My new mower

Oh man i missed this thread originally. great pics and chat on horses Jonathan.

But i cannot help but see the funny in these pics of yours.....here we have the horses (green power) pulling the gas mowers (dirty power) .....where da sheep man, i thought sheep were the animal to cut the pasture.

These horses are amazing. Each year i get to see Lindas bosses two at the annual co bbq. I tend to spend my time down with the horses just gazing at them. Gentle giants is a good way to describe them. But the power they have and their own weight alone is quiet something to be near in my view. Earth vibrates when these guys move around.

Rob Keeble said:

Oh man i missed this thread originally. great pics and chat on horses Jonathan.

But i cannot help but see the funny in these pics of yours.....here we have the horses (green power) pulling the gas mowers (dirty power) .....where da sheep man, i thought sheep were the animal to cut the pasture.

These horses are amazing. Each year i get to see Lindas bosses two at the annual co bbq. I tend to spend my time down with the horses just gazing at them. Gentle giants is a good way to describe them. But the power they have and their own weight alone is quiet something to be near in my view. Earth vibrates when these guys move around.

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It is a greener way of mowing a pasture of weeds than using my tractor for sure. Every time I start my tractor it depreciates in value. Every time I hook my team they appreciate in value. Rotary mowing is really needed in pastures to cut and "chew up" weeds. I overgrazed this pasture last year during the drought. Used it to feed the round bales so consequently I have more weeds as the grass can't recover as quickly and make a canopy to slow weed growth. Sheep for this situation wouldn't like the weeds, goats would be the species to take care of this. Yes there is some irony in using a team with a gasoline engine, the term is a mixed power farm, where I use a tractor or an engine when it is the best solution (loader specifically to lift heavy things). These girls before they started working maybe went 1,000 pounds each. Now they are down a little in size but their weight since it is muscle maybe a tad higher. But they don't have the appetite of a draft horse nor do they excrete the amount of a draft horse. Mackinac Island in Michigan for those loving draft horses is a great place to visit. If you haven't heard of it, it is up near the Canadian border and is an island that solely utilizes draft horses or bicycles for transportation. No motorized vehicles on the island.

Looks like a great solution Jon. So do the mowers have electric start that will be wired up to the drivers area or will you have to get off to start/stop them? Just wondering if the team would get jittery when you first start them and move before you're ready.

Darren Wright said:

Looks like a great solution Jon. So do the mowers have electric start that will be wired up to the drivers area or will you have to get off to start/stop them? Just wondering if the team would get jittery when you first start them and move before you're ready.

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Great questions Darren. Actually that is the second reason for "marrying" the two mowers together. What I did was start both mowers a couple of times near the hitching rail when harnessing the team. Didn't seem to cause them much concern after a couple of times. Then I left the mowers running and drove the team around them and they seemed like it was a non issue. So, I hooked the two mowers together and hitched the front mower to my fore cart. They are both electric start, the back one I obviously at this time can't reach so have to start it and engage the blades before getting on the forecart and leaving for the field. The front one I just speak to the girls and then start it and then engage the blades. My team at this time is not good about standing in a field. They will stand at the hitching rail untied for great lengths of time, but out in the open that is something we are working on. What has happened to me a couple of times is the rear mower will jump out of gear, either from to fast or to much material or both conditions. That creates a hassle. By putting the two mowers together that will allow me to have both switches and handles to engage the blades at hand.

I love working stock!

I love working horses, big ponies, lil ponies, mules, donkeys,(four legged), and a real soft spot for a good working cow pony. I had a little cow pony off of foundation quarterhorse stock, went not quite fourteen and a half hands and when he was hard and fit weighed over twelve hundred pounds although he looked a couple hundred pounds lighter. Rode him 364 days one year, forget why I missed a day but it wasn't due to weather or causes I could control. I have rode him three days straight chasing cows in mud can to can't, 12-14 hours a day, and he was ready to go do it again the fourth day!

