Training Koda for Throw Away Ponies - Session 1

Back on February 23rd, I participated in Equifest.  I mentioned it in passing, and apparently was a slacker and never typed up a blog on it.  Whoops!  Equifest was an all day event for all styles of horses.  It was a place where you could go and see all types of horses, and they had demonstrations in an indoor arena on what the horses can do.  I went with my friends Mark and Bev of the Double M Warhorse Ranch.  They brought their Belgian Stallion, and a big dapple gray shire they have.  I brought my team, and I did a demo in the arena.  (also, while I'm on the subject ... I got to see a Sugarbush stallion!  I'd read and heard about them, and over in the drafty side of the compound, was a big ol' boy with those unmistakeable sugarbush markings.  Turns out, there is a sugarbush stallion in Dallas.  It was awesome to see one in person.  very pretty and impressive.  Nearly as impressive as the Friesians that were there)

One of the things that happened at Equifest, was for me to be introduced to Kelly from Throw Away Ponies (www.throwawayponies.org).  Throw Away Ponies is a rescue group out of Rockwall, TX who does awesome work in helping to save and rehab good horses.  Kelly and her daughter were very interested in the driving stuff, and asked lots of great questions.  After talking a bit, she told me about Koda, and asked if I would be willing to help them out with her.

This is Koda.

Koda is a 14.2 hand paint/arabian mare, around 6 years old.  When she was younger, she kicked at something and ended up kicking a barbed wire fence.  Her left rear foot was cut to the bone.  The Vet told the rescue that due to this injury, Koda should not be ridden, but that she could be used to pull a cart.  Throw Away Ponies has trainers for saddle, but they lacked experience in driving.  That's where I come in (with a big thanks to Kelly for keeping in touch to keep me on point).  The idea is that since Koda cannot be ridden, she is unlikely to be adopted out.  However, because of how sweet and smart she is, we can train her to drive, thus giving her functionality, and that may help entice someone to provide her a good home.

Wednesday night I went out for my first session with Koda.  This was my first time ever going to the Throw Away Ponies place, and I have to say that it was the nicest rescue I've ever seen.  it was clean, stalls mucked, horses were all in pretty good shape.  Very impressive!

They had a small covered arena, and inside it stood Koda.  She's a pretty little thing.  She was pretty sweet and didn't mind a tough ol' teamster walking up and petting her.  No time for pleasantries though ... daylight was burning ... so we proceeded with some training.  I'm going to write up the things I did in list form to kind of help define all the different stages we worked through.

1. Basic ground work.  We started off with just a halter, lead rope, and a carrot stick.  I basically just got her feet moving.  The goal here is to make sure she leads well.  I also use this time to start enforcing the verbal queu's.  Anytime I step off, I say "Koda, Step up" and off we go.  Anytime we stop, I say "Koda, whoa", and stop.  While leading, I would do sharp 90 degree turns, and use "Gee" and "Haw" appropriately to dictate a turn.

Koda is a smart little thing.  When lunging, she just takes off.  Now, I'll be honest.  I don't lunge my horses.  For my belgians, I've just never had them bad enough that I needed to really reinforce that I'm the boss.  When my belgians act up, a few circles disengaging their rear ends and their ready to submit.

I figured Koda new to lunge, and boy did she, but I found that lunging has a bad effect for driving.  The end of each running session in a lunge, is follwed up with squaring them up with you.  This trend continued in everything we did, all night.  Koda was constantly trying to square up with me, which is not what I wanted.  This kind of reinforced to me that when hitch training, I'll only lunge if I need to run a horse to really make a point.  when driving a horse from behind, the last thing you want is an unsure horse trying to spin and square up with you.

2. Sacking out.  This is where I really make use of the carrot stick.  This is kind of part of step 1, but I figured I'd give it extra emphasis.  This is where I give her a good "whoa", and then some "easy"s as I begin tossing rope all over her.  I use the rope attached to the carrot stick to basically wrap all over her and get her used to the feel and touch of ropes being all over her.  I toss it over her back, and slowly pull it off.  Then over her butt, around her legs, under her belly, over and under her neck, up next to her tail, between her legs, basically ... everywhere.

