We have sweat under the collar!

[jen judkins]

Peanut and I completed our very first farm chore together today(outside of skidding wood)! I’m thrilled and it was fun! We overseeded two of my pastures with a broadcast spreader. It was a pretty easy load for him but he is only 3 and I just want to get him out doing different stuff without much fuss. He spooked a few times as my dog, Max would run circles around us and suddenly appear in one eye, but other than that he was pretty good. We had a few good whoas….my pasture is quite hilly so even with the light load he was breathing heavy from the winter off.

I was pleased to see a good bit of sweat on him when we were done. It took less than an hour from getting him into the barn to letting him back out, including punching a few new holes in my new harness, making adjustments and a few laps around the pasture to be sure I had brakes. I could have done it in 20 minutes with the tractor, but it wouldn’t have been nearly so much fun!

[dominiquer60]

Congratulations Farmer Judkins! 😀

[Plowboy]

Our coming 4yr old filly has been a little full of herself lately making quick starts, nothing terrible just not behaving like a good working horse should. My Dad and I hitched her with her mother this afternoon. Her mother is the most powerfull mare I’ve ever seen and would have made a sane man pee his pants when we first got her. I bought her for her conformation and she was bred with Dixie when we got her. We put them both on a 12ft pasture drag behind a forecart to scatter manure clumps in the hayfield by the barn. Dixie has her mothers power but with all that resistance they both settled in to work calmly together quickly. If someone was going to use that drag all day 3or 4 would be better but for quick results 2 can pull it. At 60 degrees they sweat some. With the weather report not freezing at night plowing should start early next week. 2or3 hrs at a time to begin with until they get hardened up. Jen glad your finding some real work for your youngster around your place. We had a friend with a herd of Belgians that used to invent jobs to do with his horses and invent equipment to use his horses for jobs that weren’t necessarily horse jobs.

[Robert MoonShadow]

Congratulations, my friend!!
[And way to go, Peanut!!]

<<< Um, there's something wrong with my computer... I don't see any photos of you and Peanut at work!!! >>> 😡

[jen judkins]

@Plowboy 7458 wrote:

Jen glad your finding some real work for your youngster around your place. We had a friend with a herd of Belgians that used to invent jobs to do with his horses and invent equipment to use his horses for jobs that weren’t necessarily horse jobs.

Dennis, I can see this happening. Working with horses is quite addicting and if I might add empowering. I’ve got a pasture drag in my mind that I’d like to build (maybe today) with split tires.

@Robert MoonShadow 7462 wrote:

<<< Um, there's something wrong with my computer... I don't see any photos of you and Peanut at work!!! >>> 😡

Well, its kind of like the ‘tree falling in the woods’ story. There was no one home to witness the event, so perhaps it never really happened:eek:. I did take a photo afterwards to get some feedback from Carl or Ted about the new harness adjustment and there is evidence of recent work, sweat and a solid non-fidgety resting stance….SWEEEET:D

Thanks for the support everyone! Its great to know I have friends cheering me on even when Peanut and I are out there alone.

[J-L]

Good for you Jen. There is a satisfaction that you can’t get with using a tractor, vs. a horse, when getting a job done. I’ll bet that was a great feeling for you.

[Gabe Ayers]

Jen,
Invent your pasture drag to be made of something besides old tires. I have read that when tires wear they leave cadmium in their paths and that is not something you want in your ground or environment in any amount. I have seen nice ones made out of old chain mail type fencing or I have seen guys use an old bed spring, or a drag built of locust post that would also serve to drag plowed ground to level it before disking.

We use a flexible tine Fuerst Chain Harrow and it does an excellent job, but is not or was not cheap twenty years ago or so when I bought it. It’s the one we pull around every spring singing “I’m a turd buster in my head, to the tune of I’m a girl watcher….lovely tool to wake up the pasture in spring, level ground, cover seed shallow, overseeding, and of course breaking up manure from the winter as well as using it in between pasture rotations in the growing seasons.

Glad you are having some fun working Peanut….he looks like a pretty good sized goober to me…..

[Carl Russell]

Jen, Awesome. I hope you’re documenting this to be part of a workshop at NEAPFD about “starting out”.

The harness looks pretty good. I especially like the wet hair. My only feed-back is that the front trace looks a little too long, which is a chronic problem with current harness makers, and not anything you did, or that you can adjust. From my perspective it should be a couple of inches shorter, more like where your shaft loop belly band is, and usually requires a custom harness maker.

