tieing your lines together

[grey]

There is a small local draft horse show I go to each year. While event staffing does try to keep people from coming through the barns while we are hitching and harnessing, in reality there are still a lot of kids with balloons, distracted moms with double-wide strollers and – like John mentioned – folks whose desire to interact with the horses leads them to make all sorts of noises at the animals.

This is an example of one of those situations where I do expect my horses to stand but always have the lines in my hands. Not because I’m expecting my horses to misbehave, but because I’m afraid a human being will misbehave. People take it upon themselves to do some weird things.

[CharlyBonifaz]

canvas or other rough material (cotton/polyester) and I have used it primarily for its easy handling; always disliked the stiff leather especially in rain….
maybe I should give it a second try…..

[grey]

Leather can certainly be stiff compared to canvas lines, but the good-quality leather should rapidly become supple in the hand. I’ve had my hands on some really garbage low-grade leather lines that would have put me off leather entirely if I hadn’t also used the good stuff to compare it to.

Wet leather, though, that’s another matter. That’s what I like about my “granite” lines; here in the often-soggy Pacific Northwest US, the synthetic lines provide the traction when I need them. I split my usage about 50%/50% between my leather lines and my granite lines.

[OldKat]

@jac 17421 wrote:

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

What a great idea.

[OldKat]

@grey 17434 wrote:

There is a small local draft horse show I go to each year. While event staffing does try to keep people from coming through the barns while we are hitching and harnessing, in reality there are still a lot of kids with balloons, distracted moms with double-wide strollers and – like John mentioned – folks whose desire to interact with the horses leads them to make all sorts of noises at the animals.

This is an example of one of those situations where I do expect my horses to stand but always have the lines in my hands. Not because I’m expecting my horses to misbehave, but because I’m afraid a human being will misbehave. People take it upon themselves to do some weird things.

What a great idea.

[Donn Hewes]

Grey, That is what I was trying to teach myself and my apprentices. There is a time to hold the lines. The first time you try and do it it makes hooking up more complicated than it was. With practice I can keep the lines with me, on my wrist or elbow and hook up with making it harder than it was. The trick is keeping the lines slack and still as you move around. A little practice doeasn’t hurt. I have also found that teach teaching someone to pick up the lines with out sending a signal is a good way to get them to recognize when they do pick up the lines to drive they must distinguish between picking them up and connecting with the animals before you ask them to go.

I agree with Carl, as a farmer horses must know how to stand for things as simple as hooking, we just need that basic ability to work around them. I really had to stop and think about why I would want to teach hooking with lines in hand. Now I will be explaining the difference.

[Carl Russell]

I used to tie my lines to the barn door and practiced for hours holding, gathering, coiling, dropping, and regathering.

I use leather and Beta lines.

I hold my lines between my first two fingers, pointer and middle, when I am driving. This allows me to hold either the opposite line, and/or the coil of lines between my thumb and pointer. I can drive a team with one hand and know that the opposite line is always the one on top.

I will drop the lines, comb them, put the right line in my right hand, between pointer and middle fingers, then place the left hand line between thumb and pointer. Then I comb the line, reaching back with the left hand, and at a couple of feet I grab them and fold a loop into my right hand, on top of the left hand line. I twist them as I lay that loop in place so that the lines lay flat all the way around the loop, and repeat this until I have them all coiled. Then I will take the coil in between thumb and pointer of the left hand, at the same time placing the left line between pointer and middle of that hand.

If for some reason I let go of the lines, say to step back, or to allow the team to move while I stand still, I will put them both in one hand for a second, comb out the lines behind me, then take them back to the appropriate hand. If there is enough lines to drag on the ground, and I start to move, I quickly coil that up. I never walk with lines dragging, and prefer having a tight coil, as apposed to draping them over a shoulder, etc.

As far as having a loop to facilitate this, I have already written that I tend to let the lines out, and recoil them so often that the loop would be a hindrance.