Koda did pretty good with this.  Kelly has been working her like this, and it really showed.  A few minor flinches at first, but nothing that I would consider abnormal or spooky.

3. Putting on the harness.  Once I feel she's moving good, and she's OK with ropes being tossed all over her, it's time to harness her up.  I start by taking the collar to her, and letting her smell it all over.  If she's acting a little put off by it, I'll rub her neck with it, and use the collar to pet her.  Just basically, introduce this part as a friend.  Then I put the collar on  (first time, I'll unlatch it and put it around her neck if possible.  Later we'll work on sliding the entire collar over her head).  I do the same thing with the harness.  Once the harness is on ... make adjustments!  This is a great time to sack out a horse and adjust.  While adjusting, I really move the harness on her.  I'll slap the chains, and make sure she's relaxed with this new foreign thing resting on her.

Once again,  Koda did great with this.  Kelly's work desensitizing her to chains and ropes payed off big time for me.  Harness was on with no problems and soon it was all adjusted.

For her harness, I borrowed the same old logging harness from my friend Chuck Whitlock that I borrowed to work my first mare Lily.  It's an old harness that has seen better days, but it works great at introducing a harness to a horse.  It has a 20 inch collar.  Lily barely squeezed into it.  I used a collar pad and it fit Koda just fine.  I adjusted all the straps to their smallest settings, and it worked great.

Koda with a collar.

Koda sporting an old logging harness.  This thing has seen better days, but I'm glad to have it.

4. Moving with the harness on.  Once the harness is on (without the bridle), I lead the horse around to make sure she's OK with all the new feels and sounds that this harness is going to create.  I do this without the bridle so she can kind of see that nothing scary is happening.

This is where Koda showed she is not a draft horse.  My big girls have never even batted an eye at this type of stuff.  Koda cared!  She took a first step, felt the change, and tried to bolt.  I just stepped to the side, out of her way, and let her run a few circles around me till she calmed down, telling her "whoa" and "easy" in a calm voice the whole time.  Once she stopped, I rubbed her forehead, assuring her that she was OK, and then re-positioned the harness back on her  (a few wild running circles had nearly pulled it off to the outside.  Made me wish I had a crupper for this harness).  After she had calmed down, I faced her, told her to "step up", and had her take a single step.  I then praised and re-assured.  We did this over and over, getting more and more steps, till she was confident and leading with no problems while wearing the harness.

Trying to keep her calm with all this new stuff on her.

Rewarding her for a great job walking with the harness on.

Once she got over her spookiness with the harness, she led like a pro.  I even got to the point where I was giving her 10 foot of lead line and giving commands as I walked with her, and she was sticking right with me.  This was a great thing to see, and helped build her confidence.

5. Ground Driving.  At this point, I put the bridle on, adjust it and the bit, and attach the driving lines.  I then start with a helper walking next to the horse, responding to my commands.  This is the first time the horse hears my commands from behind her, so it's going to be a new thing.  Having a person up at her head, responding to my commands does wonders in helping remind her that she knows what to do.  (when I do this at home with drafts, this is where I hitch them up as a team and let the other horse help them with the queues.)

Ground driving with a helper on the lead rope.

 At this point in the training,  it had been a few hours.  We did a few laps and she was unsure.  Then I watched her kind of hit a mental wall.  She started shaking her head a lot, and being a little un-ruly towards my helper who was walking with the lead line.  After a little of this, I decided to end the session.  To make sure we ended on a good note, I grabbed the lead rope (with bridle still on), and we went back to the leading we did in step 4.  She did great with it.  After 5-10 minutes of this, we called it a day.  She got brushed good, praised, and got hay.

A great way to finish off the day ... on something she did great with.

So that was it for session #1.  Next time I go out, I'll start over at the beginning again, but this time it should go faster.  Little by little!  


      

Where has the time gone? Update!

