We really enjoy them for reasons such as safety and economics both.
I like feeding.
I used to feed all the time years ago with horses.
That's all we had to feed with and you get used to that.
In the winter time we get very deep snow up here in occasions of two, two and a half feet
at times, generally about a foot and a half.
These horses get around much better than a tractor does.
We only have a two wheel drive tractor on the ranch and these horses I haven't been
stuck in the last three winters with them.
We used to feed to the tractor and then a pick up and this is kind of a mud hole down
here so we switched to a team about six years ago I guess.
They're very dependable.
They'll always start.
You get around nicer with them and I don't know I like it.
This winter I had a gas delivery in late October of last year and up to the first day of March
I used 56 gallons of fuel on this total ranch outfit feeding approximately 300 head of cattle.
Although they really have no way to know about it, these two big guys seem to sense Alan
Mulkey's two generations of experience with draft horses.
Alan's dad started it all when Alan was just a baby buckaroo.
As the boy grew, Arthur Mulkey passed on a lifetime of knowledge and experience and Alan
has been adding to it ever since.
More than 20 years ago about the time he started shaving, Alan spent a solitary winter in Canada
feeding 300 head of cattle with a team of horses.
They were his only friends and they were good ones.
Later in the early 70s, Alan learned the joys of logging with horses.
For 10 years he worked with horses in the woods while he raised Pertrans and Belgians
for work and show.
Now Alan's partners are Prince and Dick and the two big horses feed 750 head of cattle
on the Bar 71 Ranch in Central Oregon.
The work goes on for five or six hours every day throughout the long winter and spring.
The rest of the year Prince and Dick help irrigate meadows, yard posts and poles for
corrals and provide transportation to far corners of the ranch.
The reasons why Alan feeds with horses are becoming well known throughout the country
and as a result more and more people are using horses to do the work that tractors, trucks
and other petroleum powered machinery used to do.
Some ranchers and loggers are just starting an acquaintance with big horses, others have
been using them for years but each has his own personal reason for being in the relationship
and it seems like that's what comes out of it when a man gets to know his horses, a relationship.
In Alan Mulkey's case, it has something to do with history.
I don't even remember the first draft horse I ever saw.
I was pretty young.
They've always been a part of my life and I've always loved them.
So while there we didn't hear much about draft horses but now for lots of good reasons they're
making a comeback.
As people learn to understand them, we'll see more and more working draft horses and
I'd like to be a part of that.
We're going to explain the parts of the harness.
I'm sure a lot of you know the parts already and some of you may not be familiar with the
pieces.
This here is the bridle.
These are the blinders.
This is to block the vision toward the rear.
This is the bit of course.
This here is the throat latch.
These here are the draw reins.
This is the collar, goes around the neck.
This is the collar pad.
It's lined with hair.
This here is the hame.
There's a hame strap on the top and on the bottom.
This is the breast strap, pole strap.
This is the tug.
This here is the line.
It's full length goes the outside of the horse.
This is the check.
It comes across to your other horse.
And this is a spreader.
I use leather spreaders.
We started some colts this winter and these are real stout.
The porcelain spreaders sometimes can crack and break and give you just enough slack to
give you problems.
This here is the back band.
This is the billet.
This is the belly band.
These are the quarter straps.
This is the britching.
From here backs the britching and britching pads.
This is the lazy strap.
This is the butt chain hook.
And those are the basic parts of the harness.
If you're going to have draft horses, it's important to have good equipment and keep
it up in top shape.
Your harness, if you just take a little needs foot oil and a rag and wipe it down, keeps
it pliable and helps the life of the harness.
The bits, if it's real cold, it sure makes it a lot more comfortable for the horse if
you take them in the house, keep them warm, or if you can't do that, put them in your
pickup on the dashboard and the defroster and warm it up good for the horse.
Now we're ready to start harnessing the horses.
First thing we start out with is the collar.
This is the collar.
It's a 26 inch collar.
This is the pad.
This is a 28 inch pad.
When you order your pads, get them two sizes bigger than your collars.
In the spring of the year, you get hair buildup on these pads.
Check them, make sure they're clean, no hair buildup so you don't get a sore.
The draft horses, they'll vary in weight sometimes and depend on the season.
And we'll take these pads out and just work them with the collars until we get them worked
down a little bit again.
And check your collars, make sure there's no buildup.
Wipe them down with a glove every day and keep them nice and smooth and slick.
Oh, Dick.
When you approach your horse, always speak to him so you don't startle him.
First thing we do before we harness the horses in the mornings, we brush them down, curry
them.
Most important spot is the shoulders for the collar sit on.
As you brush them and curry them, you can look for abrasions or sore spots.
Maybe your harness is out of adjustment and you've got a sore spot someplace and it needs
attention.
Then we put the collar on.
There's two ways to put the collar on.
You can either slip it over his head.
This is the bottom part of the collar and this is the top.
And when you slip it over his head, you put it upside down like this and you slip it over
his eyes.
And then when you get behind his ears, you flip it around again.
I don't like to do this because on colts especially, it makes them a little head shy.
So I break the collar apart at the top.
And if you do this, get your collar like this, always hang on to both sides because if you
let the outside flop down, they'll eventually break in two in the bottom.
You just put the collar over, get the pad over and then buckle it at the top.
Hook your rings in on your pad.
When you get the collar on, adjustment on the collar, you need room for four fingers
between the collar and the throat.
This allows the horse to get enough air.
It varies on each horse.
