My Horse’s (and my own) First Time In The Woods…

[TBigLug]

So I took Dottie into the woods for the first time today. She worked like a million bucks. Couldn’t have asked her to do any better. Here’s some photos of our day. Heather’s working on a still photo video of the day I’ll put on YouTube tomorrow.

[TBigLug]

[TBigLug]

[TBigLug]

Stay tuned for the video coming up…

[Jean]

She looks like she is saying “finally, where I was meant to be”.

[J-L]

Looks like a nice horse for sure. Looks like you both were enjoying that kind of work.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi John, Now I am not one of the professional horse loggers here but I did have one small suggestion. Practice with your mare bringing the line over her back to which ever side you are on. For a horse that is green or untrusted it is a good idea to start out bracketing them (keeping one line on each side of their butt as you are), but it is far safer for you walk a couple feet off to the side. She will get to were you can lift the lines over her back and switch from side to side with out a hick up. Much easier to negotiate the woods that way. Just a thought. A single horse will drive perfectly straight and true even when you are several feet to one side. It works perfectly well with a team also but it will put one horse a touch in front of the other. She looks great and you are doing a great jobs. In my opinion the woods is the absolute best place to start a horse because of all the stopping, hooking and working together to get something done. Nice.

[Gabe Ayers]

Happy looking man and horse.

One suggestion is hook closer to the load. Makes it easier on the horse and a smaller package to move along. We use a slot hook on the single tree and a short choker chain and let the excess not used to wrap around the logs drag behind. Gives you more draft or lift on the front of your logs too. Good job.

[TaylorJohnson]

Hey man she is a good looking girl . That woods looks like good mushroom country, is it ?

[LStone]

Looking good John. Great pictures too. Its a pity that I mostly always find myself alone in the woods with only the deer and squirrels to photograph me. I found it easier to do as Donn mentioned with the lines as well. Start in an open field or paddock to get used of the concept rather than the woods though. You will find that you can handle them the same way in a round pen as well to get the idea. It will only take the horse a minimal amount of time to get used of the sensations of the lines switching from side to side.

Larry

[TBigLug]

Thanks for the comments everybody. She works great out there but she sure is a mountain of a horse to move around in a small area. 18.1h is stunning to look at but in the woods I wouldn’t mind her being about 15.2! :rolleyes: Good thought about the lines. A couple times I had them run over her back and she worked fine like that as well. On the turns I was always off to one side. Most of the pictures were taken as we came through a narrow section so I’d end up in a bad spot (between her and the log). I didn’t get any photos of the one time the wood ran over the back of my heel! Yousah, that was a wake-up call.

BW- I thought about hooking it up shorter so the front of the wood wasn’t dragging in the ground. I’ll have to give that a shot next time.

Taylor- It SHOULD be great but we’ve never gotten more than a handful every year. I think we may be doing it wrong or looking at the wrong time of the year.

Here’s a short (2:14) video Heather and I put together with some of the pics. I hope the link works!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATPm8Dpasx8

[john plowden]

John – Nice looking horse ! Looks like a relative of my 18hh gelding “Dan” – Good work –
I use 2 two inch rings attached to the spider ring with 10 inch lengths of parachute cord to run my lines through – Keeps them up and in place – very handy when hitching a log – also lets you drive from way off to the side without loosing line control –
John

[Scott G]

Congrats John!

You’re hooked for good now. Great looking mare!

The only major thing I noticed right off the bat other than a happy man and a happy horse is exactly what Jason said, shorten up.

The closer you set your choker to the single tree the better line of draft and lift you’re going to get. You also gain a lot more control of the log when you’re maneuvering around stuff. I also shorten up the traces on the return to the landing to get a little more lift yet.

Have fun, be safe, and fill up the landing 🙂

[TBigLug]

Y’all are abolutely right about this being a sickness. I never quite understood the draw until I did it. NOW I JUST WANT TO GO BACK TO THE WOODS!!!

[Rod44]

Good looking horse and it looks like you are having fun too!!:):)

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