[Donn Hewes]

Hi Tom, I am just starting to work with my three year old Mammoth Jack. It is a lot of fun. I think we spoken on the phone once this summer. I added hydraulic brakes to one of my carts, but I bought new hubs and parts from a carriage maker. The parts were expensive, but it made nice brakes. I wanted the brakes to aid horses in bringing heavy loads down a hill. I hope you won’t mind a small suggestion on the harness. His tug needs to be freed up from the harness so it can come off the hames at a good angle (90 degrees). The angle he is at now will make it uncomfortable on his neck. That is a nice looking donkey.

[Donn Hewes]

You are talking about mowing with a single horse I believe, right? In general a mower is not a heavy thing to bring down a hill. Two things I would consider and the horse will probably come down the hill just fine. I see a lot of britchens that seem too low to me. People often comment that mine look high. I have never had a britchen slide up on a horses tail, but I keep them two inches below the turn in their butt. The lower the britchen the less backing and holding power they will have. Second, I am careful person, and I will find a couple spots on the hill that are almost as steep so I can test it out.

[Donn Hewes]

One set up that is easy to buy at a hardware store or farm store is: One very heavy duty bull snap (the largest, heaviest one they have). One grab hook with a pin for attaching it to a chain. Pin it to the swivel on the bull snap, and if you have a ring on your evener you can easily take the grab hook off and on. Make sure to get a grab hook that fits the chain you want to use. 5/16 is a versatile size.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Jen, Great post. Just as I enjoy picking up the lines of other folks horses to see what I can learn; I also find it really interesting to have others learning from my horses. It can be very challenging to manage all your people and animals so everyone is finding a positive outcome. Nice job.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Jean, I have a shorter answer and a longer answer, but first let me reiterate something that has been suggested on this thread already. We are all looking for a “feeling”, a moment when you should apply the pressure and a moment when you should release it. It is hard to put it into words or tell someone else “this is how you do it”. Using children as an analogy; hold your thumb on one and they will go right where you want, hold your thumb on the next one and you will be working backwards.

Having said that here is my short answer. I often find that folks with a specific problem; ie. my horse won’t do xxx, or he doesn’t like yyy tend to rush through those trouble spots. I think it works like this, Someone’s horse is not very good at putting his bridle on, but he is pretty good at everything else. If they can rush the bridle on in less than a minute, their hour with the horse is 2% bridling and 98% pleasant. I usually suggest they take the trouble spot and delve into it. Don’t rush. Make it take longer and move slower.

Here is a slightly longer answer. I recently did a two day intro to work horses. The two day arrangement gave me a chance to try something new. We, eight students and I, spent half of the first day working with loose animals. I explained and demonstrated, and had students moving animals on command and standing on command. At the beginning of the second day as we were gathering horses, mules, and one donkey off pasture; each pair of students had one animal and they were all standing in a wide circle. Each animal had been caught and haltered. The animals were standing without being held with their lead ropes over their necks. I was teaching everyone how to pick up horses’ feet. But we were also reinforcing the fact that each of us could make the horse stand as we worked around it. It was a really fun moment for me.

I returned to that moment at different points in the workshop. As a new teamster would get tangled (or just focused) in lines and eveners (we were moving logs), I would point out that what made a horse stay and stand was the same thing as when we were picking up the feet. These little signals and body language and all the rest make up our leadership. One of my horses is a little green, and has little experience working alone. He made a great demonstration of how our work around him is focused on getting him to stay and stand. It did not prevent us from working, we just worked a little slower and were very aware of all the signals we were giving him. This would make him stand, just as we knew it would from our experience on the pasture.

[Donn Hewes]

Ronnie, I believe that is a Grimm tedder. They were made in Vermont or Newhampshire I believe. I don’t think they are made anymore but there are still quite a few in use up here. Pequea (Lancaster, Pa.) Makes a very similar tedder and they call it the fluffer tedder; 7′ and 9′ ground drive or PTO. Pequea has a web site. Might be easier to find the Pequea used I would think.

I use a Grimm and like it. simple and reliable, does a good job in most conditions. They won’t ted out a rained on windrow very well and the rotary tedder is better with the light second or third cutting. The Grimm will leave one or two clumps of hay and those were the whole reason you set out to ted that light hay.

[Donn Hewes]

If you look in the photo albums at Russell forestry you will see several pictures of a low two wheeled fore cart with an easy entry and a flat back with four hooks for logging. There are also plans somewhere. The cart originated with Les Barden I believe or at least he popularized it.