My wife was a sometimes barrel racer and liked to trail ride. She wanted me to drive a wagon. Another time and place so I said if I did it would be a beer wagon, complete with 120amp low RPM alternator and inverter. We went to a quarterhorse sale in Tylertown Mississippi advertised as a working quarterhorse sale. They also ran a few running quarterhorses and thoroughbreds through. Then they ran a pair of clydesdale weanlings, about 900 pounds apiece selling as a pair. Budweiser bred but not quite show quality. We were sitting in the center of the stands and about halfway, five or six rows, up. The bidding started and it was dirt cheap, a hundred apiece selling by the pair. Somebody in the left corner would bid and somebody by use would bid. Back and forth four or five times before my wife realized the bidder near us was my offside hand she couldn't see!

I'd bid, she would hit me in the ribs. I'd bid, she would hit me in the ribs. The fourth time it was on me after she realized I was bidding the auctioneer looked at me and I told him "I'm done, my ribs can't take anymore of that little bony elbow!" The worst I have ever seen an auctioneer lose it. He laughed until tears were running down his face. One of those times the more he tried to stop the worse the laughter seized him. He finally had to just let it out and interrupt the auction a minute or two.

My grandfather died while driving a wagon behind a pair of mules and a friend of mine was still plowing behind a pair of mules when he was 86. Hard to beat working livestock compared to running a tractor. Both have their place but if I have to choose . . . Too I always remember an old farmer's answer when his young grandson asked him why he still worked his farm with a pair of draft horses. "You can park two tractors side by side for twenty years and you will never go in the barn one frosty morn and find a little tractor standing between them."

Nice pair of ponies you have there. An added plus is that as I'm sure you know, generally ponies live longer than horses which are long lived themselves. Those two should wear out the mower decks before they are much more than broken in good.

Hu

Hu, my dad told me I was the only one he had ever seen wear a western saddle out. Not the stitching, but wore it out. I had to learn to shoe horses as dad kept around 20 head at all times for trading stock. If they weren't broke when he bought them, he expected them broke by the time he wanted to sell them! It was nothing for him to buy horses 20-30 miles from home, haul me and my saddle to the farm, I'd crawl on and ride 'em home. Some of them I don't think had ever been ridden that far in one shot. Closest salebarn was 25-30 miles away, the most he would buy is 3 at a time so I could ride one and lead two.
Thanks for the compliments on the team. I have always been a sucker for those 14 hand animals. They are just tougher than whang leather.

big horses-

when my kids were young, we used to take them to ranches to ride horses.

I remember once , my children were older, maybe in their early teens, and at this point I wasn't a small person.

Not as big as I am now, but hefty.

I was reluctant to take out a horse, not that I ever really enjoyed horseback riding, but the horses seemed kinda scrawny and small.

The owner of the ranch saw I didn't go out on the trail with my family, and walked over to me. She said to me, let me show you something.

she brought me to a back barn, and said, we have horses for any size person, don't hesitate, we have a horse for you.

Now, I don't know sizes, but the horses in this barn were by far the largest horses Ive ever seen, on television, in a movie, or live.

the back, where they put the saddle, was well over my head, Im guessing close to 7 feet off the ground, maybe more.

The animals were massive, it left an impression I will never forget.

I didn't ride anyway. That really embarrassed me that the owner of the ranch, some little skinny lady, told me not to worry, we have elephant horses for people like you.

Jonathan Shively said:

Yeah, rotary mowing does have some advantages at times. Will put up with those smaller engines. Next summer plan on playing with the exhaust and mufflers though and see how quiet I can get them. They (the ponies) are movers for sure. And I would agree 100%, it is a lot easier holding them back a little than trying to keep one walking!