I figured it's about time for me to give a report on how things are and what I've been up to.  I can't believe it's been 3 months since I last posted.  I don't have any pretty pictures to share, but here's a quick bit of info.

I've been working on getting my Masters Degree in Systems Engineering the past 2 years.  It's through a work sponsored program, and it's been pretty cool.  This last class was a real tough one, and it seems that's what I've been doing for the past month.  Seems between my school, my job, and my son, I've been a busy boy.

The horses are SPOILED ROTTEN!  Oh they are rotten right now.  They've been in the pasture for 3 months living on green grass.  They won't even come up when I call them, not even for sweet feed.  I can see them off in the distance, looking at me, and I think they are laughing at me.  "That ol' teamster is a fool if he thinks we're leaving this nice green grass for him!  He'll probably put us to work!"

I do take walks out through the pasture occasionally to ensure they remember who I am.  Buck always runs right up to me.  He is eager to be pet and get attention.  Rachael and Nellie will allow me to walk up to them and pet them.  Pam is quite a bitchy mare lately, and half the time she'll turn and walk away, and the other half of the time she allows me to pet her.  Such a Diva!  They are all fat and happy though.  They've slicked out with the heat coming on, and they all look really pretty.

Upcoming Events:

One thing I'll try to comment on is an effort I'm doing to help the Throw Away Ponies rescue group in Rockwall Texas.  They have a little horse that is unable to be ridden, but they'd like to teach her to drive.  I'll be heading out there tomorrow to check her out and introduce her to the harness.  They say she's smart and sweet, so we could be pulling a tire by the end of the night.  We'll see how it goes.

June 8 - The Terrell Antique Tractor Show!  Once again I'll join my friends Mark and Bev with the team.  We'll have the girls on show, and then do a tractor pull with them.  This is always a good time.  I just hope I can convince the horses to come out of the pasture for it.  :)

June 22 - The saddle club I belong to is putting on a starters clinic for horses.  I'd like to ride Buck, and so I thought this was a good opportunity to spend some time with him.  We'll have a professional trainer there, who will help us work with our horses.  I've saddled Buck before, and even sat on him, but I've never actually ridden him.  This is going to be a good time.

The other thing on my mind is using my newly restored mower!  As the bermuda and rye starts to die off and the weeds fill the field, I'll be using my mower to cut it all back.  This was the reason I restored it in the first place.  I have no tractor and brushhog to knock all that pesky goatweed back, so I'm hoping the sickle mower will do something to help me out.

That's about it for now.  I'll keep y'all updated of any new horsy fun I get myself into.  :)

Final Assembly of the IH #9 Mower

Last night as I was working the girls, I saw the big brown UPS truck.  I got really excited because I am waiting on the last few parts for the mower.  Sure enough, there was a package to me from Macknair & Sons in PA.  I was as excited as a little kid the night before christmas.

I contained my excitement to eat a meal as a family, but once that meal was over, outside I went, with box in hand.

The first thing I did, was put a coat of paint on the fender rod.  It came red, and I wanted it blue.  After I did that, I went out and completely torqued down the sickle guards, and then used my new bolts to attach the sickle bar to the mower.  I then just kept going, and after an hour or two, the entire mower was together.  So awesome!

One word of warning.  That lift spring is DANGEROUS!  I had the mower down on the ground, and was making some adjustments to the gag lever.  Well, I had let go of the lift lever and was using two hands to line up the gag lever, when SNAP, the lift lever snapped back to the fully upright position.  This smashed my thumb horribly.  I only have all my thumb thanks to my thumbnail.  Without it, it may have removed the end of my thumb.  So ... when working with the gag lever and such items, take it from me, and disconnect the lift spring!!!

I'll show some pictures now, and then I'll talk a little bit about what I have yet to do.

Here she is!  Blade down, Ready to go.

A view from the right.  Sickle bar down.

From the front.  Yoke and Tree's installed, ready for horses.

Bar line

Mower with bar in the upright position

Bar in upright position.  I'm lucky that this mower came with the rod and the nut to hold the bar up.

