More pics from last saturday

Roger sent me some great pics from last saturday, so I figured I'd share them.  Thanks Roger!

Also ... does anyone know a good farrier that shoes drafts in NE Texas?  Looking for someone who's good and knows their way with a draft hoof, not just someone who can tack on a shoe.  All help is appreciated.

Do you think this boy is having a good time?

He had to take some pretty big steps to keep up.

Me and my team.

Driving 3 up

Jerry driving 3 up.

Jerry kept them pretty straight.

Driving 2 and 3 up in Paris, TX

Saturday was awesome!  At our house, the bottom had fallen out of the clouds, and it was raining hard.  However, up in Paris, TX, at Rogers house, it was nice and overcast with no mud.  So Riley and I loaded up the horses, and headed up to Rogers.  I had only one goal ... drive the girls on the road from Rogers wagonette.  I really wanted to see how Pam did on the road.  I wanted to see how she handled road trash, passing cars, and all that kind of stuff.

We got to Rogers, and soon after, some good friends, Jerry and Sheila Brandon and their 2 girls, showed up.  Jerry bought a horse from Roger a while back, and he joined the yahoo group I belong to.  I met he and his family for the first time when they came to my driving clinic back in July.  They are good people and I really enjoy them.  (also, a big thank you to them for all the pictures and video that are on the blog today)

Rachael and Pam did awesome!

Fist item of business, hitch up my team.  We hitched up and hit the road.  The girls did well, however, I noticed that Rachel wasn't getting into the pull at all.  She was hanging back, and letting Pam do all the work.  This was pretty uncharacteristic of Rachael.  We rode for about a mile out on the roads, and soon it looked to me like Rachael was not walking normal on her front feet.  We got back to Rogers, and I checked her feet.  Rachel's sidewalls have all chipped, and she is basically walking on the soles and frogs of her feet.  This is why she'll pull her heart out in the dirt field, but is very tender on hard surfaces.  I am going to have to get an expert draft farrier to possibly put shoes on her.  Her sidewalls just are not strong and need to grow out.  Not the news I wanted, but still, I accomplished my goal.  Pam did great, and didn't spook at all on the road.  I'm very pleased with her.

I tell ya, you get 3 teamsters together, and you can't help but have a fun time.  Roger, Jerry, and I had a ball just talking horses, and deciding what we were going to do.  Good times for sure!  I have pictures of the day that I'll post.  I'll just say a few words about working Rogers horses, then you can just follow the pictures.

After we worked my girls, I tied them, and then we decided to work some of Rogers new horses.  Last week, Roger went to a draft sale in Missouri, and came home with 3 new belgians; a team of geldings and a mare.  Roger has a gelding named Jack, that is a true 19 hand Belgian.  Bud, one of the geldings he bought, is about 18-2/3 hands.  Roger had a glimmer in his eye that Jack and Bud were going to be team mates.  We decided that the rest of the day we'd work towards that.

Introducing Jack(19 hands) and Bud(18-2/3 hands) to each other.  We ground drove them individually, right next to each other.  They did great.

Now, Jack and Bud had not been around each other very long, and thus they were none to nice to each other.  We decided to try ground driving each horse next to each other to see how they'd act when working.  True to their laid back, work nature, once working, these horses didn't mind being next to each other at all.  Soon they had been ground driven, and then hitched up to the wagonette.  Next thing we knew, we were on the road, driving this team of behemoths.  It was awesome.  They're a really good match.

Ground driving Jack and Bud as a team.

Bud on the left, Jack on the right.

One highlight of my day, was letting my son drive this team of ~19 hand horses.  Riley decided he wanted to give it a go.  We were so impressed with the horses and their work manners, that we let him at it.  There's a great picture of my 6 year old boy driving these gentle giants.

My son, ground driving for the first time.  Of course it would have to be the biggest horses around.  :)

We also had some fun driving 3 up using the other gelding Roger bought.  Great times for sure.  Enjoy the video of that.  If you pay attention, Roger shows off his skills.  He did a 3 point turn with the 3 up and we were all very impressed with his ability to command and control horses.  I watch guys like Roger, and Pat drive horses, and I can't help but be so impressed.  They just have a way with the horses, and they get them to do exactly what they want.  I want to be like that!

Enjoy the pictures and video!

Jack, Bud, Ryan, and Rog driving

Tim driving 3 up

Jerry taking his turn driving 3 up

Jerry did real good!

