[mitchmaine]

thank you all, i’ve been thinking allergies but needed to hear somebody else say it too. we feed oats or spelt mixed with sweetfeed along with some vitamin mineral supp. they also got 2 – 3 bushels of carrots culls and sweetcorn stalks. they eat what they want out of the garden. i’ll try cutting back on the grain, but she works pretty hard this time of the year. i’ll cut the sweetfeed and see if she improves. thanks, all.

[mitchmaine]

probably no picture. i can barely type. it feels like a bag of marbles under her hide. doesn’t look mangy to me, she’s the only one in the barn with it. she is probably 16 or 18. can’t remember. it’s her sweet spot. she used to lay her head in your lap if you scratched there. she can get it with her rear left. got me puzzled. i’ll go look up mange on the computer and see. thanks.

[mitchmaine]

hey mink, back when i was looking for horses stuff, maine barns were full of old harness, hanging in place for 30 years. covered with bird poop and who knows what else. a neighbor gave me a set of his harness. he threw it in a tub of hot soapy water, and scrubbed off the grime. rinsed them off abd when they started to look dry he would lightly oil them, and do it again when they started to dry, until they felt loose and pliable. they improved greatly by wearing in on the horses. they stretched it out and shined it up. looked just like new. leather harness can stand up to some tough abuse. like carl said, keep your bits warm. after looking at alot of harness, i would guess that the average maine farm team wore a 22 ” collar and weighed maybe 2900 – 3000 lbs. a little smaller than our teams today. they did alot of work with those little horses.

[mitchmaine]

anybody ever see elmon mitchell’s rig at lif in unity, me? basically it was a horse drawn skidder. a rugged built forecart with an arch behind it. the fairlead, pulley or snatchblock was about eye level so you could pull logs right up high off the ground. had a gas powered winch but you could make it anyway you wanted. he would haul three 12″ pines easily by tree length maybe 50-60′. pretty slick rig

[mitchmaine]

hey george, yes. a set of bob sleds had a front and rear sled, attached to each other with cross chains(two chains that crossed each other from one sled to the other making an x). when the front swung right, the rear went left making a tighter circle. each sled had a steel plate(wear plate)on the top of the bunk with a 1″ hole in the center. a 3 or 4 foot long hardwood 4×4 sat there pinned into each bunk. the two 4×4’s carried a body or pulp bunks or logs. they had stake iron on each end usually but that is where you got creative for whatever you were doing. some even had dogs dragging behind the runners to dig in if you had to stop on a hill. sleds rule.

[mitchmaine]

sounds like you know what i’m talking about. sorry about your horse. too bad people can’t just be better. best wishes, mitch

[mitchmaine]

i do not want to butt in here. i apologize, but i need to tell you to be careful cutting holes on and off your property. i did just the same thing years ago, using my own woodlot as a woodyard for wood that i cut off neighbors land. the result was a long battle with folks on four wheelers finding trails and going whereever they pleased. it ended with an suv, ford i think, stuck in our swamp with three high school kids in it out for a lark during sugaring season. please be very careful. sorry

[mitchmaine]

one peice of equipment i used to use was a pulp cart or trailer. i used to use it on dry ground pinned through the bunk of a single set of sleds. the cart had one axle with 20 ” truck wheels and could hold a cord of four foot wood easily and the horses had no trouble moving it. with the steel shod sleds up front the load was never in danger of rolling up on them. i went back to two sleds on ice and snow. worked good and was quite manuverable.

[mitchmaine]

thanks guys, got it in yesterday. a little bigger peice of wood than i wanted. slabbed it down with the saw. still looks a little gaumy. but it’s in.

[mitchmaine]

rod, what do you think about the height of the britchin? to low seems to take the legs out from under them under a big load. that could be as important as tension on the tugs(?)

[mitchmaine]

hey. if you have four ring or d-ring (new england) harness(they used to call it prison harness here in maine). tune it to f-sharp. nice and snug. if you get it right, the pole weight is carried evenly by the jack saddle as well as the collar. and the pull un the britchin doesn’t bother the horses. on belly backers, the strain on the britchin goes down the quarter strap and under their bellies squeezing in on their flanks. they don’t like that as well. let you tugs go slack a little. when you back the evener should still be off the ground and not dragging. you gotta feel your way through that one. they have a yoke that bolts through the tounge and can’t get away from you, but i’ve never had one. looks great tho. good luck.

[mitchmaine]

hey george, what do you think about them? that’s what counts. pretty is as pretty does. a matched pair to me works well together. one could be a giraffe and the other a hippopotamus, but if they pull good, what else. you ain’t married to them. if it don’t work out sell ’em. good luck

[mitchmaine]

i can’t say anything about steel bobsleds, but what george has was welded up to move 4′ wood behind a crawler tractor. it did its job cause no one looked back. carl is right. it was heavy, went right to the bottom, pushed snow ahead of it, and couldn’t track. but who cares with a bulldozer. it had a set of runners that trailed on the ground that held your wood. i tried to make one work once. maine was full of them. the horses hated it, and so did i. it slid sideways and barked trees. the only thing you could say good about it was it didn’t rot. a bobsled with moccasin runners floats in the snow, sometimes higher than the horses. its light in draft and tracks well and spins on a dime. much easier on the horses. carls right about the pole to. i think you are trying to pull the pole that is pulling the sleds that are pulling your log. hook your horses as close to your load as the sleds let you. that said, that is only my experience. you should have your own. we could talk about it later

[mitchmaine]

i think blinders kept more wood out of the horses eyes than in them. maybe it will be different for you guys. theres usually never one way

[mitchmaine]

hey, jim. the nose chain goes right at the front of the runner up high snug across to the other runner with a 6″ ring in center. the chain to the eveners (longer, and hooked back to the runners by the first bunk) goes through that ring along with your pole so your draft is always centered. cut a notch at the back of your pole and fit it into a smaller ring or loop of chain fit to the center of the bunk for your hold back. does that make sense? when your on dry ground, pull the pole out and hook to the same chain still going through the loop in the nose chain. that’s called loose rigging. hey to rusty

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