Teaching our Young Teamsters

[Hoss]

I am courious to see how many of you may be teachingmentoring our youth in the skills of the craft. Is there much interest in your areas? What age groups? etc? Thanks

[Gabe Ayers]

I have been teaching formally through several venues since about the early eighties. The first course I ever got paid to teach was for the now defunk, (but responsible for starting HPD) North American Horse and Mule Association. The fellow running that group then was Phil Farrell, son of Wendell Farrell that used to run the Clyde farm for Busch, when old man Auggie was alive. It was held at Ferrum College, down off the mountain, a few miles from our farm. Half of the people were relatively young.

That is an interesting question, by the answer being very important to our future. Currently after so many courses over the years we have come to the eduational programs listed here (http://www.restorativeforestryinstitute.org) and through HHFF mentor apprentice programs. Most of the folks are young, far younger than myself or the average age of forest industry workers nationwide.

The average age in our group of practitioners is 31. We are very interested in training more young people. We currently have over 200 applications for Biological Woodsmen apprenticeships, we just don’t have the funding to pay mentors compensation for lost production while teaching or scholarships to equip and support students while they learn. This is the core or our organization – public education, specifically Biological Woodsmen. Anyone interested can find our more on the website of contact me directly.

This is the time of the year for charitable giving but if you are as economically challenged as we are, you have little to give money wise. Our tax deductible donation information is on the website, (address below). Just working your horses/animals and sharing it with anyone interested is probably the best way to promote the culture.

It would be good if the training started at 4-H ages. There doesn’t seem to be draft horse projects in 4-H all over the country. It seems they are stronger where parents take it on as project leaders. Does anyone out there have a draft horse, mule or oxen 4-H program?

It is scary to have really young kids around young horses.

What age do most folks think is best to start them working with the horses? The old timers used to say it take four generations to make a horseman. I think in today’s times, with some students, it can take much less time.

We do have youngsters around frequently, but wish we had more. I order to be in our program, they have to be of legal age (18) to be somewhat responsible for themselves and know what they are getting into.

This could be an interesting thread, thanks for posting it. This is important.

[Robin]

A few years ago I had three teens “work” here for a summer. I had four oxen at the time. the kids helped to a degree, but they did have a great time and will never forget the experience. We put up electric fence, worked the animals, when it go too hot we would give the animals a shower, which turned into a water fight among the kids. It was fun.
It’s hard to find kids that are really interested in livestock.
At every event we take the oxen to, there are many questions, some interest, but most folks do not contact us again.
I do have a few older folks interested in learning. One couple, in their 50’s come often. Another gal wants to train her steer. Another family comes when they have time,as they live over an hour away.
Remember, my area is more McMansions than farms. All in all the effort is worth it. I try to enlighten folks of how hard the work was to build a homestead, farm from scratch, etc. when this country was young.
I know others on this forum work for real with their animals. That is just not the case in this area. It will be interesting to hear from the others.
Merry Christmas to all.

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