Cannot back that rig more than 5'. The back mower hooks to the front mower on the side, the front mower hooks offset to the forecart. Now when I get the two married together, yes this team will be able to back in and clean up the corners better. The pasture got over grazed during last year's drought. I got a late start mowing this summer due to working the ponies down and getting them ready for the noise. If time allows, thinking I am going to plow some of that pasture under and plant some open pollinated corn. Have a two row, one horse corn cutter that I bought with my mule in mind for shocking corn next Sept.. These girls need some more hours on them before cultivating corn, but haven't gotten much done in the way of hauling manure yet so that will put some time on the team. Yeah they are nimble!! They got away from their previous owners a few times and got it in their heads to not work. They have a work ethic unlike any pony I have owned in some time. If they are true of the breed, I am impressed with Fjords. They don't stand out in the open yet. But a few days of plowing will really reinforce that lesson so not worried, they know whoa, just not stand. Glad you liked them. I tried to enlarge the pictures with editing but didn't figure it out.

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When you are ready to speak English to this city boy, please let me know. Beautiful pics!!!

Enjoy,
JimB

size and embarrassment, separate though

My wife weighed literally half what I did so when a friend gave me a running quarterhorse I threw her barrel saddle on him and she was going to be my exercise rider until the horse got a little fitter. Not my favorite type of horse even for racing. Long and lanky, seventeen hands tall! I had bought my wife a seventeen hand black gelding she had fell in love with years before but she hadn't been riding for awhile and was a bit nervous, no, make that very nervous! If the horse hadn't been very deep chested she could have almost taken her cowgirl hat off and walked under him.

I told her not to worry, I could get under her and catch her before she fell from that high. As I said that I was waving a big fish landing net I had snuck into the back of the truck! The girl lacked a sense of humor about such things.

Embarrassing was riding one of the plugs in the garden of the gods. Fantastic rock formations and such. These horses had one pace and no intention of setting one foot off of their usual trail. I suffered nose bleeds from the earliest I could remember into my thirties. Oddly enough it was after I broke my nose a few times that the problem went away. Our legislature was feeling silly one year and designated a hill 508 feet above sea level, the tallest in Louisiana, the state mountain. I think the garden of the gods is closer to a mile elevation or a bit more. I was wearing a white shirt and the nose decided to play fountain at that altitude without warning and nothing to deal with it anyway. Looked like I spilled a bucket of red paint down the front of my shirt and naturally everyone we met on the way back and on to the car assumed I had fell off of or been thrown by the plug. My face was pretty red and it wasn't all from the blood.

Come to think of it the fetlocks looked like there might have been more than a touch of draft in the horse I was riding that day. I haven't been exactly tiny myself from the night I was born!

Hu

That's plenty of riding Jonathan! I have seen a few of the padded seat saddles get wore through though, I know we replaced the seat in one of those at least once maybe twice that I can remember (pretty sure it was moms saddle - if I recall correctly it was more like upholstery leather than saddle leather). My first saddle was an old 1860-1880's saddle dad had cut down the cantle on and re-placed all the leather work from the tree up (plus a little bit of rawhide re-enforcement and also made me the fanciest rawhide tapaderos a young lad could ever have wished for); the old high cantle saddles were a bit of a death trap if the horse fell or flipped over on you which is why he cut the cantle down and I think the original leather was plumb shot to. Once I outgrew it I got what I think was one of Grandpas old saddles from the mid 40s I believe. No padded seats on either of those anyway that was for sure, I suppose you could wear them out eventually if you rode them hard enough though!

I used to ride bareback with a "cheater strap" a lot when I was a kid (basically a wide strap you tuck your knees under wrapped around the girth of the horse). I'd throw a blanket with the strap on a horse we'd keep at the barn every morning and run him a 1-2 miles up the field and round up the rest of the horses (I think we only had maybe 15-20 at that point) and run them back down to the corral for the day. There was a point of land you came around on the way back where you could just see the barn and when that old horse would come around the corner he'd always tuck his head and give me 10-15 good jumps. If you weren't awake before you were after

