[near horse]

Hi Douglas,

I think you may have caught this group at a time when most are up to their eyeballs in work so likely little time to respond (or at least thoughtfully respond). As I read your post, it’s still a little unclear to me as to what specific information/ideas you’re looking for. Forecart design? Logging arch design? Both? As John has pointed out, there are professional loggers on this site and he named only a quick few of them. If you’re talking arches, also keep your eye out for posts from logger John Plowden – he’s fabbed an arch or two himself.

So be patient with us – those in the know will get involved when they get the opportunity IMO. And welcome!

[near horse]

@Donn Hewes 28245 wrote:

I got some bad news yesterday. I finally brought my 3 y/o mammoth Jack home from the Amish farm were he was staying. He was not really thriving there but I really didn’t know what was wrong. In the last couple of weeks he got bad scratches and scabs on his legs and all over. Yesterday, I had a really good vet look at him. In two seconds he told me he was blind in one, Leptospirosis. Other eye is not good, might go blind there too. Probably has lice, and is very anemic, possibly blood worms.

Naturally, it was a very disappointing visit. I don’t know exactly what we will do now. We are treating him and getting him out on pasture. We can clean up a lot of his problems, but obviously there is nothing I can do if he is blind. I plan to call the place I bought him from but, I have owned him for a few months, and he came from Kentucky. I guess that is farming.

That’s too bad Donn – sorry to hear that. I looked up some Lepto stuff as I’d never heard of it in horses – dogs are routinely vaccinated against it as part of their distemper, hepatitis, lepto, parainfluenza and parvo shot. From what I saw, it looks like the eye infection (moon blindness) is the common result in adult equids. Here’s a bit from the Merck manual:

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[TD=”class: para2″]Leptospirosis in horses is most commonly associated with uveitis or abortions. The disease is typically seen as a self-limiting mild fever with anorexia, although in severe forms hemolysis and vasculitis can result in petechial hemorrhages on mucosal surfaces, hemoglobinuria, anemia, icterus, conjunctival suffusion, depression, and weakness. Renal failure has been documented in foals. Recurrent uveitis (moon blindness) develops anytime from 2-8 mo following the initial infection ( Equine Recurrent Uveitis: Introduction). Leptospirosis appears to be a significant cause of recurrent uveitis in horses, accounting for up to 67% of the cases. Serovar pomona and an unidentified serovar have been isolated from the aqueous humor of horses with uveitis. It is not clear whether the uveitis is due to intraocular infection or is immune-mediated. Leptospirosis is responsible for 3-4% of all equine abortions annually, although flooding and other environmental catastrophes may result in abortion outbreaks. In the USA, serovar pomona type kennewicki appears to be the most significant cause of abortion. The prevalence of leptospirosis in horses is unknown, but serologic evidence indicates a higher incidence than is apparent clinically. In the USA, seroconversion to serovar bratislava is reported in up to 40% of horses in large population studies; horses may be a reservoir host for serovar bratislava .[/TD]
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[TD=”class: para2″]Measures for control and treatment are similar to those for cattle and pigs, but specific bacterins have not been developed for horses. Uveitis is treated symptomatically to reduce inflammation and prevent synechiae.[/TD]
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[near horse]

My sympathies as well, Ed. I lost my 30+ yr old quarter horse to a colic this past spring and although he’d lived a pretty good long life, it was still terribly hard to watch him go. My Belgians are so “bound at the hip” that I can’t imagine how one might handle the passing of the other. Again sorry for the loss.

[near horse]

I think Carl posted Ed’s info earlier here somewhere so I should look and try to contact him. Not sure how this happened but I definitely have a base template up. How about if I give you my admin login and password since I have no way of logging into my acct.? Are you game?

[near horse]

Hi Juliana,

I haven’t heard of this outfit you mention but don’t get too antsy. There are plenty of good folks out there that often have teams for sale, many times you can get the harness and collars that the team has been using. Either way, take it slow, have a critical eye and ask questions. But try to make sure you have an experienced someone with you to help.

To see what you think of this place, maybe go up and take a lesson from them – if it’s not good, you’re only out the cash you paid for the lesson and perhaps a bit wiser. If they stick you with a team that’s not a good fit, that’s a much bigger issue to deal with. Good luck.