However, in terms of those times when the possibility that the horses moving could cause a serious accident based on the actions of others who I can’t control, I can see the merit. I have been in a few parades etc. and found it too distressing, and having some way to keep the lines close at hand would be valuable.

Carl

[Marshall]

When I am hooking I keep the lines draped over my arm that is closest to the horses. I don’t hold them I just drape them my arm. That way If I need to grab them I can.

[mitchmaine]

when we collect sap in the spring, we tie the lines up and the horses stand while we gather. when we get help, new people with strange voices are in the woods with us shouting and laughing, and of course some new sound always starts the horses. so they have to stop when i say so 50′ away. when it’s just us we start and stop the horses by voice. they are on roads that they know by heart so don’t need much guiding. so i’d practice on other jobs saying whoa and then pulling back to stop them til they started stopping before i actually had to pull back. if you can get them to stop by voice, your one step closer to the lines.

[grey]

@Carl Russell 17466 wrote:

I have been in a few parades etc. and found it too distressing, and having some way to keep the lines close at hand would be valuable.

Distressing. That is just the word, too. I love my horses, and I love sharing them with others. You can see the appreciation reflected on the faces of many of the spectators, but I sure love seeing that occasional brighter glow on the face of a true horse-lover. All the better when it is the face of a youngster. I love answering questions and I love giving people the opportunity to see horses working in harness – something that is difficult to come by any more.

But the risks and the stress make it hard to enjoy oneself when your mind is in the habit of running all the possible disaster scenarios. Very distressing. And of course the horses pick up on it, and pretty soon no one is enjoying themselves so you trap it inside where the horses aren’t bothered so badly by it.

So, yes, it is distressing. And weighing the pros and cons of the whole situation makes one stay at home as often as not.

But I got my first glimpse of dappled gray Percheron rump at the fair, and it changed me forever… I can’t forget that, so I do still go to this local fair, as well as few other public events. And afterward, when everyone is home safe again, I have a stiff drink and count my lucky stars. 😀

Sorry for the ramble, guess I’m feeling a little reminiscent today.

[grey]

When I need to keep the lines in hand, I have a bit of a habit/trick that I picked up from a friend and mentor.

When he buckles his cruppers on, he doesn’t tuck the ends of the crupper fork billets all the way through the other side of the buckle to make them lie flat. After insterting the buckle tongue through the appropriate hole of the billet, he tucks only the end of the billet through the other side of the buckle. This creates an arch of leather that stands up. He does this with both buckles of the crupper, on any horse he is harnessing for work.

The two arches of leather create a sort of channel between them, which is a great place to lay the lines to keep them together and quiet while you move around holding the ends of the lines. He says that his horse feels the weight of the leather laying on her tail and it acts as a sort of “parking brake”. The horse is never asked to move while the lines are laying there, so it is easier for the horse to ignore any distracting sounds. When he switches sides of the team, he moves the lines to lay between the other horse’s crupper buckles.

Another thing he sometimes does is, after laying the two lines there, he takes the rest of the lines, doubles them over, and lays them against the tail crosswise, above the crupper buckles and the arches of the crupper fork billets, which create something of a little shelf. This gives a convenient place to lay the lines, keeping them off the ground, untangled, but within easy reach.

I lay my lines down the tail of the nearest horse, between the crupper buckles, but I have not made a habit of making the billets stand up the way he does. It is not as secure to do it halfheartedly, the way I do, and you cannot then lay the rest of the lines across the rump above the buckles – for they would have nothing to keep them from sliding the rest of the way down off the tail – but it does help quiet the lines when you need to have them in hand while working from the ground.

This assumes, of course, that you are using a crupper. The way my crupper is constructed, the buckle itself does is only “D” shaped and not square or oval. Instead of tucking the rest of the fork billet down under the other half of the buckle, the harnessmaker has sew a leather keeper to do the job. This keeper actually does stand up from the buckle quite a ways, making a sufficient guide in which to lay the lines.

I hope I have described this well enough for the reader to visualize it.

[Rod44]

Sounds interesting, I’ll try it.

[Author]

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