The sickle bar in upright position

A close-up of the pitman assembly

A close-up of the yoke with bar in upright position

The Draft Bracket with double tree installed.

To install the draft bracket on the pole I had, I used washers on the inside  to take up the gap.

I put an eye bolt 3 inches down from the end of the pole to hold the yoke.

I'm having a hard time putting into words how happy I am.  To see what was once a giant rust bucket take shape like this has been awesome!  I did try to pull the mower with everything installed.  It has a lot of drag on the blade.  So even though it's assembled, I still have work to do to get it useable for hay.  Here's the list of things I have left to do.

1. Install the new fender rod once the paint dries.  I currently just have a bolt holding the front of the inner shoe's sole on.  The fender rod will go in that location.  
2. Get the timing bar unstuck.  The timing bar (bar that bolts on right in front of the pitman) is supposed to be adjustable.  Mine is seized up.  I tried and tried to get it unstuck, but after talking with Norman Macknair, my last option is to put the flanged side in a forge, and try to get it to release that way.  If this doesn't work, then I'll just have to buy a new one from Macknair & Son for $65.  Repaint it when it's done.
3. Do some touch-up painting - there's a few parts that got scuffed while installing.  I'd like to touch them up so they look pretty.
4. Adjust the bar lead.  I know this involves twisting the yoke around the push bar.  I need to measure and make sure I have enough lead.
5. Adjust the timing of the sickle bar.  One the lead is good, then I can adjust the timing so the bar cuts appropriately and won't get jammed as easy.
6. Adjust the wear guards and other sickle blade items.  I'm still not sure how to adjust these, so I'm going to do my best.

 Once all of this is done, I'll be ready to cut hay with my machine.  YAY!  It's so great to see this all coming together.  I'm grinning ear to ear.

IH #9 Mower Page

Sled Work

Yesterday after work I got home with a few hours of daylight left, so I decided to work the girls to make sure they're ready for this Saturday at Equifest.  They did great.  I am completely spoiled with my horses.  To hitch up to the sled, they have to stand facing away from the fence, and they have to stay still while I do the hitching without anyone holding their heads.  They both did so great for me.  Ask for a step over, they give it, ask for a step back, they give it, all while not pacing to get going.  I LOVE this team!  Enjoy the pics.

My view.  For sled work I don't use the spreaders, I just use a small  hame ring extension.

Standing for a break

Stepping off and working well.

From the front.  2 pretty ladies and a happy teamster

Rachael and Pam taking a break.  It was very windy.

Another view of Rachael and Pam

Great way to spend the hours after work.  The girls did great and we're ready for Equifest.  While working, the UPS man pulled up, and I got my last parts for the mower.  I'll talk about that in a separate post.

Grass Board for the IH #9

I'm still slowly wrapping things up on the mower.  One thing I did the past few days was to replace the grass board.

My sickle bar came with the bolt and the metal flange that screws to the wood.  I had planned on just buying a wood grassboard with the wood pole thing and get it back the way it used to be.

I was talking with Norman Macnair about this, and found that he had the parts, but that it was 75 plus 13 in shipping.  He offered me a different solution.  He told me to check with a local tractor house for a metal replacement grassboard.  He said it would cost around 45 bucks, and that they are universal and fit old mowers fine.

Kosch Grassboard.  The bars extend further than the picture shows. 

With help from my friend Pat, we found one at Nortex tractor house in Sulphur Springs TX.  It is a black metal grassboard made by Kosch.  It is supposed to fit all old makes of sickle mower.  The price tag was around $35.00.  I decided that I could handle using this instead of the old wooden style.

They only had one in stock, and it looked like it rattled around the delivery truck a good bit.  Lots of paint had been rubbed off and it was scuffed up.  This was no matter to me, and I bought it and brought it home.

I did a fit check on the sickle blade, and I didn't like the fit.  It would only go up 2-3 inches before the top of the grassboard was hitting the top of the outter shoe.  This seemed to be a problem.  I did a comparison to the original wood plate and found that this grassboard had more metal than I needed.  I took a grinder to it, and cut it off so it was the same dimension as the wooden grass board plate.

