[Does’ Leap]

Ed:

One thing you can try is to unbuckle one of the front side straps (I do outside left) and try hitching them as tight as you can. Then go back and buckle it up. Another method is to have someone lift up on the pole as you are connecting your last heel chain the evener. Both strategies together should give you considerable slack. I agree with Don with the evener (make a new evener) – 46″ seems very wide.

George

[Does’ Leap]

Glad to hear my approach to this behavior confirmed. Yes Mitch, 6 weeks to recover according to my doctor. I have been milking and doing chores for the past 4-5 weeks, but no lifting over 10 lbs. The doctor who removed the appendix has already repaired 1 hernia of mine (1 of 3!) and told me to go some place else if I herniated my appendicitis incisions.:eek: Anyway, I am back at it.

George

[Does’ Leap]

Hi Ed:

I am going to reply as a green teamster whose information should be confirmed by others with more knowledge. That said, I believe your forward side straps should be tighter. If you have no more holes, punch some new ones. This will give you more room on the evener side and tighten things up. Judging from the tension on your lazy straps (they should be lose), I think you could hitch tighter.

Regarding the positioning of the black horse, check to make sure your neck yoke has the same centers as your evener (46″ in this case). If the neck yoke is smaller, this would account for the black horse sticking his rear end out. If it is smaller, you need to change your evener or your neck yoke so they match. No amount of line adjustment will remedy this problem (if it is one).

Good luck.

George

[Does’ Leap]

Roberson:

I was not a fan of halflingers per se, but we picked up a free 8 year old mare who was sound last summer. I must say, I am a convert. I still prefer my full size team of bays (1700-1800 lbs/per), but she is a nice horse. I haven’t seen a halflinger built as sturdy as her (although I am certainly no expert) and I believe she pulls pound for pound more than my larger horses who are young and in good shape. She was not well broke when we got her (we didn’t know her history), but I have been twitching firewood with her throughout the season. She has an energy (I call it spunk) about her that is different from my horses (perhaps the Arabian that was bred into them), and I wouldn’t have been able to handle her a few years back. I personally would feel a bit limited by a team of halflingers while logging, but otherwise they would be great. My two cents: get the best broke team of horses you can find irregardless of breed.

Good luck.

George

[Does’ Leap]

Thanks to all for your kind words. We were pleasantly surprised and honored by this accolade. I am happy that they cited our horses as a factor in the award as they have brought us great joy and made our farm better.

Cheers.

George

[Does’ Leap]

Charly:

Is that you? Thanks for the link. I thought the teamster was insistent and supportive and the horse did well given all the stimuli. What kind of horse is that? Maybe in another thread you can educate us about the different types of German draft horses. I see some beauties in Small Farmer’s journal.

George

[Does’ Leap]

Thinning a sugarbush. Lots of firewood and I sold two loads of hemlock and was a few logs short of a third load until an emergency apendectomy. I am eager to get back out once I heal.

George

[Does’ Leap]

I’ve tried disking hayland with relatively little success. I would graze the land you want to seed tight to the ground with horses, put some weight on your disks, and keep the disks straight ahead or slightly angled.

George

[Does’ Leap]

John, you can try Zimmerman’s Harness (717)354-5667. They are excellent and inexpensive. Refer to the threads on the length of the front tug and relay that info to whomever is making your harness.

George

PS I have an aunt who lives on an island off the Isle of Skye. Scotland is a beautiful place!

[Does’ Leap]

Regarding fertility, you should get a significant nitrogen contribution from that plowed down alfalfa – on the order of 150#/acre depending on how thick the stand is. Alfalfa monocultures get up to 450 # N/acre!

George

[Does’ Leap]

I have a few follow-up questions regarding hitching 3 abreast. From what I gather, you either need to offset the pole or use an off-set evener. Is this correct? I welded up what I think Joel calls a “center-fire” evener. This consists of my two horse evener (with single trees 40″ OC), a third single tree for the third horse, and a piece of 60″ steel which evens out the 3 horses. The hitch point on the 60″ piece of steel is directly behind the two horse evener at 20″ with 40″ to the side to which the single tree for the third horse is attached. (Confused yet?:eek:) This seems all set to use without a pole. Now can I use this same evener with an off-set pole provided I move my hammer strap back? If so, how far do I off set my pole?

George

PS Carl, I talked to Les and he kindly sent me his plans. Although his system looks great with 2 poles, it is more work that I want to get into at this point. Also ordered an additional set of cross check lines which I can screw into my team lines thereby having direct line contact with all 3 horses.

[Does’ Leap]

Thanks, but no thanks. This was a post-apendectomy project that kept me busy as I was/am recovering. Hope to be back in the woods with my horses soon.

[Does’ Leap]

Thanks for the responses. I have a better sense of the line set-up – the diagram from rural heritage that Larry posted seems the best option for me. I am still a bit mystified by the evener set-up. Lynn Miller has a half dozen different arrangements in the Work Horse Handbook. Does anyone have a straightforward approach to hitching 3 horses on a pole? Is it always necessary to off-set the pole? Les Barden of NH mentioned he had an article in the Small Farmer’s Journal detailing a 2 pole set-up for 3 abreast. Anyone use this arrangement or know what issue that article was in?

[Does’ Leap]

I open my collars as well and they still have to push. I taught my horses to put their heads down on command, which helps with the on and off process.

[Does’ Leap]

Thanks for the replies. Neal, I will check on prices. I didn’t know Ted was a dealer and I will plan on calling him. I called a fellow in NY who advertises in Country Folks. He quoted me a price of $4k delivered. Seemed pretty reasonable.

George

[Author]

Posts