Something wrong here……

[Robernson]

Is it just me or does he not know what he is doing? As was posted in the comments section on youtube that belly-band is a recipe for disaster.

This might just be me but, isn’t that mule going a little fast?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLHZDeosNFo

~~R

[jac]

Hi.. The belly band and that breeching if he puts his mule in a wagon and wants him to stop it..I’d recon his legs would end up through the hold backs their so slack
John

[J-L]

Looks like plenty of slack in the pole strap/quarter straps, belly band is fine. It would look different hooked to a wagon with a team mate though. Probably too loose I’d say.
Other than that the mule seems to work pretty well to me.

[dominiquer60]

I agree J-L, if you hooked that nice looking mule to a wagon with a teammate some of the slack should come out. The britching looks too low to me, if you brought it up to where it should be and hook as fore mentioned it should look better. I have a little harrow like that and look forward to having my calves drag a little this spring.

[grey]

Haven’t read the comments on the video, but if I were him I’d unhook the quarter straps from the pole strap and get them up out of the way. A good way to end up with a do-it-yourself rodeo is to have a horse kick at a fly on his belly and get his foot caught over a sagging quarter strap.

When you aren’t hitched to a pole in such a way as to have the braking or hold-back portions of the harness nice and taut (the breast strap, pole strap, quarter straps and breeching), I like it up and out of the way. I’d say this is yet another advantage of the sidebacker harness versus the bellybacker.

I’d raise the breeching a few notches too before I made that mule hold back a load.

As far as his rate of travel, it’s all up to the teamster. If he wants to walk that fast, no big deal. Maybe he’s got a hot date after the garden is harrowed! 😀

[grey]

Just read the one comment posted after the video. The poster is confused about what’s actually hanging down there. The belly band looks okay. Snugging it up one more hole would be okay, but I think it’s fine as it is. It’s the quarter straps that are the hazard in this equation; specifically, the foot over the quarter strap, as the commenter mentioned.

[jac]

I thought the belly band was ment to pass through the loop on the end of the martingale ?? it may be just the way it looked on my tiny screen but I thought it was hanging right over the belly band.
John

[Carl Russell]

That’s Dan Macon. He is the organizer of the Sierra Nevada Small Farm Progress Days, and mule-powered farmer at Flying Mule Farm in Auburn, CA.

I agree that the harness looks a bit out of whack, but the animal and teamster seem to be at ease and doing as they intended.

I can’t comment further on the harness as I am completely unfamiliar with that style.

Carl

[Donn Hewes]

Hi all, The britchen is too low, but that is very common. Not sure why. Roberson, why did you think he was going a little too fast? Mules (and good horses) will walk fast. That has everything to do with how much work you will get done. The most important thing to look for is calm and relaxed. all there in the video.

I will add, beware of trying to learn too much from UTUBE, it is easy to find faults, but how well can we really see what is going on? There isn’t much opportunity to discuss it with the teamster, or try it and see what it feels like. Has everyone gone out to drive mules, donkeys, or horses this week.

I have been skidding a little fire wood, and teaching my animals to work by voice. What a challenge.

[Lane Linnenkohl]

@jac 15433 wrote:

I thought the belly band was ment to pass through the loop on the end of the martingale ?? it may be just the way it looked on my tiny screen but I thought it was hanging right over the belly band.
John

That’s just your basic western brichen harness. It doesn’t have a martingale.

The quarterstraps are too lose for my taste, but I’m sure someone could come up with criticism of my harness as well.

[near horse]

Along the lines of harness parts/style – has anyone seen a style of harness that looks like a western style but the trace chains are not part of the tugs. There’s just a hook sewn into the tug – from what I’ve heard, the advantage was supposed to be in the multiple horse hitches, you could leave the chains with the eveners, already adjusted (correct number of links dropped for each horse). Might have been something from the huge hitches used to pull the combines out here (like 26 head) – that’s alot of animals to get into formation after a lunch break. Anyway, there are a few people that still have that kind of setup around here.

Grey, you might have seen them with Rick Fredrickson’s team or Chad Boyd’s.

[Donn Hewes]

I all ways thought of that as a logging tug. They would use a chain with a large ring in one end, and a smaller ring on the single tree. Slide the chain through the ring on the single tree and drop it on the end of the tug. That way you can go long (without the evener hitting the horses) back to the woods. When you are ready to skid, take the large ring and drop it on the tug hook, shortening you trace chains in half, ready to lift the log. With tall horses and logging tongs you could get a decent lift for most logs.

[Carl Russell]

My traces are set up as you mention Geoff. I have very old hand made chrome steel hooks on d-rings at the end of the trace, and my heel chains are attached to my eveners. I’m not sure of the advantage, just always had them like that.

Carl

[Scott G]

Traditional logging tug/trace. I know the folks that used them swore by them but I don’t think they would be as handy for me, maybe even awkward.

[grey]

I’ve alway heard them called logging tugs. The ones I’ve used had the hooks at an inconvenient spot and were always catching my horse on the leg. Maybe I was doing something wrong.

I bought a heap of random stuff at an auction and there were several logging tugs in the mix whose hooks that had been crudely cut out of 3/8 inch steel plate with a cutting torch. 😮 I addd them to my collection of horse-related oddities.

[Author]

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