(Remember ... you can click on the pictures to see a bigger view of the picture)

Driving 3 up was awesome.  We did it with one set of team lines, and a single set of driving lines for the left most horse.  This was the first time I'd ever driven with 2 sets of lines.  I did okay.  It's definitley not an easy thing to keep all the tension right.  So much fun!  Also, the ground seemed to shake when each of these big horses stepped at the same time.  Very cool!

Rachel = Owl Ridge Rachael; a nice trail ride

Last friday I got something awesome in the mail.  A previous owner of Rachael, actually sent me all the info on her, including a copy of her papers.  It was awesome to get these papers and find out what her bloodlines are.

Another thing I learned is that she is a 1994 model.  That puts her at 16 years old, which is about 4 years older than I thought.  So good to know this information.  :)  I'm going to try to contact the people at Owl Ridge to let them know what a supurb mare they produced.

I took Rachael out for a trail ride yesterday with my son and sister-in-law, and it was great.  Rachael doesn't respond at all to heel pressure, but tell her to "step up" and she knows exactly what to do.  LOL.

Below are some pictures from the ride.

Here's Rachel.  Ready to ride.

My boy on his horse QH Duncan.



What a group of trail riders.  My boy, Me, the Featherstone's, and my SIL Ann.




After the trail ride, we got home and Ann wanted to try riding a big horse.  Rachel was great for her, and Ann was all smiles.



A Transformation is happening

My oat/wheat seed is on the ground in the pasture, I just need to disk it in now.  So today I got home at 3PM, and I figured I'd be able to get my small field done before I had to go to Riley's football practice.  I ended up doing that and then some.  Right as I started disking, a cold front came through, making it nice and cool.  Then, as I got the last harness off, it started sprinkling.  Can't have better timing than that.  :) 

I'm seeing a change in things between me and the horses with all this farm work, and I figured I'd post some of the things I'm seeing now that I'm hitching and working them every other day for the past week.

#1 - Willingness to work.  After a good work out, the girls used to be very skittish the next day, meaning, the next day if you walked towards them with a halter, they'd say "like hell we're doing anything today" and they would do the slow walk away from you type thing.  Ever since I've been working them in the field, this has stopped.  It's really surprised me.  They are way laid back about everything now, and have a laid back "OK, whatever" type attitude.  It's awesome!!!

#2 - Time till we're ready to work.  I'm getting fast!  Today I looked at my watch when I haltered the girls.  I then looked again when the last bridle was on.  18 minutes.  18 minutes to harness 2 horses.  The speed in which I can do this, helps me spend less time out in the field, and more time washing/brushing at the end (which, by the way, they love!)

#3 - Get the work done attitude.  The girls have developed a no nonsense attitude when we're working.  They step out right away, and go till I tell them to stop.  They are also getting really good at walking in straight lines.  This seems like nothing to a normal person, but once you start driving, you realize how  awesome it is to have a horse that will walk a straight line without any input.  Rachel has also figured out my patterns.  When we reach the end of the row, she just starts turning, following the line of freshly turned ground on her side.  They also enjoy their breaks.  "Whoa" has become a welcome treat to be savored and enjoyed, not an annoyance till they start moving again.  It's awesome!!!

#4 - Voice response.  The girls are getting much better at responding to my voice commands without any input on the lines.  It's really really neat to watch them just start turning left when I say the word Gee.  Same for Haw.

I'm watching all these things happen and it's awesome.  I know this is a common knowledge type thing.  If you spend time with your horse, working your horse, you will see improvements like this.  Every horse person knows this and says this.  But how many have actually done it?  Life has a way of getting busy, and keeping us from getting to our horses, but I tell ya, the difference it is making in my girls is awesome.

I have my big field left to disk again, then I'm done with the hard work.  Hopefully I can finish that up Thursday night.

I'm on cloud nine right now.  The only thing I'm not liking, is how dirty the harness is getting.  ;)  Gonna have to saddle soap the harness again soon.  I tell ya ... the feeling of accomplishment I'm feeling is tremendous.  I've done my goal.  I've improved my fields, using my horses.  Makes me even more excited to get a sickle mower and rake, and use them to hay the field. 

Disking done, ready for seed

Work in progress

Today I woke up at 6AM.  It was still dark outside, and my body sure didn't feel like getting up.  I fought my bodies desire for a few more hours of sleep, and thew on some clothes and wiped the sleepers out of my eyes.  This must be what it was like to live on a real farm.  My goal today was 2 parts:  Pasture cleanup and disking.

First things first though.  First thing to do was to call the horses up and give them a big scoop of oats.  The girls loved this part of their morning.  With the girls up eating, and the gate closed to keep them in my small "paddock" type area, it was time to clean the pasture up a bit.

