[Ed Thayer]

Glad to hear that worked out for you.

Our neighbor had a runaway get stuck in a swamp a couple of years ago and after locating the horse, it took us six hours and a tractor with a winch on it to retrieve her. Then we loaded her into a loader bucket filled with sawdust and tranported back home.

Needless to say that horse was put down days later.

[Ed Thayer]

Sounds good to me.

Count me in. My wife and I are planning to attend the event and are looking forward to it.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

I am enviouse………….

I till have to dig one out and get to restoring it. Good job.

[Ed Thayer]

Jen,

Glad to hear Reno is doing well. You must be so glad to be working him again. And Peanut looked great in the photo pulling the harrow.

I have still been cuttting wood and skidding it to my log pile with Oz. Cleanup from the Ice storm.

I have been leaving his halter on under the bridle and tying him to a 4″ tree in the woods while I run the chainsaw. I am mindfull of Carl’s warnings and make sure Oz is facing the direction in which I am working and out of reach of what I am cutting.

He has been doing great, I have been getting off the cart and opening gates as he stands and waits for me. The backing issue seems to have resolved itself with repeated hitches and more work.

Yesterday after work I even backed him into the barn to unhitch the fore cart by following Don’s idea of backing a little, stopping and then backing more with small breaks in between.

I am very pleased with his progress and a little embarassed by some of my earlier posts whining about my troubles. It really is about the work and the relationship with the horse and I think Oz and I are both getting it now. We are working and the issues I had are either getting better or do not exist anymore.

This is a great forrum and thanks to all for your input.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

I didn’t think you were coming off as a know it all, I appreciate the input.

I am on a preety steep learning curve when it comes to thehorse feed.

Thanks again all,

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

No offense taken by any responses. Although, Near Horses’ post is a little out of my league. I really need to read up more on horse feed and digestion I guess.

I am going to try straight oats and more hay. Thanks for the replies and suggestions.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Is the vitamin mineral premix a powder that you add to the oats?

Jen, he is in pasture 12 hours a day, but the grass has been chewed down heavily. I guess the big guy will get more hay and I will look into the oats.

Is that something Blue Seal sells? Are oats different on the digestive system? Can I simply start the oats or do I need to wean him off the sweet feed?

[Ed Thayer]

@Rod44 9119 wrote:

For now wash it down with salt water a couple times a day. That is what the some of the old timers around here do to toughen up the skin. Just make sure you collar fits and the hames are adjusted correctly to the line of draft is correct. With the wider necks on my Haflingers, I had to bend more bow into my hames.

From the picture, it looks like the collar is probably too big, but hard to tell. Went the collar and harness is on can you get more that one hand in under the collar at the bottom? If you can it is probably too big.

Sorry to but in Jen,

I have often thought my collar fit to tight on the neck of Oz. I never thought about bending the hames to relieve some of that. How would you do this? Set them in a vice and muster some good arm strength?

[Ed Thayer]

@Rod 8744 wrote:

I made a modified pole for mine based on a suggestion by Carl.The pole raises the pull point up the the same height as the chain hooks on the back. Should solve the problem of the lifting of the pole. I think an adapter for the shafts would do the same thing and an thinking about making one so I can use mine as a single. Thanks for the photos and narrative.

That is a good idea. I have found the pioneer forecart to be heavy on the shafts (horses back) regardless of what I do with it. Whether I drag the harrow or a trailer with wood. I did stop Oz and lean back on the hitch and asked my neighbor to try and lift the shafts at the horses back. There was still weight on them.

My guess is it might be an issue as you mentioned when hooked to a large log. I will hve to try and see what happens.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Thanks Don,

I have been walking Oz up to the log and stopping him. Then I get off and go to his head and slowly back him to the log and tell him whoa.

I then walk back with the lines in my hand and hitch the log, get back on and release him.

I did this several times yeterday and had no issues with him lunging forward or becoming impatient.

So my guess is I may be doing something wrong or confusing OZ when I remain on the cart and back him to the log.

[Ed Thayer]

Great picture. Can’t ask for a better day to work the horses from the looks of it.

[Ed Thayer]

@Carl Russell 8637 wrote:

highway;8622 wrote:

That was me. The kids always get the attention. Not to diminish our chance meeting, but I almost always make some gesture and eye contact when I walk by someone, so which one were you? Did we exchange more than howdy?

Another time, Carl

I was wearing a green sweat shirt with my Fletcher and Family Sugar House logo on it. It was just my wife and I that attended. I was heading in to the event from the welcome center after lunch and you were heading out.

We will meet at the NEAPD in October. I have contacted Kristin about volunteering at the event.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

@Carl Russell 8595 wrote:

Ed, sorry to miss you, as I was there too. It would have been good to meet you.

Carl,

Were you there with the kids wearing a plaid vest and logger boots? I think we spoke in passing one another near the entrance.

ED

[Ed Thayer]

@near horse 8583 wrote:

Does plowing with oxen usually require 2 people – a driver and “a plower”? Just curious and I’ve never thought about it until now.

Yes,

One drives the team the other drives the plow. It is teamwork to say the least. More than once the ox were so fast the plow driver fell and ended up on his rump.

Oxen seem to move faster than horses, but most of the teams I saw were young.

[Ed Thayer]

@Plowboy 8529 wrote:

Highway, A good friend of ours was there with his team of yearling Holsteins Nip and Tuck. They are going very well already. He goes up every year for the event because he has family nearby.

Dennis,

I watched them pull. They looked great from what I could tell. There were more ox teams than horse teams. Fun to watch,

Ed

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