while something wakes us up out of routine to realize that they no longer fit a harness/collar/bridle like they used to. It just sneaks up on you sometimes. This summer we realized that Sam’s older geldings really needed smaller collars, at 16 and 18 they are past their prime and it was time to adjust to the changes in their bodies. A couple weeks ago I witnessed and experienced teamster take a horse out, one that had not been used on a couple months, harness her up, then off to work to see how the long rest had treated her. It wasn’t until in the woods looking at the horse from a distance when he realized, something isn’t right, her collar no longer fit, it was now too small. It happens to the best of us, our animals, like ourselves and the world around us are ever changing.

There are so many variables that can contribute to, or block us from our goals as teamsters. I have to admit that as much as I hate to find a problem, it is finding a good solution that makes my work so rewarding as a teamster. I wanted to add these examples to this conversation so that a novice might realize that though it is good to check the adjustment of the lines, not all “straightness” problems are solved solely by adjusting the lines.

I think Mark is onto something, line adjustment and all the variables of drop rings, spreaders, etc, would make a fantastic topic for a DAPFD workshop.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by dominiquer60.

[Donn Hewes]

Erika and Mark, great idea about a presentation. I will be sure to add that to our list. Of course you are right about all the varied ways in which these things can come about and manifest them selves. I just touched on a few common ones. It was interesting that you mentioned the horse that shifts it’s head to perhaps relieve some breathing or other issue. I have seen a few horses that for what ever reason shift their head at a certain amount of load. Nothing you could do would straighten them out. I am convinced that if we had taken the lines off and taught that horse to pull on it’s own, when it got that amount of load it’s head would still slant off the same way. Adjust compensate, and move on, right? The horse I am thinking of was over 20!

[Carl Russell]

Good thread Donn. Just to clarify, one cannot shorten the cross checks, stub line, or brace rein. They remain the same length. It is the long rein that is lengthened or shortened by moving the short rein forward or back. Regardless, what you describe is correct, the inside line should extend beyond the outer line when laid on the ground, to accommodate for the distance between heads. I only mention this, as stating that the inner rein can be lengthened or shortened may indicate to the novice that the log rein goes to the inside.

Another factor that I consider is what I am doing with them, or what I have them hitched to. When I am ground driving to skid logs, my lines tend to be over the backs on one side or anther, so I tend to shorten the long lines. This can make them carry their heads a little out, but it also keeps their butts in. It also allows a bit more flexibility on the inner lines.

When I drive the Barden cart, I hold my lines down between the animals, thus bringing the coupling interior, requiring that the long lines are longer to traverse the back. I have another cart that has a very high seat that I use for baling hay, and logging sometimes. Because I sit above the horses’ backs, the coupling tends to float up and I need to shorten the long lines. On the mower I can keep lines interior, so they are adjusted similar to the Barden cart. On the walking plow I adjust similar to ground skidding.

I have days when I play with lines. Horses holding heads out, in, back. Attitude can play a significant role. I like to have consistent contact, so if I have a horse that is playing with the setting, I compensate. Sometimes I will change setting 3-4 times during a day, and invariably return to the setting I had in the morning. They are not computers, and need to be responded to with the same variation that each of them can bring to the enterprise.

That’s what the holes in the lines and buckles are for.

Carl

[Brad Johnson]

Adjustment in the cross lines can make a huge difference in how your horses swing a sharp gee or haw. Carl suggested that I shorted the cross line for one of my geldings, as he was out in front and prone to pushing my other gelding around when they turned a corner, particularly to the haw side. What a difference that change made! Now I frequently adjust this lines to fine tune my team. There is little harm in trying an adjustment and you can always go back to where you were before.
-Brad

[Donn Hewes]

Carl, you are right about the stub lines being a fixed length. I hope that isn’t too confusing. I just think in terms of making them longer or shorter in relation to the outside or continuous line.

Years ago I experimented with drop rings ( a ring on a strap, or chain of rings, like spreaders) as a way to lower the hames rings on the harness and allow the lines to follow a more direct path from me to the horses head. The funny thing about this was that it showed me why the hames rings where high in the first place. With the hames ring above the withers of the horses you notice less variation as you move from the ground to a cart or to the other side as the ring remains the high point. With lower rings, or drop rings, or spreaders you will notice a greater difference as you move from the ground to the cart, etc.

Now I use a very short drop ring with just a snap to keep it short. I normally use the hames ring, but I can take a line from the hames ring and place it through the drop ring and effectively make it a little longer. When ever I feel an urge to make a line adjustment, I move a drop ring instead. I can make the same accommodation as if I was lengthening or shortening a line by moving a snap on ring up or down where it is attached to the hames. This is very beneficial to me as I work with several pairs of team lines and different combinations of animals. I try to keep all my lines set up the same, or maybe one pair set up for a wide hitch, but never change the lines them selves. Instead I just move the drop rings up or down.

Usually with in five minutes out of the barn with a team of three or four, sometimes with a pair, I will want to make at least one change to the lines. By mid summer I can remember all the variations while I am hooking up a team with lines. This mule on this side of that horse, lower the drop ring for him. That sort of thing.

[Carl Russell]

One of the points I was trying to make is that head carriage can also be affected by the location where one holds the lines. When the lines are held between the horses, the long reins need to be longer than if you are holding the lines above the backs. Whether in drop lines, or in the hame ring, where the coupling is located affects the effectiveness of the line adjustment. I strive to always hold my lines between the animals, thus having a baseline. If line placement is inconsistent, then no amount of accurate line adjustment will be effective.

As Donn explains, changing drop ring lengths is another quick way to change the effect of line adjustment. Similarly, one can change line location, down between horses places tension on the outsides, up on the back releases that tension, and puts more toward the insides. I often play around with this type of adjustment before I actually adjust the lines, just to see how the horse responds. If I get the same response, or no change in head carriage toward something more desirable, then I know I am just dealing with an attitude (or maybe something physical) issue.

Carl

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