tieing your lines together

[Donn Hewes]

I like to work with my lines tied or buckled at the end. I find I am all ways shifting them to one hand or something like that and should I drop one or let myself get to close to the end, I have not lost everything. I am extra careful about picking up and carrying the tails as you don’t want to step into a closed loop. Anyway, it works for me and I would recommend it. I know there are folks that don’t tie them together with good reasons as well. Just a thought. Donn

[J-L]

Mine are tied everytime I hook up. Most of my work is on wagon or bobsled from Dec to June so the ends are up on the bed to the cross poles out of the way.
I ran over one line with my sleigh runner once and pulled awful hard on one side of my teams mouth when it drug the slack out.
When I’m unrolling my round bales a lot of the time I’m off the cart backing and turning while manueveering bales and sometimes while unrolling (just to get some exercise) and it’s a lot handier to have them tied for me too.

[Donn Hewes]

On my motorized cart I added a carabiner at the guard rail, just so I could hang the end there and know it wouldn’t fall down towards moving parts.

[Gabe Ayers]

I definitely tie mine in a big loose loop and have them on one wrist or in one hand along with the driving line all the time. It just keeps the excess (that I may need in some occasions) out of the way while I’m handling the horses from a closer distance to their mouths.

Probably not the safest thing to do – looping the lines over your wrist, but is very comfortable when you trust the horse to know whoa as their favorite signal. I’ve never had a pair run off with the lines on my wrist, yet ~ (knocking on the white oak board this keyboard sets on) ~ but the loop is tied in such a way that it won’t get smaller and think I could get my hand out even if dragging on my belly through the woods.

We’ve had this discussion before on here. Some just double loop the ends and carry them in their strong hand or the hand with the softer mouthed horse. I do that with the tied loop most of the time and just put it on my wrist when comfortable.

As the pickup trucker bumper sticker says down here “ain’t scared”. The horses know I ain’t scared. I guess that phrase is Redneck counter to No Fear, they really ain’t the same.. one is a energy drink or something sold and the other is just a way of being.

~

[Carl Russell]

Just for balance…. I only tie mine together when I am plowing. I find that having them separate gives me more control… cleaner definition between lines when I’m sorting without looking, and I never want to have the loop that could get snubbed up on something.

I don’t drive with lines dragging either, but have always found carrying coils of extra lines to be quite easy, so never felt the need for the loop as Jason describes. I will, when twitching, let the lines drop if I am in a tight spot, and can’t move my feet easily, allowing the horse(s) to move forward by letting the lines run through my hands. This move in particular requires that each line be able to move freely, and I believe the loop would become troublesome.

However, when using my Barden style cart, I will tie the lines around the cross-bar in front of me so that they are always up and where I can get to them easily. I never drive that cart from the ground so I don’t need to take them with me when I am not on it.

Carl

[Donn Hewes]

Being able to drop them on purpose would seem to be a main reason for NOT tieing them. I used to use a loop around my wrist and many other methods to carry the extra lines(over the shoulder). I am really trying to train myself to all ways carry them in a loop with three fingers. It is not hard so much as developing the habit. I am tyring to teach myself to hold on to them the while I am hooking up all my trace chains too. That is a hard habit to learn if you have been dropping them near by for years. The reason I want to learn to hook up with them in my hand is to model that for other teamsters that are learning from me. Once you do it for a while it gets much easier, and it is best that they learn that method to take home as a beginner with unknown horses. It is funny how hard it is to teach yourself to change a habit.

[Carl Russell]

No I mean I let the ends drop, and then they feed through my hands. Otherwise they are never on the ground. The loop would have to drag on the ground as the horses move forward, which could get looped around a branch or some such.

I actually prefer to have my lines completely inactive when I am hitching. The best example i can set for people working around me is that my horses stand while I hitch them. Carrying lines while doing this can send errant messages to the animals, and requires that I am at least partially engaged with them while I attend to the hitch.

The big problem I have with teaching people to hold their lines while hitching, is the natural tendency to assume that it is ok if the horse won’t stand to be hitched, because the teamster holds the lines. I have seen way too many teamsters trying to hitch a horse while holding the lines, precisely because the horse won’t stand.

