Farmer Ed

Sunday evening

We have a pretty steep hill which the horses like to charge up

It's all exciting!

 

 

Away we go off on our date!

 

Rosie giving me a hand hooking up the tugs to the 5 shovel 

Grace getting ready to lead off

Away we go

 

 

Heading out to the pasture to cut firewood as you can see it started raining.  The path to the downed trees had some little valleys to navigate and the horses did a good job of controlling the load even though they had sliding to contend with.

Listening to advice from Neil Diamond http://www.draftanimalpower.com/, I tied them to a tree by their halters while cutting.

Wood is free but you have to work at it.  Horses will come in handy pulling logs out of the pile.  Trees where cut down and piled up to make pastures usable again. 

Heading home with the load.

Was blessed to meet Leo at the farmers market he has been working with horses since he was a kid.  He is a real treasure with all the knowledge he has.

101 degrees in the shade...  Leo takes us for a refreshing ride down a flooded road!

 

 

 

 

 

We all need neighbors who willing pass on their knowledge...

Leo plowing with a sulky 1 bottom plow with a team 3 abreast

 

Leo, Jerry and myself examining the furrow.  The horse on the right walks in the furrow and pretty much keeps the team walking in a straight line.

Its close to 100 degrees in the afternoon so man and beast is looking forward to quitting time.

Grace cares for her horse Abby

Ellen cares for Jed's horse Molly since she is a little too tall for him to remove her collar.

 

Now time to cool off!

 

 

The most productive soil on the farm is the fence lines where the soil is deep and fertile thanks to the dust bowl.

Ol' Molly looks pretty doesn't she!

If you have the acreage for the horses to run on and you gradually work the horses on hard surfaces over time horse's hooves will become hardened to walking on rocky roads and pavement.  Besides it being better for the horse, you save on the farrier which costs around $200 to shoe a team and they need to be shod several times a year.  We have never trimmed these horses but have worked them gradually on the different road types.  We learned about barefoot horse care on the INTERNET.

 Here are some pics of how our draft horses have adapted.  

Here is hoof that is well on the way to having the mustang roll i.e. the outer wall of the hoof on the bottom starts to round off 

Here is what they look like today notice the hoof is pretty short and outer wall of the hoof in rounded off nicely in the toe.

The sole of the hoof is very hard now and they can go down rocky roads and pavement with no discomfort.

Went on a 6 mile wagon ride with the horses and then disked the garden...  As far as I can tell disking is about the best weed control there is

 

1st thing to do when taking the harness off is get the horses halters back on....  Must always have control over the team

Rosie unharnessing the one of the team...  The 4 kids can get the job done in a matter of minutes.  

Notice how she leans into the turn... just like a pro