[Rod44]

No cattle. You have a nice team too!

[Rod44]

The only thing more fun that driving a Haflinger is driving two of them.

Put some sweat under their collars yesterday double disking an acre garden.

[Rod44]

Nice pictures. Look like they go well together.:)

[Rod44]

Found some nice pictures but it was very tough reading:). My ancestors are from Norway and my wife and I have been to the home farms. I have a daughter in law that is half Swedish.

[Rod44]

Nice looking planter. Don’t think I have seen one like it.

[Rod44]

Looks like the chain hitches quite high on the forecart. Do you have trouble with the shafts wanting to go up? You might on a heavy log??? I don’t know, I have just dragged them off of the forcart hitch. Looks like a a good idea though.

[Rod44]

Here is another way to haul two or three logs at once. Made by an amish friend. They use it mainly to haul from the staging area to the mill area.

[Rod44]

Good one!!!!!!!!!!!:):)

[Rod44]

Donn – sure liked your picture.:) As I always say when I’m hooked up not too fancy or maybe just cobbled something together, “Well, I’m not taking them to the fair!!”

Sure wish more people would post pictures.

[Rod44]

Another mule update. Just talked with Bob. The mules are doing great has had no issues with them. They drove to town last week, about 8 miles, and tied up to a hitching post (many amish in the area) in the parking lot and went in for breakfast. He said the traffice was terrible on the county road on the way over and back. There is a large quarry on the road and there were a lot of gravel trucks, semi’s, farm tractors with equipement (one of the biggest horse scarer’s) and logging trucks. Nothing bothered them.

Feet were getting worn down so he lifted the feet every day for a few days then took them to the Amish proffessional farrier. They walked right into the building and stood to be trimmed and shod. Did not use the shoeing stocks just tied them with their halter.

They are a good, close to broke, trusting team of mules. I will be going up next week hopefully for a ride and will take somemore pictures.

[Rod44]

Some talk about it being a fear method. It is not – look at all they are not afraid of at this point.

The owner – they have never been hit

tractors
cars
logging trucks
semi trucks
horses and buggys
water
tarps
tin cans

not afraid to be driven to town and tied up at a hitching post for an hour while owner and friend were having lunch.

[Rod44]

Robert, I’ve been trying to explain it to you. The idea is NOT to set them up to fail it is to set them up to WIN. The idea is NOT to let them know they can be balky. The idea is NOT for them to have a chance to learn to runaway. The idea is for them NOT to have a chance to be traffic shy.

As to why use it as a faster way of training, I asked Bob the same question as we started. He said (somewhat in jest) “I’m 55 and don’t have an extra 10years to whisper train this team”. It is just that some people want to get to driving and using a team sooner than some others. If you want to take your time and work through issues slowly fine. If someone doesn’t, as long as no human or animal gets hurt, fine. One of the secretes is not to deal with a horse like a human – because they are not.

[Rod44]

I harness and unharness untied just to teach them to stand in one spot untill I tell them they can move. When I unharness one and have the harness hung up, I release her by giving a little tug on her halter to go into her stall and have some grain. The other one waits untill she is unharnessed for her grain.

I use whoa only to stop, easy to slow down and stand to stand.

[Rod44]

I agree about parades. There is so much that could go wrong. I only do one parade a year and that is an all horse parade in the neighboring town. There isn’t quite the commotion and not as much starting and stopping as the normal parade. I get myself worked up and the horses feel it too through the lines.

[Rod44]

Sounds like a pulling horse waiting for the clank of the hook on the clevis.

[Author]

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