newbie questions

[KellyandKatie]

Hello, I am going to jump in here with a few questions

So, I have a brown swiss heifer, she is working great with me, she follows my verbal cues, or just follows my body language more than anything I am noticing. She is eager to please- but I do not have any equipment yet.
I read several online books about how to build my own. I am going to take a stab at it, but I will be real honest and say that if I could knit or sew one, she would be in great shape, but wood working and I have not agreed in the past. I am great at rigging things to somehow work together, but not good at all at cutting a straight line.
I have also looked at the online stores that sell hand made set ups.

My hesitation is that she is so young and growing. What things would I be better spending money on now, and what things would I be better working at, or making do with? I do not want to get her hurt using poorly fitting equipment and ruin it for us.

When I did draft work with my dogs and goats, I have always just made my own carts and harness sets. I do not even know all the terms, I just looked at pictures and did the best I could, and learned from working with them what I needed to change and make better- but – this being at a larger scale, I do not want to waste my time and money if i don’t have to

what would you suggest for the first outfits?

[Oxhill]

You don’t really need to have a yoke until you want to pull with her. We train with just a bent conduit bow over their neck as a cue that it is time to behave and work/learn. Once you want to pull then of course you require a yoke and proper fit is extremely important so you will require more as she grows. Most makers make them in one inch increments from 4″ to 12″. The good news is that if taken care of they can be used over and over for decades or even centuries. You will also need a singletree and a pair of traces. It is nice to have a small singletree for a calf but a full sized one will work just fine and again will last forever if taken care of. Trace chains for a calf can be made up of rope and four rings from the hardware or you can make up a set using chain and Quicklinks. If you want you can double them up with Quicklinks to fit her now and let them out as she grows. A britchen isn’t required but once you use one you won’t want to be without it. They are adjustable as well.

Here is a well outfitted heifer.

[Baystatetom]

I would put her in a yoke now and train her while she is young. I think if you want her to pull you have to teach her to do so now, or when she is big she could get balky on you. I could be mistaken, I’ll never claim to know everything. I have seen a lot of teams come from 4H kids who had them broke like robots. Then somebody buys them and tries to hook them to more then a 100 pounds and they won’t pull it. Because they were trained for shows not pulling. Maybe you don’t want to do heavy work but when you hook her to a sled of manure or cordwood or whatever your going to get pretty fed up she refuses to work.
My two cents for whatever its worth,
~Tom

[Oxhill]

I agree but you have to do some basic training before you start pulling and a yoke isn’t required for that part.

[KellyandKatie]

Thank you for the responses, and the picture is worth a thousand words too- checking out the websites now 🙂

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