When I was 10? (I think? +- a year anyway) my Grandpa gave me a wild mare, but dad wouldn't let me ride her until I was 13 (that was a loong time let me tell you). She'd put on a no foolin bucking horse show every morning and then was 100% good all day once it was out of her system. One time I was in the round pen which had a log fence a good bit over 6' tall (its been a while so rounding down here) and on that little 13-2 mare the bottoms of my stirrups were clearing the fence on every jump. I also beat all the Douglas Lake Ranch cowboys at the local cow cutting competition with her that year (still pretty pleased with myself over that and its been a long time ). I kind of enjoyed the ride every morning but it made her impossible to sell when we moved so.. that was that

I also used to get on a lot of the colts for the first few while Dad did some ground work on them. If they were younger (nothing under 2, but sometimes we'd get one not a lot over) we didn't want to put a lot of weight on them so I'd use an english saddle (which, if you aren't familiar, has about zero "hold you in" ability) with no stirrups (the english stirrups are thin and more likely to hang you up if you get thrown) and I'd just grab aholt fore and aft and hang on. I don't remember ever getting thrown doing that though.

In my younger more ambitious days I remember getting some of the half workhorse pack horses and squeezing them up along the fence and slipping the bronc saddle on them then using a halter rope to flank them after I'd crawled on top. After a few rides on those I quit using them for that and started looking for something a bit smoother for the adrenalin kick - those half draft were like riding a brick outhouse out of an airplane every time they came down!!

For most uses I'm 100% with you, I'd way rather have a stocky half pony or brush tail like my wild mare than some big fancy saddlebred or overbred quarter horse (not that there aren't good quarter horses.. there are, some are just well.. overbred at this point imho ). I've certainly seen a lot of them walk a bigger horse plumb into the ground and they're generally handier/less clumsy to boot (I have a few clumsy horse stories growing up in the mountainous areas a horse stumbling off of a trail was always a bit to exciting and a good brush horse was worth his weight). I do have a soft spot for some of the big draft but for most small farm use they are realistically pretty impractical compared to something like what you have there.

I keep telling LOML that when we move back to the country I'm making an ox cart we can use to drive to town.. She is wholly NOT on board with the idea for some strange reason I've also suggested that I can make an gyrocopter instead (apparently there is some lack of trust in my engineering skills there!! I mean if the concern is the ox cart is to slow...??!?!?) or as a vast compromise I could get an old pickup and convert it to wood gas, so you could drive plumb normal; you'd just need to chop up some wood and fire it up about 30m early (somehow none of these are as well received as you would expect). The owner (and a good buddy) of my favorite watering hole did say he'd put a hitching post out back for me if I was close enough to use it (especially if I was riding an ox) so there is that...

Anyway - you all brought back some memories there!

Jonathan - looking forward to the next installment of the horse farming saga there

Jim C Bradley said:

When you are ready to speak English to this city boy, please let me know. Beautiful pics!!! Enjoy, JimB

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Jim, let me see if I can decipher this for you!

Yeah, rotary mowing does have some advantages at times. Will put up with those smaller engines. Next summer plan on playing with the exhaust and mufflers though and see how quiet I can get them.
A rotary mower is just like your push or riding mower, a horizontal blade that cuts and chops the grass. A regular horsedrawn mower is a sickle bar mower where knives slide back and forth in a reciprocating motion. This grass just lays back on the pasture and suffocates the grass underneath it. Great for hay making but not pasture maintenance.

They (the ponies) are movers for sure. And I would agree 100%, it is a lot easier holding them back a little than trying to keep one walking!
This is in reference to their stride or way of going. I liken it to when I was in elementary school walking downtown with my 6'3" Grandfather, his stride was definitely longer and ground covering than my little legs could imagine.

Cannot back that rig more than 5'. The back mower hooks to the front mower on the side, the front mower hooks offset to the forecart. Now when I get the two married together, yes this team will be able to back in and clean up the corners better.
The ponies/team is hooked to a two wheeled cart via a tongue. Behind that using a standard pin hitch the first mower is attached to the fore cart. Then I attached the second mower to the right rear corner of the first mower and offsetting the tongue so they mowed two separate swaths. Backing this conglomeration is near impossible due to the different hitch points and angles. What Peter was asking for a pasture with 90 degree corners, generally when mowing you make the corner as a curve, when you straighten out to continue down the field in order to mow the unmowed portion in the corner you back the mower into the corner over the unmown grass.


