[Carl Russell]

Countymouse;18700 wrote:

Carl,
I’m curious if you have had a chance to try out the buffer yet. Do you have any thoughts you might share? Don’t worry about hurting my feelings if you don’t see an effect. I feel like I do, but I wanted to hand it off to someone else to see if they see the same thing…

I will be putting it to use today with some pine logs. Been pretty busy in the garden lately, and working the team in the woods.

I’ll report back, Carl

[Carl Russell]

Thanks. I wasn’t able to read the entire report, but it looks thorough and interesting. It will be good to forward it around.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Ben, it is a very unfortunate occurrence.

I asked one of my vets about this around 1990, as I had read about it in SFJ. The story suggested removing pasture-side trees, and since we have tons of red maple, and I had seen my horses gobble leaves and bark, I was concerned.

He said that he had never had a case, and that I shouldn’t worry, besides they would have to eat a bushel-basket full. Since then I have not worried about it. I have seen my horses eat a lot of red maple leaves in the woods.

Yours is a cautionary tale. My heart goes out to you.

I will refresh my vigilance, and watch out for those possible problems.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

I pretty much keep mine shod year-round. I agree that barefoot is best, but I have found it to be lacking when traveling gravel roads, ledgy ground, or for traction in the woods.

As I have said in other posts, the biggest problem with shoeing is not being able to afford to ave it done for you at intervals that will protect the health of the hoof. I shoe my own, and therefore I can keep the hooves trimmed and reset the shoes every 6-8 weeks.

Over 24 years I have played with both with and without, and I have found more benefits with shoes than without. Not saying the hoof is made to have shoes on, but done right, shoes do not have to be detrimental.

I agree with Mitch, handling the horses feet is a big communication builder, whether trimming or shoeing. So don’t let the choice to shoe or not be an excuse not to handle their feet. Even if you hire someone else to do it all for you, handling the feet regularly to perform something other than picking will be valuable.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Here is a photo showing the shaft loops off the jack saddle, and hold-backs coming off the britchen ring.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

I was plowing the garden today with our pigs pastured at one end so I took a couple pictures of how little they paid attention to each other. These animals are not housed near each other, but are on the farm together and know of each other. I have never done anything to “introduce” my horses to the pigs.

I have always thought that if you think your horses are going to be freaked out by pigs then they probably will be. However, I have no reason to believe that, and I have never experienced any problems.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Excellent work Erik. What about having a removable panel so kids could add/change the design….you know kids activities while parents are shopping!!

Can’t wait to see it rolling.

Good Companion Rolls on Wheels.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

We have a friend who runs a floral business, and has built a set-up like this. It works really well to keep temps about 40.

I don’t know a lot of the specifics, but I have been in it, and it is cold.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

This is beside the point but for years I would set up a small stack of logs, 1000-2000 bf and have a portable mill come a nd cut them up for me. I just can’t function without a lumber pile to pick and pull from. That’s why I own a small Wood mizer myself now.

I think you could do a pretty good job with small poles. I wanted to use lumber, but the thought of handling those panels with board attached was too much. I chose plywood, although more expensive, because I could use through bolts and wing nuts to attach the ply and then handle and stack the ply wood separately.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Taylor, I agree with your concept. Just remember that efficiency is long term too. Sometimes trying to be “efficient” can lead to cutting corners, which ends up not being very efficient at all.

My point is that a well-built portable barn could take some time to design and build, but in the long run would be a great benefit to your operation.

I chose to buy a trailer and move my horses to and from the job each day. I just can’t travel to the job seven days a week any more, and the trailer is the most efficient way for me now.

However, back in the day I did the whole pole and tarp thing, and portable fence.

Although I never built it, I had put together a design using 4×4’s and 3/4″ plywood that could be taken apart in panels. It would measure 8’x12′ with 2 standing stalls and an equipment/hay/workspace on one end. I erred on the side of heavy so that it could hold up to the “playfulness” of my horses. I did save some on the roof, having poles for ridge and rafters, and a tarp for roofing, that just seemed to be hard to build a panel for a roof that I could move and assemble.

I really think you could get this done for a few hundred buck, and you should be able to put it together by yourself in half a day pretty reasonably, and it would look like you had put some thought into it, so visitors would appreciate it. This is the kind of thing that if it is built heavy enough, and designed so you can handle it and care for it, it should last a long time and provide good benefit.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

George, I was pulling logs uphill with my horses this week, and the heat has certainly been a factor. I noticed my mare was breathing pretty hard at times too.