[near horse]

@Countymouse 28238 wrote:

This might be a strange thought, but I think one of the groups that ought to be concerned about the use of round-up resistant bluegrass in lawns are big commercial farmers who use round-up ready crops. Here’s why…

I bet most lawn owners who opt for this grass will only use round-up when they see a fair amount of weeds. Then, they will probably only use enough round-up to get rid of “most” of the weeds. Next time they see weeds, they will probably use the same application rate, and if this fails to kill most of the weeds, they will use a little more (just enough to kill most weeds). You couldn’t come up with a better plan to select for round-up resistant weeds. Couple this with the fact that not all these lawns will be sprayed at the same time and are close to other lawns, allowing for easy dissemination of weed seeds. Add to this the fact that most landowners cannot and/or will not perform any sort of tillage to remove round-up resistant weeds and are also pretty resistant to reseeding. Also, the wide adaptablity and desirablility of bluegrass means it will likley populate large swaths of the country. Also the perineal nature of lawns gives a home to both annual and pereinial round-up resistant weeds. All together, I bet all these lawns will provide sources and refuge for roundup resistant weeds throughout the country. The seeds of which will blow back into roundup resistant corn, soybeans, and everything else. Jeesh, you almost couldn’t design a better system to breed for round-up resistance weed development. And the system is voluntary, self sustaining, and self funding. I seriously doubt round-up ready crops are long for this world, but is the the enemy of your enemy your friend??? Maybe, but I suspect Monsanto will “deal” with the resistant weeds by developing and selling otehr herbicide reistant crops (such as Glufosinate). Possibly Monsanto will run the whole gambit of herbicides and herbicides resistance gene combinations until they run out of drugs or genes or both. That would be pretty much what happened with antibiotics… It will definately be interesting to see what happens and I bet is won’t take long to find out. I don’t see why a round-up resistant weed would be any more difficult to control by mechanical or organic means, so if you are not “bugged” by the engineered genes this might simply be an “interesting state of affairs,” mattering only to people needing to use the herbicides. I know that is a matter of much debate but that is largely how I look at it.

Andy – I think that RR bluegrass is still more of a problem in commercial ag than in the hands of the homeowner. Commercial growers of other RR crops are already seeing resistant weeds and we’re assuming that they followed all the application protocols suggested by Monsanto. It’s going to happen – to paraphrase the guy in Jurassic Park, “life finds a way to carry on”. Also, actually, non-commercial applicators tend to overapply herbicides to weeds (soak ’em with it rather than the suggested amount) so the concern would be more of too much herbicide in the ‘burbs.

In the west, hopefully the huge water requirements of bluegrass will be its demise. Kind of funny too because BG seed is a big cash crop around here.

[near horse]

Thanks Bob. One more question – how do you get the bales off the cart? And how do you personally, store/stack them? Guess that’s 2 questions:)

[near horse]

@Carl Russell 28204 wrote:

Left hand sidebar. 4th one down. Advertising. Open the drop-down. Manage Ads, or Add New Ad.

Carl

I don’t have that access either. Left hand side bar, 4th down is “Style Manager” – no sign of advertising.

Well, I went messing around to see if I could find out why Carl has the advert thing that Jen and I do not AND I 1)got sidetracked and played with the color scheme etc in Style manager – templates etc and it appears I’ve changed the template to an old default “look” 2) I changed something in my editor stuff under the Admin Usergroup so it matched Carl and Ed’s (something like WYSIG… ) – and I NOW DON’T HAVE ANY “ADMIN” LINK BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF MY PAGE AND CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET BACK THERE TO UNDO MY MESS!

It’s like I’m in a place where words have 2 meanings and a simple button can change the world (or template) – and the signpost up ahead reads ….. the Twilight Zone – dun dun dah. Help, Mr. Wizard.

[near horse]

Wow – at what you’re asking, I’m surprised they haven’t been snapped up by now. Best of luck.

[near horse]

Hi Lane,

Have you also posted at http://www.drafthorses.com and rural heritage online? Just a way to expand your coverage and, if I’m not mistaken, are no charge.

[near horse]

Hey Bob,

I like your rig – how is it for tongue weight (putting upwards lift on the forecart tongue)?

[near horse]

With regard to “looseness” in hooking –
too loose = potential neck yoke sliding off end of pole (assuming you’re using that style) but
too tight = no room for horses to step back from tension when at rest w/o moving the load backwards.

So I guess I’ll ask – do you all want some slack in the “suspension” btwn neck yoke and singletree? Not drooping but visible lack of tension on the traces.

[near horse]

@CharlyBonifaz 28072 wrote:

the animal tries to find the most efficient way to pull/push, that includes variations of line of draft

That’s pretty interesting that the mechanics of the head yoke allows the animal to “assist” in finding the best line of draft.

[near horse]

I wonder about differences in the line of draft w/ the different yokes. Probably helps to have a short thick neck.

[near horse]

Herein lies the “art” part of making hay – and farming in general.

[Author]

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