If your horse will stand, then setting the lines down is better in my mind. The horse has the clear message to stand because there is no contact through the lines. Line contact is not a way to get a horse to stand, and trying to get them to understand the difference between contact that results from fidgeting with the lines while hooking, and contact that is related to work is bringing an unsafe level of confusion into the process.

Donn, my advice would be to stop holding your lines while you are hooking. This is one of the very basic lessons I learned from several of my mentors… men who had grown up making their living in the woods. It is part of the code, like never stand on the live side of the hitch, and never hop over a moving log….. I could go on.

You are obvious a critical thinker, but this is just my advice.

Carl

[karl t pfister]

If you keep them buckled together you always have both even if you fall off the rig , i agree too with the extra looped into my left hand , never have regreted having them,but feel funny without them,thank you Ken Demers ! Karl

[Donn Hewes]

Carl, Your point about dropping the lines for hooking is well taken. I have all ways done it that way. I guess I was questioning teaching it that way. One of the hardest parts of hooking with lines in hand is learning NOT to send signals while you do it. As usual the better teaching method would be the longer one, that includes knowing how to hook a animal the first time, knowing how to read when an animal is ready to stand and hook appropriately, and how to use our pressence (what I have taken to calling “holding them with our personality”) to get them to stand.

Anyway, it is food for thought; I don’t really like hooking with lines in hand but it is a skill I will have if I need it.

I understood what you meant about letting the lines down.

[grey]

I feel that it is important to teach teamsters to demand that their horses stand for things like harnessing and hitching, just as they should demand that they stop when you say “Whoa”, lower their heads for bridling, or follow a feel with the bit. It always surprises me how many people make excuses for their horses’ inability to stand quietly when being harnessed or hitched.

Now, when you are working with the public, I imagine that would be a different matter and perhaps that’s where some of this line-holding comes in. There is what you expect from your horses and then there is taking every precaution to ensure the public’s safety.

[grey]

And I’m in the same camp as Carl and only tie my lines together when I’m plowing. When I’m on the hay wagon, however, I do often tie a little noose at the end of the lines and loop the noose over the post on the front of the rack. When I’m seated on a wagon, I sit on my lines with the tails of the lines on the floor/deck of the wagon behind me (assuming there’s no way for the tails to slip down between the decking boards or something). Otherwise, when driving on foot or riding a mower or cultivator or plow or such, I make big long loops of the excess line and hold them in my dominant hand.

[CharlyBonifaz]

how do you keep those loops from entangling? I always end with knots :confused: I try to sort them between my fingers … with little success…..
using a double-longe as line and aware of the catch

[Carl Russell]

Here is how I expect me horses to work when I am in public. This was our horse-logging weekend in 2005, and there were about 60 people milling around.[ATTACH]1128.jpg” />

This is how I hold my lines. I’m standing still right now, but these coils can be held and passed from one hand to the other with ease.[ATTACH]1129.jpg” />

Carl

[jac]

Our horses have to cope with the extremes of work at home and the public parades we do in the summer. Our public might number 3000. The 2 geldings i use now have done this for 10yrs. My lines are buckled together once the cross checks have been connected but I have them looped in big loops and make sure i have no contact with their bits till im in the box seat. Another thing Iv managed to teach them is not to move JUST on the “kiss” or “click”.. the reason behind this is the public seem to want to “kiss” or “click” a horse as they approach them and the amount of hitch horses Iv seen over the years that have lunged or just went to take a step purely on that sound alone :eek:!!! I made a mental note early on that if i was in a public situation mine wouldnt do that, Took a lot of repetition but now my team wont move till I give them a slight message down the line a second before the “kiss”.. No line contact… and anyone can approach now without me worrying about trampled children.. Tho I never get complacent.. The 2 mares are still learning this but I dont think they will do the parades. I’ll keep them for the work at home..
John

[grey]

@CharlyBonifaz 17409 wrote:

how do you keep those loops from entangling? I always end with knots :confused: I try to sort them between my fingers … with little success…..
using a double-longe as line and aware of the catch

Is the longe made of canvas or other rough material? That probably has a great impact on how one carries one’s lines. I only use heavy, slick leather lines or synthetic “granite” biothane lines because they don’t tangle easily and they pay out smoothly without snagging or twisting. I use 3/4 to 1.25 inch wide lines, depending on the application. The 3/4 inch lines are definitely more prone to rolling.

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