It is virtually impossible to judge from here whether your horse has some other condition, or if this would constitute abnormal breathing. I like to see my horses breathing hard. However, managing that is what I spend most of my time doing. I am typically more concerned about heavy sweating than I am about heavy breathing.

I like the animals to exert themselves in spurts, resting them regularly. If you are just taking them out with the load and keeping them underway until they get back, this could result in over exertion. If a team can pull the load uphill, then they can start it on the hill, and I would take the hill in sections, especially when hot like it has been.

As far as one horse showing it more than the other, I have always had one horse that was a little more intense than the other. Whether it is nerves or a tendency to try harder, the difference in exertion and recovery may not be directly related to conditioning.

There is no doubt that you can over-work a horse in the heat, but I would be inclined to work on managing the exertion. Now that you have seen this type of response, you can work the animals up to this level and keep them moving comfortably. You can get a lot more out of a horse that doesn’t over-exert himself. Go light, and go often, and rest them so that they are showing the reserve that you need for the work at hand, and you should be able to work them all day, regardless of the temp.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Welcome Denise,

My only feed-back is that beside the animal husbandry and working skills, starting out to build your way slowly into a farming enterprise can be hard financially. Adding to that the cost of purchase and maintenance of tractors can set the tone of the operation for a long time. If you have any sense that draft animals are what you want to use, then bring that objective up to the top of the priority list.

There is no doubt that learning the farming skills and strategies can be very similar on both types of operations, and those skills are also prerequisites to successful farming, but a lot of operations that are built around tractor use have a hard time making the transition to draft animals.

If you start out with drafts from the beginning the growth will be pretty slow, but you will be blessed with an operation that does not have to be modified, but you will also benefit from a personal investment in terms of improving skills that you just can’t get with tractors.

This does equate to some financial value as well, as you become your own primary resource for training, and application, and systems development. For the money draft animals are by far the most versatile source of motive power.

Research is good, and make sure that you make do with what you have. If it is more convenient to work with a local vet, than to head off to southern Ohio for a full fledged internship, then that is an excellent first step. You definitely need to see how you feel around animals.

Anyway you cut it, I would suggest that if you truly have an interest in draft animals, then it will work best if you put your weight behind that objective sooner than later. Many of us on this board have experience with family and community members who question such far fetched ideas. It can be hard to work through, but like so many other lifestyle choices, when you come clean with yourself and focus without apology on your true mission, miracles happen.

This may not be a factor in your case, but I just wanted to throw out the encouragement.

Good luck, Carl

[Carl Russell]

Does’ Leap;18517 wrote:

Thanks for the comments. Ed, I don’t grain my horses. They get alfalfa pellets and oil when logging in the winter and dairy quality grass (12 hours only) during the summer as they follow our goats. Carl, I appreciate your comments and also prefer this style of horse. I am having a hard time understanding your quote below. Can you elaborate?
George

Proportionately, I think this conformation provides excellent power through muscle mass on the hinds, with a long spinal lever against the ballast of the deep chest.

This body type is low and long. This gives the horse a lot of weight ahead of the hips to ballast against the power in their hind ends. As I have mentioned in other posts, horses lift their front end up on every stroke of a hind leg. They do this using the spine, based on the fulcrum at the hip.

If horses have long legs and short bodies then the hinds have more leverage over the front end, and therefore they aren’t as able to use the weight of the front end as ballast against the heavy load. These high and short horses have better stride, and when used on light loads that don’t tax their weight to power ratio, like wagons etc., they have advantages over the long and low farm style.

I think that horses built such as yours, and mine, have a body type that lends itself more efficiently to the varied work of the diversified farm that we run.

I am not saying this is the ultimate conformation, nor am I claiming that your horses are built perfectly, nor mine for that matter, I am just trying to point out some of the features of conformation that I look at, and seek to find in horses that I want to work.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

I mentioned you to them, as I thought you may have been. They can’t get away for NEAPFD, although they would love to.

Now I have read many of their articles over the years, but it is another thing all together to stand in front of their production field and listen to Eric explain his purposes. Andy, the trip would be well worth your time.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Side dress with composted manure.

Also a lot of those recommendations are based on the assumption that the only nutrients in the soil are applied fertilizer, and with corn being such a heavy user with a small root system, so side dressing concentrates the nutrients where the plants are. if your field has good fertility and you have applied manure to the entire area, then there will probably be enough nutrients available.

Either way, side dressing with compost i very effective, we do this on several of our crops.

Carl

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