seem to be sleeping on the job.

[PeytonM]

ok, I don’t know if other people have ran in to this or not, I have a older team of geldings, I’d say one is 20 and the other is 15 or so. the older horses is almost always there where ever I want him, a real solid know what to do horse, the other one I would say is a solid horse most the time but then you harness him and its like hes half stupid and doesn’t know what hes doing. when ever I tell the team to stop they stop and will stand there all day long and just love on each other. my example is I was using a sled made out of logs, 3 10″ logs on the bottom for runners, fronts angled so it doesn’t drag as much. and then i have a log across the front where I hitch to and then a pallet nailed to the 3 runner logs and then another log in the rear for strength. so I have the sled hooked up and I would say its a 200 yard from where I load the sled with hay to the feeder. I would run the team up past the hay about 10 yards and then swing them around a white birch and there are 2 ways you can go, back around towards the hay or back around the house, well I’ll go up around the tree to the hay. load up go unload the hay and then I’ll come back and swing around the tree again and I’m pulling on the left line to turn left and all of a sudden the younger one is trying to go to the right…. I dont understand it.

thanks for the help. maybe its a issue on my end. I dont know.

[Donn Hewes]

I think there are a fair number of what I call “sleepers”. most herds of more than three or four horses have one. I don’t like a horse that is so up and excited they take extra effort to manage, but a sleep can be almost as bad. These horses will have there head down and are not really paying as much attention to what is going on around them. Sometimes you can surprise them or scary them with something everyone else was aware of and watching for the last minute. The fact that they are all different is one of the challenging / interesting parts of our work.

[LStone]

I’m probably not understanding but I think I know what your talking about. I noticed that same thing with a twist that if you signaled to go left, one of the horses would turn their head with the lines but keep travelling in a straight direction. Very disrespectful and exremely aggrevating. I was told that I have to hard hands and needed to “finess and feel” more about the direction I wanted them to move. It might sound crazy but if you look in the direction you want them to go and not try so hard they will go that way easier. I drive a team for a living commercially on weekends. In my loop I go through a three way intersection. I always take a right. I swear every other time I’d go through that intersection they would be crazy in all sorts of going all over the place. Once I figured out the secret they have it down pat. Only you know how your contact is with your team. I found that they have very soft mouths and I was letting contact slip a lot. I think I was suprising them when I suddenly picked up contact to steer them. Donn, I know you have way more experience than I but am I off base?

[sickle hocks]

@ anonymous…about the point where you are planning the left turn and your young horse tries to duck right…it’s tough to tell without being there but are you sure it’s because he’s ‘asleep at the job’ or is there a ‘magnet’ for him that makes him want the right turn?  Is the right turn the way back to home,  back to the barn, back to where he gets fed or unharnessed, or where the other horses are?

You might want to check your assumption that he’s ‘ half stupid and doesn’t know what he’s doing’.  He may know perfectly well that you are going to ask for the left, and that you expect the left.  He might be throwing in the right to test you and to see if he can get what he wants.

If that’s the case, you can know when you are approaching a ‘magnet’ spot so you can be a step ahead of him.   If you are there ahead of him you can be blocking the right with your outside rein, and asking for the left before he’s tried.  Or you could mix it up and make the right your idea,  ask for it just before he throws it in so that it’s your idea, and then go on a little circle tour that way on your way back to the hay and the job…especially if he usually gets a reward for heading that direction (like the end of work and unharnessing) it’s good for him to know that sometimes you go that way and keep working anyway…

just some thoughts, i don’t know if that’s what’s happening and i’m not any teamster….

 

[PeytonM]

no, there is nothing over to the right that would cause him to want to go that way, I dont want to cut him down but hes just been really not all there lately. if he would go to the right he would go up behind the house and by a small woods, theres no shed, horses or food or anything up there. you can come all the way around the house back by the wagon I had loaded with hay that I was putting on the sled to go out for feeding but that route is really icy thus, I swung them around that tree. Its not like hes use to going behind the house cause I never go back that way I always would turn them around in the yard. I just dont understand why hes being so weird. the other day I was in the woods with them in the one spot i have to hang to the right and I didnt see the tree on the other side and he just walks up to it and got hung up on it had to get he half out of harness to get freed up, I admit it was part my fault but if some one told me to walk straight on to a tree I’d go to the one side a little bit to miss it. I dont know what the deal is. maybe its just me.

[Author]

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