See that black corner sticking out in the upper left of the picture?  That needed to go bye bye.

I just took an angle grinder too it and smoothed it all out.  Then I decided to put a fresh coat of black paint on it to cover the freshly ground area, and all the scuffs and scratches it came with.

Hard to see the new part in this picture, but you can see how the new part is now rounded to match the old part.

Freshly painted and modified Kosch Grass Board

After a few coats of black paint, I took the new part out and did a fit check on that.  SUCCESS!  It fits great, and it gives plenty of upward motion.  I'm very happy about this.  Grassboard is complete and installed!

There it is!  Grass Board installed on the sickle bar.

Today or tomorrow I should get the last few parts in the mail and then the mower will be complete!

IH #9 Mower Page

The mower is almost done!!

I've made some good progress on the mower, and I'm really excited about it.

After I installed the wheels, and the lifting lever assembly, I was kind of stuck.  It seems when I pounded the pin out of the gag lever hinge, I cracked it.  I couldn't install any more of the components until I got that hinge.

I bought a new one from Norman Macknair (www.macknair.com).  I also got a new pin for the hinge.  It arrived last week and I was like a little kid in a candy store.  Out I went with part in hand.  I then installed the pushbar, yoke, gag-lever hinge, gag-lever, and the hook that attaches the gag-lever to the lifting assembly.  Soooo exciting.

I then started working on the sickle bar.  I used a wire wheel and cleaned it all up.  Then I removed every sickle guard.  This left me with the sickle bar and the inner shoe.  The 3 bolts holding it on were not budging.  I decided to cut them off with a grinder.  This went pretty easy, and soon I had everything broken down.  I finished cleaning it all, and then painted.

If you recall, I had bought 3 new sickle guards to replace some old ones that had the ledger plates lifted or damaged.  I painted these guards as well so they would match the rest of the mower.

The inner shoe ... oh that sucked.  If you recall, I used a sawzall to cut through the inner shoe pins holding the shoe to the yoke.  They were frozen solid.  The front pin was stuck solid in the yoke (and after a long battle using a drill, sawzall, punches, sledge hammer, and a few choice cuss words, I was finally able to free it).  The back pin was stuck solid in the shoe.  I thought that what I really needed, was a hydraulic press.  I think that would have done a good job removing it.  I didn't have one though, so out to the garage I went, for round 2 of using drill bits, sawzall, punches, and cuss words.  It finally worked though, and I freed it.  I was so excited I cleaned it up, painted it, and installed it on the mower.

Shoe installed, you can see the sole sitting below it, ready to be installed once I get the 3 bar bolts.

Next I had to decide what to do about the hardware that attaches everything to the sickle bar.  I could try to re-use the old bolts and nuts, but the nuts were worn down a lot, and it may be tough to tighten them without stripping them.  I stopped by Tractor Supply, and found that they had a box of bolts exactly like I needed.  With these in hand, I went home and did a preliminary assembly of the entire sickle bar.  It looks great!  I then slide the sickle blade in it and it slide very easily.  I'm sure I had a grin the size of the state of Texas.

Preliminary assembly from the outer shoe looking inward.  Need a grassboard!

Preliminary Assembly from the inner side of the sickle bar looking outward.  Blade slides easy!

I need a few more parts before I can finish.  Thanks to the Macknairs, I'll have them soon.  1st, I need the 3 bolts that bolt the sickle bar to the inner shoe.  These are only made by one company in the entire US, and I'm so glad that Norman Macknair knows how to get them.  Second, I am getting a new fender rod.  This mower didn't come with one, so I'm putting a new on on it.  I also need to get a grassboard.  I think I'm going to buy a new metal one from a local tractor house.  it's cheaper than buying the old wood ones, and it's locally available.  Hope that works.