I had a few areas on the fenceline where tree's had fallen.  I made a full sweep of the fencline of my 3 acre pasture with my truck and flatbed trailer.  As I went along, I took the time to cut out a few small mesquite tree's that were starting to grow near the fencline.  Most my time was spent cutting down some limbs off a HUGE bodark tree.  I really hate these trees.  They're hard as rocks, and so it takes some serious effort with a sharp saw to remove them.  My chainsaw died, so I was left working with a hand saw and pruning shears.  This tree is in my neighbors field.  It used to be about 3-4 feet in diameter, but last year, after a severe wind storm, it split in 2.  One part, came over the fence and was probably hanging 20 feet into my pasture.  Luckily, it didn't take out the fence.  I expected the tree to die and slowly fall to pieces, but instead this tree showed it's hardy nature, and is thriving.  I trimmed it back so that I could get access to more of my pasture with the disk.  I didn't think I had much to clean up, but I ended up with a full trailer.

When I got back from cleanup, it was about 7:30.  I took a quick breather, and then it was time to get the horses ready.  I figured they were going to be difficult to catch today.  2 days ago, I worked them harder than I ever have, and so I figured they would be leery of me.  Boy was I surprised.  I walked in the pasture, and called them, and they both just looked at me with "what the crap are those halter's for" looks.  I stuck out my empty hand and made a few kisses and Rachel walked right over.  I was quite surprised.  Once she was haltered, I turned to Pam, and she had retreated to the far corner of the paddock.  I took a few steps towards here, with my hand out and she came right to me.  Wow ... things were off to a great start!

Sometimes, when working horses, you have a small victory that means a lot to you.  I love these.  Just small things that only you know about, but that mean a ton to you.  I have been working with Pam for a long time on just letting me push the collar over her head.  Rachel lets me do this and it's just so much easier then messing with the dang buckle.  I've been taking Pam's collar off this way, but putting it on by unlatching the strap, and putting it on that way.  Well this morning, after I slid Rachel's collar over her head, I looked at Pam and she was watching us.  So I asked her if she wanted to try that, and I pushed the collar up over her nose.  I then positioned myself right in front of her nose, so that she could see me through the collar.  I then slowly pushed it up, talking sweet to her the whole time.  I was prepared for her to jerk her head back, like usual, but she didn't today.  She kept her head still, and as it covered her eyes, I was fully prepared for her to jerk back, but she didn't.  So I used my hands to stretch the collar so it would squeeze less and she actually let me slide it up and over her head.  WOW!  I love little victories like this.  Things were definitely off to a good start!

Harnessing the girls went with no problems.  While harnessing Rachel, I noticed that she had an area right on her rump where the speider had rubbed off some of her fur.  I was almost proud of her.  She's showing harness wear!  She's a work horse for sure now!!!  :)

To hitch the girls, I did something different today.  Keep in mind, that I do all this stuff my by myself.  I had parked the disk at an angle against a fence and so I was going to just tie the girls to the fence in the same place and hitch them up from there.  Usually, I actually put their bridles on, and then drive the girls over and then work them into position.  For some reason, I didn't feel like doing that today.  Instead, I threw the bridles over their hames, threw the lines over Rachel's hames as well, and then I led them both over.  I had a horse in each hand, holding the lead line right at the connector.  I walked them in just like I drive them in, and asked Rachel to step over the pole.  She did this great.  Then I tied them, put their bridles on, put the lines on, and then hitched them up.  This went great, and I had no problems.

After they were hitched and ready to go, I ran back inside for a minute to get myself ready.  I had my straw hat on, I got my bandana wet with cold water and tied it around my neck, and then I put on my camelback.  I had filled the camelback with ice water.  I was getting ready for a long disking session.

A Teamster's view:  this was my view while disking

Then we were off.  Things went awesome.  I started off doing clockwise circles around the pasture.  This went so well.  Rachel is a pro and she does turns like any teamsters dream.  Since she is on the right, going clockwise basically has her pulling pam around the corners by the pole strap.  It was so easy to drive them doing this.  I also found that I was a bit better at keeping my tension good.  Also, Pam was actually stepping out and matching Rachel.  It was awesome.  Stepping out and Geeing was nearly perfect.  But what about those Haws?

I decided that it would be good to change directions and let Pam work on her coming around skills.  I swapped directions and started going counter-clockwise.  Ummmm ... yeah ... Pam was not happy about this new direction.  She does a gentle left turn wonderful, but the minute she needs to start side stepping, she get's a little clumsy.  Rachel, who was all about working today, ended up just pushing pam around with the pole.  It was pretty neat to watch.  It was great experience for Pam, and a few more good sessions and I expect her to really get the hang of it.