The pasture got over grazed during last year's drought.
No rain, no growth, I had to sacrifice one pasture and keep the cows on a field so they ate hay but any time a green blade of grass showed above the ground they ate it off. This allows the canopy to be open and weeds grow like wildfire. I don't use chemicals generally on my farm so I try to control weeds by mowing them before they can flower and reproduce. I had great control of my pasture weeds until last year and then this year I started mowing late so they got a headstart on me.

If time allows, thinking I am going to plow some of that pasture under and plant some open pollinated corn.
I will plow the pasture grass/weeds under and next spring plant corn that is not a hybrid. Meaning I can save ears of corn that are large and well filled as well as coming from stalks that are standing well. Seed from Open Pollinated corn raise corn like themselves. Hybrid corn is raised from many generations of crosses that end with a terminal cross that is the seed planted, the corn grown will not create a plant like it came from.

Have a two row, one horse corn cutter that I bought with my mule in mind for shocking corn next Sept..
Shocking corn is the early version of silage. I will cut the corn stalks off at ground level and then tie them in a bunch so they dry. My plan is to purchase an electric chipper/shredder and then bring a shock of corn into the barn and run the stalk and ear through the chipper/shredder making fresh feed/silage daily for my calves.

These girls need some more hours on them before cultivating corn, but haven't gotten much done in the way of hauling manure yet so that will put some time on the team.
Girl horses are called mares. Hours, they need time working. They were trained young on a wagon, so they don't know about walking specifically a straight line like down a row. Time in the field, especially plowing where one of the team has to walk in the furrow they will learn quickly to step into the furrow and walk in it. That is good training to teach them to follow a natural line like a row in a field. Next year at this time, my off mare (mare on the right when looking from behind) will know to walk in the mown grass beside the unmown grass which will place the offset mower correctly over what is to be cut.

Yeah they are nimble!! They got away from their previous owners a few times and got it in their heads to not work.
Ponies or horses, cattle even dogs, once they learn to get away with something, they will continue that habit for a long time. Since these learned to pull away from you when leading and then when harnessed not listen or respond to the correct commands, they were something of an accident waiting to happen. Nimble, they can turn on a dime and give you four cents change! They are quick.

They have a work ethic unlike any pony I have owned in some time. If they are true of the breed, I am impressed with Fjords.
Animals like people, some love to work others are jerks. These willingly work everyday all day. (with noon breaks and depending on weather other breaks)

They don't stand out in the open yet.
By this I mean I can't stop them in the field and get off of the forecart and get a drink or adjust their harness or work on the mowers as they won't stand still. If I am at the hitching rail, yes, they will stand. They just haven't worked hard enough to learn the benefits of rest when it is offered. A few teams ago, I had a team that I could drive up to a closed gate, get off the manure spreader, open the gate and tell them to get up and when they got through the gate tell them to whoa (stop). I then could close the gate and get back on and finish the job. This type of training just happens from continual work.

But a few days of plowing will really reinforce that lesson so not worried, they know whoa, just not stand.
Plowing, think of manually splitting wood, or shoveling snow, or any other tedious physically demanding job. You learn to rest when given the opportunity. Well plowing is steady work. It is a constant. They will learn to rest. Then as they stand better I will leave the plow in the ground and start walking around them petting them, rearranging their collars or forelocks (hair hanging down their foreheads) and they will learn it is a good thing for them to stand and me to come around to them. With the plow in the ground, they won't be as quick to get away as if it were a wheeled vehicle.

How's that Jim?

Well, as a city boy, that is the very best pitch I have heard for not becoming a farmer. Sounds to me like you have to learn as much as a physician, dentist or optometrist, then you have to gamble with Mother Nature. Knowing your regimen, I am in absolute awe of you as a person. Knowing your outlook on life, I am in awe of you as a person. How does it feel to be a hero figure?

Thanks and Enjoy,
JimB