 So here it is ... here's where we're at as of right now.  Once I get the parts I need, I'll be able to go for my first ride on it.  This has been a long project, and it's very exciting to see the end in sight!

And here she is.  PRETTY!

You can see the shoe here.  I just need 3 bolts to attach the bar to it.

IH #9 Mower Page

February 2013 Update

It seems my posting is getting less and less frequent.  My job is a bit more demanding now, and I just seem to forget to blog some of the things going on around the place.  I'll work on that.  Here's pretty much what's been going on with me.

The horses:

The horses are well.  Nellie is pregnant and is starting to show a bit of a belly.  She's still queen of this place and makes sure all others fall in line.

We've had a shift in the herd.  Buck decided he was done being bossed around by Rachael, and he challenged her.  I couldn't believe that he did that, and won the battle.  Rachael is now kind of the odd horse out.  Buck and Pam have formed a tight bond to each other, and they both bond with Nellie.  Rachael is the grouchy old lady that once used to rule the land.  Kind of sad.  Due to this shift, Rachael is not getting all she needs to eat, and since she is a hard keeper anyway, she really started to show it for a bit.  We have her pulled out in her own pen now, and we're feeding her a large portion of food to get her nice and healthy again.  I think she enjoys being able to take her time eating and not have Buck come challenging her for her food.

I had the farrier out today.  Oliver Jetton is amazing!  He removed the shoes of Rachael and Pam and trimmed everyone up.  I love having Oliver out, because not only to I get farrier work done, but the horses all have a great experience with him and it's good for them.

I haven't driven the horses in a bit, but that's fixin' to change.

Equifest - February 23rd, 2013

Some folks are putting on the first annual NorthEast Texas Equifest.  This is a day long event that focuses on all horses, breeds, and disciplines.  My friend Bev was invited to show her Belgian Stallion Vegas and represent the drafts.  She then arranged for me to do a 30 minute driving demo.  From 5PM - 5:30PM I'll be using Rachael and Pam to demonstrate driving.  Rather than focus on a boring wagon, I'm going to focus on the farm side of things.  I'll bring my forecart, disc, and mower.  I figure this will be very informational.  I plan on a brief overview of the harness (main parts, what they do, and how a harness works).  I then plan on driving the girls.  I might skid a log, or pull the mower.  It's going to be a great time.  The equipment will set out near us, and will be something that anyone who walks by can touch, look at, and enjoy.

Anyone around, feel free to come say hi.  I should be there all day.

 

 

 

 

The Mower

Here is the current status.  Just need 3 bolts to attach the sickle bar.  So close!

Equifest kind of lit a fire under my butt to finish my mower.  I got a part I was in need of, and did more painting.  I'm almost done.  I'll cover all the mower stuff in a separate blog entry.


Good times for me!  I just wish I had more time to drive.

Park Street Wagon Rides a Success!!

This year's wagon rides were great.  It's always a lot of work getting ready for these.  The horses need shoes, and wagon needs to be decorated, the harnesses need to be cleaned, and let's not forget about making sure the horses are in good shape to perform the work.  Each year this is a lot of work, but each year thus far, the results have been great.

I am very lucky to have an up and coming future teamster as my apprentice for these.  His name is Jacob Riddle, and he helps harness the girls, load the girls, hitch the girls, and then is my header at the actual rides.  He then helps me get them home and put away as well.  When available, he also goes on my practice runs, and this is where I let him drive and learn to really handle the horses.  This is his 3rd year helping me, and he really has come into his own.  I'm lucky to have his help.

This year there were only two wagons for 2 of the 3 nights.  My red wagon, and another wagon pulled by a good team of Mules.  Both of us really have our stuff down, and our horses are very well behaved, so it makes for a very smooth night.  Last Saturday was the last night of rides, and both of us teamsters let the organizers know that we'd keep giving rides till there were no more people.  This was a very busy, and very rewarding night.  We ended up doing 8 laps.  The girls were ready for a break after that many rides!