SUCCESS!  3 hours after we started, I was unhitching the girls.  They were very happy to head back towards the house.  I think they were even more relieved that the disks were straight and so it was easier for them to pull the disk.  :)  The rest of the event went without a hitch.

So now my fields are disked.  Tomorrow I hope to get my seed and fertilizer mixed at the co-op, and then I'll use one of their buggy's to spread the seed.  After the seed is spread, then I just need to disk things one more time to really disk the seeds into the ground and cover them a bit.  If I didn't know better, I'd think I sounded like a full blown farmer.  :)

I think I have an official team now.  If the rest of the disking goes without a problem, I may have to invest in a nice set of team harnesses for them to look pretty in.

Using a horse drawn disk

Well, Today I did it.  I made use of a horse drawn disk that my friend Pat had.  I had mowed the field short, and then, miraculously, it rained.  We got 2 good days of rain, which this dry black clay ground needed desperately.  So ... it was time to get the disk working!  :)

An empty, short, field, ready to be disked!

This morning started by giving the girls a big scoop of oats.  I knew that I was going to have them working hard, so I made sure they had some fuel in their tanks.  After I gave them their oats, I finished attaching the pole to the disk.  I then moved it out to the field where we would be working.  About that time, my friend Pat showed up.  So we got the horses, harnessed them up, and then figured out how to hitch them to the harrow.  I ended up having to add 6 inch tug extensions to each tug in order to make things work.  Everything was secure, and it was time for the initial pull.  For the first pull, I didn't angle the disk, I kept it straight to make it as easy as possible for them.  They had no problems stepping out, and since they seemed to be feeling their oats, I adjusted the angle quickly and watched the disk do it's job.

After doing a complete loop, I stopped, and let Pat have a turn while I ran inside to get the camera.  Here are a few shots of Pat on the disk.

Here they come!

The girls did real good for Pat.  I admire Pat's skills at communicating with the team!

I'm ready to get going.  I don't think the girls were quite as happy about it.  :)

After 2 laps, Pat let me take over.  The girls were having a little bit of trouble stepping off for me.  I think they've been spoiled with light wagons and sleds.  When I would step them off, they would barely shift their weight forward, and when nothing happened, they would just stand there.  Needless to say, they had me sounding pretty crazy as I tried and tried to coax them into stepping out.

One thing I've noticed when driving a team, is that getting them to step out together is VITAL!  I had many times today where I'd tell them to step out, and only one of them would.  When the one that stepped out would feel the pressure, she would stop, right as the other horse would step out.  This got a tad annoying.  Like a bad teeter totter while I wasn't going anywhere.

I should probably note that I was using new bits on the harnesses today.  I put straight shaft liverpool bits on the team harness and I am SOOOOO happy with them.  The girls were much more responsive today with them.  The ones I got have the 2 round loops for snaps, or narrow buckle lines.  They are awesome.  Very happy to be using them.

Stepping out with the harrow

Pam and Rachel are a pretty impressive match.

The first thing I noticed while working, was how annoying excess lines are.  For my first lap, I just tied the ends in a knot and threw them over my shoulders.  This worked at first, but soon it was just rubbing on the back of my neck, which got uncomfortable and annoying.  I ended up placing the ends under my butt on the seat.  I found that I had to keep just the very ends under, because I needed a lot of the lines for making the big U turns I was making to keep the disk moving.

Off we go!

Heading down a small incline

I also got to watch the dynamics between the horses.  Rachel is a go getter.  She steps out hard, and she gets into it.  Pam sits a bit more on her heels and seems to only move when she has to.  It was obvious who was doing the work after 10 minutes or so.  Rachel built up a lather on her breeching strap right away.  You could also see her getting drenched with sweat.  Pam?  Not so much.  As time went on, and Rachel got more tired, they matched much better.  When Rachel stopped really stepping into the disk, she matched Pam much better.  I think I'd much rather have Pam match Rachel though.  :)  Rachel is a dream horse.  She's so good with this stuff.  She is just laid back, relaxed, and does what she's asked.  You couldn't ask for more from her.  Pam is getting better.  She needs miles on her, and this stuff is just what the doctor ordered!

A rear view

Another row ... GET UP PAM!!!

