Bell is on the left and is the older of the 2. Emmy on the right is new to the farm only had her about a month when this pic was taken. Been working them a good bit single but not yet put them together as a team. Will be very soon though. Bell is a super logging horse never seen a single pull like she does when hooked to a log. Emmy is better for farming as Bell some times has a problem walking in a straight line. Something that I am going to be fixing this year. I will start posting pics of us working didn't get many last year, but plan to this year.
This is me and Emmy pulling some cordwood out of our holler
up the hill we go
Emmy pulling hard to get up the muddy hill
Standing nice and quite while being loaded up.
Got my new mullen bits with curb chains in and let me tell ya they really make a horse listen to you. The line pressure need to stop or turn them with these bits if only 1/4 of what it was with a reg work bit. When you say woo and just a slight tug they stop on a dime. The checks come in also and soon will be hooking them together as a team. Emmy has been getting worked more trying to muscle her up to match the pulling power of Bell. She been pulling logs from the land to the mill which is about 200 or so yard with a hill at the end. She is getting to where she can go steady with out getting really winded and the weight she can pull is going up very fast also. She is now able to pull 14 foot logs up to 18 inches in dia on my skidding sleds with easy when I started she really had to work hard to do that. Hell now she seems like she don't even feel the 8 footers any more walks through the field just looking around and enjoying life with them in tow.
Got a chance to put the new bit in Bells mouth and boy did she not like me having that much control over her. She fought it for the first little bit but then settled down. She stops really good now with very light pressure and as amazing as it is to me I have gotten her to talk a tight straight line with this bit also. Before she would wobble around a bit and step on stuff I really didn't want her to but not I can put her big ars in a furrow and keep her there like she should. It was money well spent. I pulled enough logs to finish filling my log table with her the other day now when this rain goes away I will be sawing them up.
Here you can kind of see the sled type that I use for skidding the logs. I use one on each end of the log which keeps it up off the ground and makes it a lot easier on the horses to pull. This is Emmy in Harness again. Seems like the camera is never around when Bell is pulling but she is getting worked now as much as Emmy. The log in this picture is 14 ft long and 18 inches on the little end and no troubles pulling it what so ever. Soon as it drys up some from the rain that is falling now I will be back at it pulling timber up to the mill and filling the table again so that I can do some more sawing. With every board that comes off this mill I see that much more of our home being finished. Gonna have to put a few more pounds on Emmy, when I got her last year she was a little under weight I got her up some and she is at a healthy weight just not fat as I would like her. Hard to add pounds when she is burning them off working, it is gonna be a slow process but she will get there.
March 24 2011
Well Holly was actually able to get a couple of pics of me and Bell pulling some logs. She has actually pulled the last 3 table fulls all by herself. I have done that cause she gets a little moody if not worked real regular like.
June 1st 2011
Well I put the team together for the frist time Saturday. They done a whole lot better then what I thought that the would. Sunday we disked so ground and they done well. Yesterday we tired to do some plowing and ended up having some major issues but it is ok we are getting there. For some reason Bell did not want to stay tight on the traces. Normaly she will pull till somthing breaks or moves but she did not like the turning plow at all so I went back to using the chiesel plow ans she was much better and that is fine with me I like it anyway. I have sheared them down almost like a team of mules and it really has help out on how fast they go to pouring the sweat. But now when I am working them single I take them both to the field with me and leave one tired up while I work the other when she goes to blowing hard and needs the rest I just swap out horses and keep on working. Doing this is letting me get a lot more work done in a days time with out being as hard on my stock.
June 8th 2011
Still working them as a team as much as I can and they are really starting to come along well. They hate the turning plow so am just harrowing the crap out of my little corn plot. I am getting it done better and faster this way then trying to teach to plow in it right now. I have a little field that I am going to teach them to plow in once the oats are off of it, that way next year I should not have any troubles at getting all the farm crops out. Plus I may start looking for a riding plow if I can get enough ground to work that it. I think that I want a disc plow. From the years I have used a tractor moleboard and what little I have used the disc plows I perferr the disc plows in the type of ground that we have around these parts just seems to do a better job and can control the depth of plowing better with them. Corn gound should be 90% done today only need disc right befor I seed it, that is once my corn seed getts here. I am very proud of how the team is progressing and can not wait to get them in the woods logging as a team. The power that my girl have is just unreal to me. I always wondered how they ever got anything done back in the days of only draft power and now I know. Hardwork, patience, and a good team. The reward of working a team of horse is a 1000 times of that of sitting in a tractor seat all day even if I do get less done in a day and have to do a little disapline work to my team. I thank god that either A he made me smart enough to go back to using a team B that he gave me enough subberness to not buy that high prices full so that I would work a team or C that we made dumb enough to enjoying working myself to death enough to use a team. Either way I am just thankfull that he lets me work a team of animales that he placed on this earth. Speaking of which I should have already been in the field so I gots to go.
June 22 2011
Well I have to say that I am upset with the way Emmy worked single yesterday. I thought that she was broke better then that but she proved me other wise. I am going to make sure that they get hooked everyday other then Sunday for the rest of this year. I have to get them WELL broke, it is to hard to do farm work with out them being. I have to have them to do the work even if the tractor was running like a dream. I like working them very much when they are doing good work but I hate it when that are doing stupid stuff and for those of you that know and know that I have very little patience you can this the problem here. Next year I want to be able to get 4-5 acres of corn out mow at least 7 acres of clover hay and get it up, plus what ever else with them. I just gonna have to break them good. Seems like when that get corn and oats they stupid. I don't understand it but I have to fed them grain so that they can hold wieght and right now trying to fatten Emmy up to the point that she needs to be at. Not sure what I will be doing to get rid of the edgyness that feed gives them but gonna have to do somthing. I pray that god give me patience to do this. I also pray that my Pappy stay with me in sprit and help guide me through this. I am going to be build a new sled today for them and also couple of wagons over the course of this year. The new sled will be a little heavier made then my last one so it will hold up better plus I am going to put a pole on it so that it will not run over them as the go over hills and stuff. They will get plenty of work with it here very soon pulling our cord wood out and moving fire wood out of the woods since I am getting ready to start selling it again. Like I said by next spring they are going to be dead broke or off this farm one. But I figure that 8-12 hours a day 6 days a week of being in harrness should break them out rather well.
hard working people are hard to find anymore. yall got a good thing goin here and i hope it works out great for ya.
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