Keep up the good work, Carl

[LStone]

@Biological Woodsman 7489 wrote:

Jen,
Invent your pasture drag to be made of something besides old tires. I have read that when tires wear they leave cadmium in their paths and that is not something you want in your ground or environment in any amount. …..

Jen Congradulations on your progress. I’d defer to Jason on the tire drag. It seems to be to be logical that something like that would be possible. Also I would think it to be a little more aggressive than you would like. I use a simple section of chain link fencing chained to a singletree for my purposes. It worked well on the dirt driveway and tried it on the small pasture with my yearling this weekend. finish product was satisfactory. We’ll see about the success of last years grouond cover bouncing back. With everyhting I’ve read it will probably fare well.

LStone

[Carl Russell]

It seems pretty amazing to think about the heavy metals that could come from a tire harrow.

My experience is that a tire harrow is a perfect tool for dragging pasture. I actually use it in conjunction with my chain harrows.

The tires don’t seem to wear that much, but I know Cadmium is nothing good. There are so many other heavy metals coming out of our polluted air that I’m not sure I add that much more with the tire harrow, although I realize that logic is flawed.

Tire harrows are easy to make, and seem like they last a long time. They actually grab clods, and roll them out in a specific way that is different than the chain harrows.

For what it’s worth, Carl

[jen judkins]

@Biological Woodsman 7489 wrote:

Jen,
Invent your pasture drag to be made of something besides old tires. I have read that when tires wear they leave cadmium in their paths and that is not something you want in your ground or environment in any amount.

Heavens no I don’t. Glad its raining out today and I haven’t gotten to it yet. Will rethink. Thank you.

@Biological Woodsman 7489 wrote:

Glad you are having some fun working Peanut….he looks like a pretty good sized goober to me…..

Oh man, ‘goober’ is such a good word to describe Peanut:D Big body, child’s mind…

@Carl Russell 7491 wrote:

Jen, Awesome. I hope you’re documenting this to be part of a workshop at NEAPFD about “starting out”.

I can and will. Perhaps a panel discussion? I can think of a few locals who would be good sources of info…Larry, Ed, Julie, Jean and I’m sure there are more.

@Carl Russell 7491 wrote:

The harness looks pretty good. I especially like the wet hair. My only feed-back is that the front trace looks a little too long, which is a chronic problem with current harness makers, and not anything you did, or that you can adjust. From my perspective it should be a couple of inches shorter, more like where your shaft loop belly band is, and usually requires a custom harness maker.

I thought the same thing and that it was stupid that it wasn’t adjustable. I can’t quite get that 90% angle that supposed to be there. Peanut is still growing though. I had to let his driving harness out several holes both front and back this spring, so perhaps he will grow into the D-ring this year.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Robert MoonShadow]

Jen ~ I’m so glad to see you & Peanut at it! What’s his attitude like, about “working”? Eager, indifferent…? As for the tire harrow/Cadmium thing: perhpas you can check w/ one of the organic certifiers = they should know, at least, if they haven’t ‘outlawed’ it in regards for organic certification, it’s probably not an issue, but if they have…
Just a thought on how to perhaps find out.

[Gabe Ayers]

This is an addition to Carl’s comments on the front trace/tug.

The front tug on the D-Ring has came 21 inches from Peach Lane Harness on our first few conversion packages. We requested that they shorten it to 19 inches, since our Suffolk horses are shorter all over and they did that for us.

What they didn’t do was lengthen the side backer straps or the back tug to compensate for the shorter front piece, so now those don’t fit right….just make sure if you order them to get what you want by giving precise measurements for each component.

[jen judkins]

@Robert MoonShadow 7502 wrote:

Jen ~ I’m so glad to see you & Peanut at it! What’s his attitude like, about “working”? Eager, indifferent?

I would say he still thinks of it as a game of sorts. He does alot of testing. I don’t mind it, just make adjustments so he knows where I want to go and how fast. Its a constant conversation though I have learned to keep the vocalization to a minimum;). I try hard to match his energy and no more…and relax when he settles into the gait and direction I had in mind. It appears to be working, as he is better with every outing, but he is pretty far from being a steady, walking work horse. I wish I had the schedule to get him out everyday…its would make a difference I’m sure. Meanwhile his antics are making me a more confident driver/teamster. Can you call yourself a ‘team’ster if you only drive one horse?:)

[dominiquer60]

I would think that the two of you make a good team:)

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