 The last ride was a cute couple that wanted to do something nice together.  The people selling tickets nearly gave them their money back and sent them away because they felt bad for us giving a ride to just a couple, but I told them I'd be delighted to drive them up and down the road.  As it was the last ride of the year, and all was calm on the road, I handed the lines over to Jacob, who did the honors of driving the girls on our final ride.  He did great, and had a lot of fun doing it.

The final night was also fun because I had some friends come out.  Justin and Cindy Ferguson brought their daughters out.  They wanted to make sure they got to ride with me, so they came early.  The girls got to see the horses and I think they really had a good time.  One of the best parts of doing wagon rides, is watching kids smile and enjoy the horses.  Justin and Cindy are great, and a big thank you to them for providing the pictures below.

Cindy Ferguson and her girls meeting Pam after she was unloaded

The Ferguson's and Pam.  HAPPY GIRLS ALL AROUND!

Once all hitched up, Katie wanted to sit on Pam.  Hames make great handles!

That is one happy girl!

Here's a shot of the wagon, ready to go.

We made the front page news!

Today, December 14, 2012, we were on the front page of the Herald Banner in Greenville, TX.  The picture was taken from the wagon rides last saturday night.  I really like the shot.  Figured I'd share with y'all.

There we are!  Rachael, Pam, me, and Jacob in all our glory.  :)

Breaking Buck to Drive

This what the wagon looked like for the Greenville Parade

Before I get to the meat of this post, I should report on the Greenville Parade and the first night of wagon rides.  Both went well and we had no problems at all.  I really LOVE this new team line configuration.  My biggest problem in years past has been the lines getting tangled under the team pole, and this new configuration keeps that from happening.  Two easy nights of driving two awesome horses.

A funny thing happened Saturday.  Saturday morning I got up and ready, and then I realized that I had nothing planned till the wagon rides that night.  With a full day in front of me, I was a bit taken back.  It's been a while since I had free time.  I've had lots of people asking me about Buck lately, and it's been weighing on my mind that he's just sitting in the pasture not being worked.  So,  I decided that Buck was going to get worked.  It's been a few months since I did any training with him, and I've never even put a harness on him yet ... so I set a few goals and off I went.

Like I have done with all my horses, I set my goals, but I set other "just in case" goals too.  Goal #1:  Get the harness on Buck and get him  used to it.  Goal #2:  Just in case he has no issues with the harness, try ground driving him single.  Goal #3:  If that doesn't go well, hitch him up with Rachael.  (now, normally I just go from harness, straight to team training, because it works so well.  However, because Rachael was going to do a long night of wagon rides, I was reluctant to just use her up front to pull buck around.  I wanted her saved for the wagon rides).

Off we went, and the goals were all achieved.

Step 1:  Out of the Pasture and Groomed

Buck is an easy one to catch.  I got him haltered, and tied to the trailer.  He was COVERED in cockle-burrs.  With the help of some ShowSheen, they were easily removed, and soon buck was burr free, and looking very pretty.  I might add, I now know why farmers docked their Belgian's tails.  It took me 30 minutes to brush out Bucks long tail.  I also cut a bridle path out of his mane, and made sure his hooves were cleaned out.

Here he is ... clean and ready for what comes next.

Step 2:  Put the Harness On

I wasn't sure what size collar Buck was going to take.  I opted to try out Nellie's 24" collar.  Now, Nellie's collar does not separate at the latch.  The leather strap is still in place.  This means you have to put the collar on by sticking their head through it.  Buck did very well with this and he didn't seem to care when I slide it over his eyes.  This was great.  I found that Nellie's collar was a size too big.  I happen to have a collar pad though, so I put that on him, and it fit him nicely.

Once the collar was on, I retrieved the Nylon harness that I normally use for Nellie, and walked towards Buck with it.  He was a tad nervous, but with a gentle voice, he calmed back down.  I let him sniff it, and he didn't seem to mind it.  I slowly slid it over his back, and he didn't really react to it.  This was awesome.  I then went about the task of adjusting the straps and sizing things so that it fit him well.  He's not much smaller than Nellie, which surprised me.

