New member in Upstate NY

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone! I’m getting more serious with my draft horses and decided to join.

My wife and I have a small homestead in the foothills of the Adirondacks. We specialize in heritage breed and rare & endangered livestock. We have a flock of about 40 Soay sheep and 5 Shetland sheep, 1 American Milking Devon with calf, 14 Boer goats, Narragansett turkeys, Saxony ducks, various breeds of chickens, and we keep bees. For drafts I have a team of dapple-grey Percherons (Abbie & Bear) and a new team of Brabant-cross geldings (Doc & Whisky).

My new geldings came with New England D-ring harness (which I’m loving) and I’ll post some pictures in a new thread this morning looking for advice since my Amish harness-maker will be making me a new set soon and I want to get them perfect. I’ve been working with Western Brichen with my Percherons, and I always thought that they were awkward. I think the D-ring is brilliantly simple and beautifully logical. Too bad the hardware isn’t available for the Walsh harness, since this appears to have been a mechanical improvement on the New England.

Glad to be here!

Sean

[Jim Ostergard]

Well, I am no expert on the D-ring but I sure love it. Seems that they come through with too long a tug from the hames to the D-ring though. I’m sure John Plowden, Brad Johnson or Carl can give more advice than I can but my understanding is that the D-ring should rest just behind the fore leg at the slight indentation just before the rib cage. Hope this helps. Mine are nylon and I really like them as I change the draft all the time when logging as well as different equipment I have the draft is different.
Jim O

[Plowboy]

One of our neighbors was at Jake’s harness shop the other day. Must have been you with the Brabants on a wagon that came by while he was there. Small world.

[Anonymous]

Jim – thanks for that! We were actually thinking that the one harness that fits that way was too short in the primary tug and that the other, longer, one was how it should be. I’ll have to take some video of them walking in harness to reassure myself that it’s okay, because I was guessing that the d-ring would be an issue that close to the elbow.

Plowboy – Yes, that was me (and my wife and the other Sean) that met Bob (I think – I’m terrible with names) at Jake’s on Monday! This internet stuff really does make it a small world!

[Big Horses]

Welcome!! Some great advice on this site and good people!! I do love those Brabants, and always have had a soft spot in my heart (head?) for grey Percherons!!
John

[Anonymous]

I thought this might be a good spot to post some fun pics of the boys – riding day!

That’s Sean518 with Whisky (not me), and his niece showing us how comfy it is trotting on a couch. Sean and I are still saddle-sore three days later, however.

[sean518]

Yeay, finally convinced Sean to sign up (after convincing him to get rid of those leggy Percherons and get some real work horses!)

[Anonymous]

Hello Sean Nice pictures i just joined myself & hoping to someday to hook up with someone that can show me the ropes on how to work with oxen i don’t have any who know’s maybe someday i have had all kinds of animals biggest being a miniture horse. allways wanted to help out on a farm with working oxen. Take care Paul

[Plowboy]

Sean 518 easy with the Percheron cracks. We’ve got 6 farm type that we’re pretty proud of. May run into you guys sometime. We deal regularly with Jake and Rudy J at the equipment shop. They are both first class guys. Both were good farmers and horsemen before they retired to their respective trades only.

[Anonymous]

Here-here, Plowboy! I love my Percherons, too. These Brabants are better suited to my level of experience, though – otherwise I wouldn’t let the Percherons go. Also, did you hear that Jake is moving way up north? He’s expecting to be gone the beginning of April – very, very sad…

That’s why I’m rushing to get new harness made while he’s still here.

[Plowboy]

I heard he might go. One of his sons and several of his daughters went. I was afraid he might go as well. We lost quite a few of our younger Amish friends to Bombay NY. Now when we come up we go to Rudy’s , Jakes, stop to see Butch Miner and thats about it. We were well aquanted with a lot of the one’s that left. Sad to see them go but they were maxed out as a community with no more land available to them so as they did in the 80’s when they moved here they started a new settlement now up north where cheap land is abundant. Still it’s hard to see your friends pack up and start over somewhere too far to visit in a day.

[Anonymous]

Yes, exactly. I was lucky enough to find my way to how my life is supposed to be here and then to realize that I lived amongst a great community of Amish and “English” here in central Montgomery County was wonderful and has made my progress infinitely easier. To watch them go, especially these community lynch-pins like Jake, is difficult. But with the limited available farmland and the shockingly-high taxes, it’s an inevitability that many pragmatic Amish are simply going to leave for ‘greener pastures’. My wife and I have strong ties to our home and community and friends, and we discuss the possibility of leaving in favor of a place where corrupt and backwards state and local government don’t make it so much more difficult to subsist.

[sean518]

@Plowboy 31372 wrote:

Sean 518 easy with the Percheron cracks. We’ve got 6 farm type that we’re pretty proud of. May run into you guys sometime. We deal regularly with Jake and Rudy J at the equipment shop. They are both first class guys. Both were good farmers and horsemen before they retired to their respective trades only.

Sorry Plowboy, I was just ribbing my neighbor, no offense meant.
I honestly think Percherons are very elegant and beautiful horses, and I really appreciate anyone trying to keep the farm type build going.
Are you a member of the Eastern Regional Draft Horse Club?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I should watch out, too. Sometimes sarcasm and humor and stuff just doesn’t read in this sort of format. Sean518 and I know each other pretty well and mean well. We have rather snarky senses of humor. And just so everyone knows he’s not some monster-horse elitist – there’s minis at his farm!

[Plowboy]

I wasn’t really offended. Truthfully we have 1 Belgian ourselves ,3 grey Percherons and 3 blacks. My Dad is still dairy farming and the horses are a joint venture between him and I. He milks around 40 cows and does what he can with horses. My wife and I bought a farm a couple miles away and are starting a small Angus herd, a few laying hens , and my son is getting a donkey from my grandparents in the spring.I’m not sure of the status of my ERDHA membership but many of their more active members come to our events at my parents place. We have a 2 day plowing event in May and a 2 day silo fill in September and are considering an oat threshing event this summer also.

[Author]

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