safety tips/lessons learned

[Anonymous]

hi all,

this is my first season working a horse in the woods pulling logs for a firewood business i’m starting up. working on pretty irregular hilly/mountainous terrain in columbia county, NY. i’m working a single and we are doing a lot of ground skidding, using a go devil, and soon an arch on the forecart. starting to pick-up the rhythm of things but looking for advice on ‘best practices’ and safety while moving logs. would appreciate tips for hitching, log lengths and efficiency suggestions, safety rules of thumb for hitching and twitching and any and all advice or stories to learn by.

many thanks,

evan

[Michel Boulay]

You must be close to Athol Mass. Your best bet to have hands on experience would be to register to the Athol Logging Workshop. The people that are giving the workshop have many years of experience and would be the best resource for you. Also you would meet great people. Go to Dapnet’s Events and all the info is there. Good luck and have fun.

Mike

[Does’ Leap]

Evan:

I second what was said about attending the Athol workshop. Words are a poor substitute for interacting with experienced horse loggers and watching them work. I attended the workshop last year had the pleasure of learning from Carl Russell (and others). I had struggled on and off with the scoot I built the winter prior to the workshop. Spending the day with Carl watching him position the scoot and sled, load logs, bind, etc. really demystified the use of these tools for me. Thanks to that experience at Athol as well as the numerous follow-up questions on this site, both the scoot and the bobsled have become an essential parts of my logging tool repertoire.

I am not a professional logger and only make a small part of my living selling logs. I am generally self-taught in the arena of horse logging so you can take this “advice” with a grain of salt. That said, here are some things that I have found to be useful working horses safely and effectively in the woods:

• Complete the Game of Logging training. This has everything to do with safety, effective chainsaw use, and directional felling.
• Search “logging” on this site and read and re-read every post.
• Vary the size of your hitches and err on the side of smaller hitches. I like to get a sense of the upper limits of what my horses can pull, so I will load them up once in a while. But more frequent, smaller loads tend to be more productive for me.
• Carefully select the logging tool for the terrain and skid distance. For example ground skidding for shorter distances and using a sled or scoot for longer pulls with the logging arch and go-devil in between. There are also terrain considerations as well (see past threads on “logging tools”).
• If you are selling log length firewood, cut to the size of the truck (usually 20’ or 24’ for a straight truck). If you are blocking the wood yourself, there should be marks on your logger’s tape that have 16” increments. If I am blocking wood, I usually do so immediately on the landing rather than bunching my logs.
• I usually cut what I can pull in a load rather than downing a bunch of wood and skidding later. Digging out previously cut logs from the snow is a drag and the cut/skid, cut/skid routine breaks up the day nicely for the horses and me.
• Keep your saw sharp and your rakers filed down properly (I use a .04 raker gauge).
• If your horses need to be secured while you are cutting, secure them from the rear via your arch or sled instead of tying their heads.
• Approach blow-downs and hang ups with extreme caution. Don’t be afraid to walk away.
• On my arch I use 10’ chains with full c slip hooks at one end and a 24” “needles” on the other for snaking under logs. I also carry a 20’ chain with a grab on either end. This combo enables me to skid multiple logs and once gives me 40’ of chain (if I need it) to get into areas your horse(s) cannot.

Good luck.

George

[Author]

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