One Bad Day, Two Better Ones

[JMorrow]

Hi all —

As we make our way through our first full season with draft animals, I wanted to post a thank you to DAPNet for maintaining this forum and to all of you who post here. The archived posts have been extremely helpful to us in the past six months, so it feels only right to add a little about our own successes and failures, in case that could be helpful to others down the line.

Emma and I are what you might call advanced novices. Between the two of us, we have attended every workshop offered by Jay and Janet at Fair Winds Farm, and have attended other clinics as well (at Sanborn Mills Farm and other places). But we never owned our own draft animals until this year and we never had the opportunity to apprentice on an animal-powered farm. Last fall, we bought a pair of Milking Shorthorn calves and have been training them to work. This spring, we acquired an older team of horses which consists of a Haflinger mare and a Haflinger x Quarter Horse gelding. Training the calves has been a real pleasure, and they have made terrific progress. Working with the horses has been significantly more challenging.

Day 1: Runaway

The horses arrived in April. Every morning, we led them down from the pasture to their tie stalls in the barn, and back up at night. We brushed them, picked their feet, and gradually became more comfortable around them. I think they became more comfortable around us, too, as a result of the daily routine and handling. For a few days before attempting to drive our new team, we harnessed them and let them stand in their stalls with the harness on. Eventually, I took them out and ground drove them around the farm, single and as a team. The mare tossed her head quite a bit and seemed uncomfortable, and I had to haul back a lot on the lines to keep her from trotting. I kept repeating to myself a line I had read on this forum: “A working horse is a walking horse.”

We knew the horses hadn’t been worked much during the last couple seasons and were out of shape. We reasoned that the best thing would be for them to start doing light steady work and we hoped that would help them settle. So, we put a single piece of spring tooth harrow in a fallow vegetable field, and planned to make that our practice ground.

We harnessed the team and I drove them through the woods, up to the pasture, and back to the barn. The mare continued to toss her head some and both horses showed a lot more go than whoa. Emma drove them next. She had gone through woods and up to the field, when I heard her yelling “Whoa! Whoa!” I ran after them and met the horses coming at a full run back toward the barn. I jumped in front of them and yelled whoa, and for a second, it looked like they might stop, but I got out of the way and they flew past me. The whole thing came to an end when they ran on either side of a barn post next to their stalls. The gelding went down. We got right to work freeing them from the wreckage. They remained completely calm throughout the process and, miraculously, nobody — not the horses, not the teamsters — was seriously injured. The gelding had a small cut on one back leg from the butt rope, and our confidence was (of course) very shaken. With the horses safely in their stalls, Emma described to me how the mare had suddenly turned, put her head down, and taken off, bringing the gelding along with her.

I really wanted and needed the day to end on a better note, so that afternoon, I took them each out single, first on a lead line and then in harness with single lines, and walked them through a little obstacle course of cones in the barnyard. In hindsight, I suspect that the runaway may have been caused by an old bridle with an old bit that was worn and pinching — or rather, it was caused by us, since the mare clearly was not comfortable in her bridle and we took the team out anyway. Later, we found a sizable cut on her lip.

Day 2: Spring Tooth Harrow

So, we got a new bridle for her, new bits for both horses, and had a friend help us get the bridles adjusted correctly. And last week took them out as a team for the first time since the runaway. The mare seemed much more comfortable, and didn’t toss her head at all. I ground drove them around the pasture, and then took them up to the field and hitched them to the spring tooth harrow. For about 15 minutes, I made rounds with the harrow, and was leaning back with full tension on the lines. They appeared to be working hard, and I was definitely working hard. It took almost everything I had to keep them at a walk. When they would slow a little and walk easy, I would let up, but those easy moments didn’t last long. And then suddenly, they were walking steady and together, and I could let off on the lines. I remember thinking, “This is how it is supposed to be!” For the first time, I felt like we had made some progress. We made one more round and went back to the barn.

Day 3: Spreading Compost

This week, our first batch of pig-composted manure was ready. We spread it with the tractor and then worked it into the soil with the horses and the spring tooth harrow. Emma drove them quite a bit, for the first time since the runaway. Again, the horses were working hard (which seems to indicate that they are really out of shape — right? — since this a only single section of harrow and not set too deep), and they were eager to walk a lot faster than we wanted them to. But gradually they settled down a little. And we came away feeling a little more confident.

I’m still not sure this is the right team for us — I have heard teamsters talk about the calm, older, forgiving horse who was their best teacher, and frankly, these two have not been particularly calm or forgiving for us. And I still cannot begin to imagine using the horses on most of the implements we have around the barnyard (riding cultivator, mower, walking plow), but I do think we are better teamsters now than we were a couple months ago. And that’s something, I guess.

Well, that’s a longer post than I intended to write, so thank you for reading this far. We would certainly welcome any feedback or advice, and thanks again to DAPNet for providing this opportunity to learn and share.

Jake (& Emma)

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[Donn Hewes]

Hi Jake and Emma, Glad to hear no one was hurt. You did well to get them back to work after the mishap. That can be a real challenge. I have often written and talked about working the calm horse. It is not every horse or every second of the day, but the great thing for me in working calm horses is they give me plenty of warning when things are not as they should be.

I also think that in how I work horses, I am helping horses to relax and be calm. In that way I can create the animals I want. Of course they are all different, some more relaxed than others. I have one old horse that will be head up no matter what. I am a mix of relaxed and direct, horses in harness know every second that I am in control. Easy to say, but it is not always easy to practice.

Good Luck with your horses and don’t hesitate to let us know if we can be of help, Donn

[JayChase]

Just keep hitching them! Remember that all contact you have with the horses is training. Time in harness with your expectations as a teamster clear will have those horses calm and forgiving. Good Luck!
Jay

[JMorrow]

Thanks, guys. Really appreciate the encouragement. Yesterday we hitched to the stone boat (as Lynn Miller describes in Training Workhorses/Training Teamsters) and drove them around and around our 5 acre vegetable field. Certainly our best day out so far. They were more inclined to walk and I was able to be much easier on the lines. Progress!

Jake

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[Ed Thayer]

Very glad no one was injured during your runaway. I had a single Hafflinger bolt back to the barn on me and it was a terrifying experience. Consistent work and communication is key and the horses will respond to that over time.

Reading your horses and recognizing their habits and attitude will come in time. Being able to acquire that skill may take some patience on your part. My Belgian gelding and I worked almost a year before we figured each other out. But he has become the best horse ever.

Good luck and Stay safe.

Ed

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