[Big Horses]

Looking at their feet and the rest of the outfit, I’d say it’s just a “use what ya can find” sort of outfit! Very interesting picture to say the least!
My Dad tells of a horse going through the ice on the lake near us, and having cut a “channel” (just in case) to get him back up before they did much ice cutting, then heading to the barn as fast as possible with a whole crew, armed with gunny sacks to get him dried off before it was too late. He said they used the same horse the next day, back out there and he wasn’t too jumpy, but wasn’t all too sure about heading out on that lake at first!
JH

[Big Horses]

Yup, on there as John Hanson.
JH

[Big Horses]

Shoot me a few if you could too!
JH

[Big Horses]

@Russel 19174 wrote:

Can wood be used for plowing etc?

It has been for hundreds of years……..
John

[Big Horses]

Kevin,
Try the Montana Craigslist, or even Spokane (seems to be lots of horses on Craigslist anymore, as it’s free to post the ad). There was a team of percherons on there a week or two ago, full brother/sister and the old guy that owned them was more worried about them going to the right home than how much money he was going to make. I also know of a gal that has a team of Belgians that really needs to get rid of them too… sound like a pretty nice team, but I haven’t seen them. Shoot me a PM if you’re interested. I also know of a bunch of Percherons in NE (our oldest daughter) that wants to thin the herd.
John

[Big Horses]

Quite a few around here are free…and even a few that have some experience too!
JH

[Big Horses]

I like it!
JH

[Big Horses]

Bill,
I spent about a year in Watertown, going to school for the second half of my aircraft mechanic’s license…that was in about ’84/85. Spent the year before in Fargo.
John

[Big Horses]

It could be worse….. we’ve got elk and moose too…..they eat alot more than the deer! They’re also lots harder on the fences! A neighbor went to the Fish & Game for some “cracker” shells (blanks to scare off the elk) and went out to his hay shed that night…sure enough, there was about 60 head of elk in the hay, so he popped a couple crackcers off at them. He said he fixed fence for 3 weeks because of that, so he took the shells back.:eek: Winter before last, I had a cow moose run the horses off their haybale (teeth bared, and mad all over!). She was old and getting pretty grumpy, but it didn’t make the horses or me too happy!
John

[Big Horses]

Hi Bill,
Where at in SD? It’s a great place here….lots of interesting info and ideas!
John

[Big Horses]

We’ve gone from feeding whole oats to “naked oats”, and are extremely pleased with the results…especially with some of our older horses. They sure seem to be processing and utilizing the naked oats much better than they did with whole oats, and feeding less volume has made it even a bit more economical. I plan on putting a chunk of ground into them this fall. There are a couple farmers who grow them in the valley here, and they’re always almost sold out. The people that try them are all very happy.
http://www.geertsonseedfarms.com/Pages/NakedOats.htm

John

[Big Horses]

We switched to “naked oats” this year and I’m totally impressed!! We fed sweet for years and really had no problems from what we could tell. We’ve got some older horses and they just seem to do better and stay more filled out and have more energy on the naked oats, while feeding lots less volume. It works for us!
John

http://www.geertsonseedfarms.com/Pages/NakedOats.htm
http://www.wrtc.com/gartseed/nakedoats.htm

[Big Horses]

Youch!!! We didn’t make that one, as we had something come up right at the last minute. I heard the horses went cheap (suprise…).
JH

[Big Horses]

Well, I don’t “OWN” her…but I’ve been the one that gets to run her for the last few years..and I first steered her when I was about 10……
Late ’20’s Minneapolis, 28hp.

JH

[Big Horses]

I am very fortunate in that I grew up working around horses. We always had around a hundred head, mostly saddle horses (we had a guest ranch and a commercial outfitting business), but also work horses. Not necessarily draft horses, but good, big work horses. I also had access to quite a few mentors. My Dad and our hired man had both grown up working horses, both on farms and in the woods, and had learned from alot of the (then) “old timers” and passed alot of that on to me. I spent alot of time hauling hay and feeding cows with a team, and it was some great education! I was also around some very talented “old timers” myself, as they were good friends of our family….Adam Funk, Glen Phanco, Tom Triplett, John Keller, Jasper Johnston, Martin Hendrickson, and a host of others…and these people had made livings working horses…and soaked up all that I could from them. Probably out of them, Tom Triplett took me under his wing more than any. He taught me how to drive multiple hitches, and a host of things….and it still continues to this day. In that same breath, I learn from my wife and oldest daughter, whom have both been driving multiples down to singles all their lives too… as well as from every horse I throw a harness on….. sometimes the “mentor” can have 4 legs too. :rolleyes: It’s kind of like everything in life, I guess… if I’m not learning something every time I do it, I’m not paying attention!
Great thread, thanks for starting it!!
John

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