Once I had everything on but the bridle, I untied him and walked him around.  His first few steps were a little excited, as he heard all the clanking of the chains on the harness.  It wasn't long though before he settled down and just walked normal.  I did lots of starts and stops, making sure he heard the sounds.  Also, when I do those starts and stops, I give him his vocal commands.  For instance, when I would step out, I would say "Buck, Step up", and then walk forward, leading him.  It's just one more way you can associate that command to the outcome you want.  Once he was walking without a care to the noise, we went back and I tied him again.

I put the bridle on, sized it, and then let him stand.  I talked to him while he stood there, letting him know I was there.  Buck was a little alarmed at first once his vision was blocked, but after a few unsuccessful tries to turn his head, he gave up and just stood there.  I let him stand there for  a bit and he was doing awesome.  He cocked a rear hoof, and was licking his lips.  Both signs of a relaxed horse.  Once he relaxed for a bit, I once again led him around like before, watching him for any signs of resistance.  He had no resistance in him to this, and thus, I decided to move on to Goal #2.

Here he is ... Buck in harness

  Step 3:  Ground Drive Buck Single

With the harness on and Buck calm as can be, I hooked up my single lines.  I then also got my son to join me with the whip in his hand.  This is the stage where Buck learns to listen for commands from behind, instead of following a person in front of him.  This is a new concept, and you can see how smart/stubborn a horse is during this time.  My son was there with the whip, to tap on his rear end when I told him to step off.  I give the command, and then my son starts to tap his butt.  As the horse stands, you get harder and harder with the tappings until the horse finally steps forward, at which point you stop tapping.  Pretty easy concept, but definitely an extra set of hands is great for this.

We walked Buck out into the open, he then stood still, and I got behind him with the lines.  I gave the command, and no response.  My son started tapping on his but, to which Buck started backing up.  I then instructed my son to hit harder, and he did until Buck finally stepped forward.  Success!  We then walked a bit, and I got him used to having a bit in his mouth.  We did lots of starting and stopping, and used the whip most times to initiate the stepping off.

This stage requires a ton of patience.  You have to understand that the horse does not know what you want him to do.  After 30 minutes he was still not quite getting the concept without the tapping.  It would have been easy to get upset with him, but that is bad for everyone.  A good rule of thumb is that if you find yourself getting mad,  stop,  and pet the horse for a minute.  Petting will calm him a bit, and it will reset your mind into the mode where you are looking out for the horses best interest, not your own.

The ground driving session was OK, but I wanted more.  So I decided to pull Rachael out of the pasture and hitch them as  a team, so Buck could learn the commands from Rachael (my resident pro).  :)

Step 4:  Drive Buck as part of a Team

This was awesome.  I harnessed up Rachael.  I hooked the horses together in front with a yoke.  I also hooked their rear ends together by hooking the outer tug on each horse together (as I've discussed before on this blog).  I had the team lines hooked up, and off we went.

Buck on the left, Rachael on the right

This went exactly like it did for Pam when Lily trained her, and for Nellie, when Rachael trained her.  Buck stayed a half a step behind Rachael, and followed her lead on everything.  After 10 minutes, he was walking out even with her, feeling the relief in harness pressure as he walked even with her.  This was awesome.  Everytime we stopped, he'd kick his butt away from Rachael, but that will be corrected with time and work.  He would step off good with her, and he turned well with her.  And anytime he decided he wanted to stop, Rachael was there to pull him back into the right way.

Rachael, Buck, and a smiling teamster. 

Standing still at one of our rests.

One thing that really impressed me was how well he stood.  When I gave a "woah", they both stood perfectly still.  No prancing or pacing by Buck at all.  This was great!

Stepping off and walking here.

After a good bit of ground driving, I called it a good training session.  They both got brushed really good, and then fed well for their efforts.

Driving back to the trailer to tie up after a nice work session.

A calm and happy Buck after his first training session.

This was a great day!  It was so great to see Buck in harness.  He's going to be a great hitch horse.  I'm glad to have started him.