The ride on the disk was pretty bouncy.  After Pat's two rides, he joked that you needed to have a chiropractor ready at the end of a day on that disk.  If both sides were biting in to the ground together, it was very smooth.  However, sometimes the two sides would trade biting into the ground, this would make you rock back and forth.  I definitely got a good abdominal workout.

I kept at it, and started giving the girls a break every 10 minutes.  They would get pretty winded, and as Pam started working more, she started to sweat real good.  I was very impressed with how well they were getting at coming around in turns.  It was neat to watch them figure out what I wanted, and do it when I asked for it.  It seemed like no time before this small 2 acre field was done.  I have another 4 acre field that needs to be done, but I decided to give the girls a rest.  I have to keep reminding my self that they are in as good a shape as I am.  I can't expect them to go from no work, to a full day of farm work in one day.  I will probably hook them up again tomorrow and do some more.  They sure did stand good on those breaks though!!!  They stood perfectly still and didn't move at all when I let them rest.

All done with this one.

After we were done, I unhitched the girls from the disk, and then ground drove them back to the house so I could get the harnesses off them.  They were definitely hot and sweaty!!

We're tired!  How 'bout you get this crap off us!!!

After getting the harnesses off them, I had some compassion on them and led them over to the hose.  I then sprayed them down real good with the hose.  Rachel loved it!  She melted and just leaned into it.  Pam was conflicted.  You could see her mentally thinking "wow ... this feels good ... WAIT ... THAT NOISE WAS SCARY THOUGH ... but mmmmmmm ... so good feeling".  :)  After I sprayed them down, I used the squeegee on them, and then left them to dry for a few minutes.

Whew!  We're glad that's over!!!

All in all, it was pretty awesome.  It's really cool to me to use the horses to do this kind of thing.  Yes, a tractor cab would be MUCH more comfortable, but I get a bit of satisfaction in knowing that I'm doing something that not a lot of people know how to do.  I also love knowing that my horses are actually contributing to the farm, and not just taking feed from it.  After a few more sessions like today, the girls will be a pretty steady team!  I'm hoping to use them for christmas wagon rides, so the more I can do with them now, the better!

Aren't you glad you read to the end?  As a reward, here's a video clip!

Tomorrow is the day!!!

So tomorrow I'll be hooking the girls up to a disk and cutting up my pastures.  Take a look at the picture to see what I'll be using.  In the picture the pole is not attached.  This is going to be a great work out for the girls.  I'm way excited.  Pictures to follow!!  If anyone wants to come and check it out, just let me know. 

Prepping the land

Last week I had a death in the family.  My grandfather passed away at 83 years of age.  He has been fighting Emphazema for some time now, and the way things played out, we knew it was his time to return home to heaven.  RIP Grandpa.  We love you and miss you!!

I've been gone for 5 days to attend the funeral.  It was great to visit with my family and especially to see my grandma.  Since this blog is about my horses, I'm not going to talk much about this.  Let's just say it was a bad reason for a wonderful family visit.

Upon returning, I noticed how horrible my fields are.  The grass is gone, and only weeds remain.  I was only gone 5 days but wow was there a difference.  My tree lines on the fences are completely thinned out cuz the horses have been eating the leaves from the trees.  The first thing I did, was open up a new section of land for the horses to graze on.  It's an additional 2 acres that they have not yet been on.  They happily entered this new field and are quite happy!

My main pastures have this real crappy weed in it.  It's tall and bushy and is probably sucking up all the moisture that my grass needs.  I spent the day yesterday mowing this down.  Since I don't have a tractor with a brush hog, I used my old riding mower.  It worked well, but it sure takes long to mow 8 acres on a riding mower.  This took the whole day.

This is a shot of my weedy field.

The fields look great now.  Nice and short.  And things worked out well because it is raining now.  This is much needed.  Especially for my plan.

So here's what's going to happen next.  We're supposed to have rain all today and into tomorrow.  Then on Saturday, I'm going to use the horses for some farming!!  My friend Pat is going to loan me a horse drawn disc he has.  I'm going to use my girls to disc up all the land.  It's probably going to take a few times till it's done good.  So saturday starting in the afternoon I'm going to start this.  After going over it once, I will then wait for another rain storm, and then do it again after that.  I'm going to continue this till the land is ripped up nice.  Then I'm going to plant grass.  I have 2 main goals.  One, is to get some nice coastal grass growing again.  The second, is to plant some rye grass so I have quick grass next spring.

So keep your eyes on the blog for my saturdays adventures!  This will be my first time using the horses for working the fields.  I'm real excited to try it and see how it turns out.  It is also going to be great work for the horses.  They have no idea the workout that is in store for them!!!  :)