[Donn Hewes]

It’s sounds like you had it well in hand. Sometimes folks think a trained horse means you don’t have to pay any attention to it. I am not suggesting you were doing that, just the opposite. Had you been doing that you might have had to walk back to the barn to pick up the lines! But seriously, even good horses are just children (my analogy)and we should be watching them so we can respond when / if they aren’t acting the way we want or expect. A friend of mine brought a horse to a logging play day recently and the horse did not do very well; not standing still, and trying to turn around, just fussing. I think the problem was really pretty simple, the teamster is usually very successful with this horse, but on this day he was trying to demonstrate and work with a group of folks, and this little distraction gave the horse just enough “free” time to get into trouble.

With one eye and mind always on your horse or horses you will sense this change and adapt your approach just enough to reassure and settle the animal, putting them right back were we want them to be. You can walk into a situation with your horse you have been in many times before, but this time they hear something, smell something, or see some thing; we don’t change where we want to go or what we want to do, but we may need a pause, a drop of the shoulder or a turn of the head to get them back on us before we can proceed.
Talk to you soon, Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Even with the low prices 25$ four mules sounds fishy. Was it just the end of a long auction or something? I think I could sell twenty teams of horses in my neighborhood right now. I bet they won’t be that cheap in the spring. My place would also make a good place to stop for anyone traveling to NE from Ohio.

[Donn Hewes]

Horses in Central NY are not cheap right now. The Amish community in NY state is growing fast, and I guess this causes the demand. I would think they would know how to get the horses from Ohio to here. My Amish neighbor just paid $2500 for a young pair. I also have a friend with a halflinger that can’t find a buyer for him, so I guess it just depends.

[Donn Hewes]

My limited experience is different, Kristi. I have always felt that the mules size came mostly from his mother and his temperament came mostly from his father. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but what if the mules from your past had been shown the patience I am sure the donkeys have seen? Mules like people, but just like donkeys they are independent and protect what they see as their best interest very strongly. Because they like people we have the makings of a good partner if we will go slowly enough to present things they can accept. In the end I think they are all equids and all benefit from our taking the time to recognize when they are ready for something and when they are not. Patience and controlling our emotions allows them to think about and accept what is being asked of them.

[Donn Hewes]

As Brad suggested, and LF said, the lines, and spreaders all contribute to how far apart horses heads will be. Adjusting the length or location of your spreaders or drop rings will effect that. When I look at a photo I all ways look at the result; where are the heads? In both LFs and team donks the horses and donkeys are going straight ahead. Very nice. Word of caution it is easy to take picture from an odd angle or moment and make their heads look pointed in or out when actually they are well hitched. As a learning tool I have all ways found it usefully to see if horses heads are spaced well. You will often see horses whose heads are pointed in or out, and are also not working very happily and no one seems to know exactly why. LF I don’t do it as much anymore, (just use drop rings and made all my eveners the same) But for a long time I used spreaders just as you described. for pulling a plow or narrow evener on the ground I used the lines with out spreaders, then I just went through the spreaders anytime I used a tongue. Worked great and gave me two widths with out changing the lines.

[Donn Hewes]

Not knowing anything about oxen; although I have been around a few cattle, I can compare horses, mules, and donkeys to some degree. I currently have all three. A mule is half horse and half donkey, and in my opinion that is how they act. I all ways describe the difference between a horse and a donkey as the difference between a dog and a cat. They both like people and attention, but the dog / horse just relies on it more and excepts it with less question. The donkey, and to some extent the mule, remain more independent even after training and working for people.

I think horses are easier to train than mules, and mules are easier to train than donkeys, but so what? Most mule and donkey folks didn’t set out to do something because it was easy.

[Donn Hewes]

I use three abreast quite bit although only a few times in the woods. George is right the off set tongue is the easiest and straightest way to hook up three to a cart. It gets all your power straight in front of you. It takes some work to make it so you can move your tongue, but once you are set up it is easy. Some caution should be taken with a D ring harness and three abreast. The ideal set up for D ring would be two tongues or heavy shafts, holding a three horse neck yoke. When using three horses with an offset tongue and a two horse yoke just remember that when the horse not on the yokes backs or slackens he loosens the hitch and will lower the tongue and yokes. Horses can work in this set up, but I kind of watch which horses I put where and pay attention while driving. With a western brichen harness the extra horse can make the yoke slip off the pole. You need to attach that yoke to the pole even if you never do in normal two horse operations.

[Donn Hewes]

I used small diameter rope lines by accident recently. My friend was supposed to bring her horse and tack to a public event so I could help do a couple little demos. She had everything but the lines! A little clothes line saved the day. I was surprised at how hard it was for me to manage. Perhaps just the lack of familiarity, but I couldn’t work the lines in one hand as smoothly as I like. I can keep my lines separate in one hand and slide one past the other for any one handed driving that I want to do. The clothes line was a lot harder than I expected.

It was for an 1860’s day (Judy’s day) at Cornell. I told my friend the rope lines looked very authentic.

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