Some horses fill up the collar a little more than the others.
The way you tell if you've got them on a tight pull, you have somebody stand back and watch
and make sure that this collar isn't up, choking the horse off and making a wrinkle in his
neck.
And on the sides, you should be able to run your hand snugly but freely up and down the
collar and top and bottom, even with the hams on.
Now we've got the collar on, we're ready for the harness.
Looks a little confusing, all these buckles and straps.
Take the britching, put it on your right arm.
Take the back band, put it on your right arm.
Reach for the right hame, the right hand, left hame, left hand, ready to put on a horse.
Just set your harness on.
It's fairly heavy so bring it in close to your body.
Lift the right hame right up over the collar.
Then scoot the britch and the back band up on his back.
And then bring your hams, you fasten your hams first and you fasten the buckle with
bottom hame strap.
Check for the top of your hams, make sure that your hams are level, one isn't higher
than the other.
Buckle this up, get it fairly snug, put your shoulder right against the tug here and get
it up so you aren't rocking the collar on the horse's neck.
Pull your hame strap, get your breast strap, bring it over, hook it in your ring.
Then you put your pole strap on, just snap it right here, your breast strap, put it between
your two front legs, get your belly band, hook your belly band up, go back, scoot your
britch and back, hook up your quarter straps.
Now we're ready for the adjustments of the harness.
We'll get this bridle lines out of the way so you can see a little better.
Set on the other side of the hame.
When you adjust your harness, like I said before, you want to make sure you have four
inches between your collar and your throat.
Have room between your collar and your neck, same top and bottom, so you can move your
hand freely.
Then your breast strap, there should be room for the motion of the neck yoke to work back
and forth but still have it high enough so it doesn't bump his knees.
Then this part here is a draft on the collar.
Your tug should come right across your draft, it's the wide part of the collar where the
leather pad is.
Your draft should come right off that, off the point of the shoulder, between the point
in the back.
The draft comes back with the tug, come back with the belly band.
Belly band is probably the second most important adjustment on the harness.
If you have the belly band too tight, it will make the top of his neck sore, if you have
it too loose, the slope of his shoulders, when he pulls, it will pull the collar back
and choke your horse off.
You can run out of air and you can't pull.
So it's important to have the adjustment just right.
The best way to do this is to have somebody off the side, watching pull and there should
be a slight bow in your tug.
That way it's adjusted right, otherwise it's pretty hard to tell every horse varies so
much.
The pull strap, when your pull straps curve ahead, should be about halfway between the
belly band and his back legs.
If it's too far back, it restricts the movement of his hind legs and it will make sores on
him.
He's got to have free motion so he can move, travel good.
If you have it too far ahead, it will hook up on your belly band.
So when it's curved forward, it should be approximately halfway between the back legs
and the belly band.
The britchin should come down past the point of the hip, but not too far down.
If you get too far down when he tries to back up, pull the wagon back, it will pull his
hind legs out from underneath him.
So just get it off or it won't come back off the top of the point of the hip and it will
set right there.
Now we're ready to put the bridle on.
Let's get the bridle here back on this side.
You take the lines, set them up on his back, get the draw rein, put the bridle on his wrist
and draw rein.
Undo the halter, put it back on his neck so he don't step off.
On a cold or strange horse is real important.
These older horses don't matter much.
On these big horses, this horse is 17 hands, the other one is 17.2.
A hand is 4 inches.
When you measure a horse, it's 4 inches.
This horse is about 17 hands.
It's sort of nice to have them trained so that they'll lower their head for you.
Just put your hand on top of your head.
Just ask him to bring it down a little bit.
It takes a little while to train them to do this.
You have to have patience and ask for a little bit and just get a little bit and then give
him relief.
When he lowers his head, take the bridle, get a hold with the right hand, get a hold
a bit with the left hand.
Just slide it in easy.
Don't bump his teeth too much.
Get this ear in the bridle, get the other ear in.
Now your blinders, you want them back off the corner of the horse's eyes so he doesn't
make his eyes sore.
Want them wide enough so he has plenty of vision forward.
You want the brow band so there's some room there for it to work.
Make sure your draw reins back here, not underneath his ears.
Come back here, fasten the draw rein up.
There's a little ring here so he'll have freedom of his head.
Get the draw rein strap.
Make sure it's under the lines so you have lines for you to work.
Get the ring, snap it in.
This keeps his head in the position it should be.
You want to make sure he's got room to work his head a little bit but can't get his head
down, it helps keep his head tucked.
Put the throat latch on.
Now we're ready to hitch the two horses together.
Now we're ready to hook our two horses together.
We bring the check over.
This is where a check hooks onto a line.
The line goes on the outside of your team.
This check hooks onto your line.
From this point on, your check should be about six inches longer than your line.
That's a good place to start out.
You bring your check over, hook it to the bit.
Get your other check, bring it over, hook it to the bit.
I want to point out something here, a real safety feature.
Some people use snaps.
Now, the horses rubbed on each other, the snap might get hooked in this horses bridle
or brake and you can have a runaway.
I always like to use buckles because they're real dependable, they're solid.
Might keep you from having a wreck someday.
I put Prince here, he tucks his head a little better than Dick so I put his check over Dick's
check, that encourages Dick to tuck his head just a little bit more.
Now we're ready to hook the wagon.
Before we hook up, we're going to show you some basic parts of the wagon.
Most of these parts apply to anything you hook up to.
This is the neck yoke, it's 42 inches long.
It goes on the end of the tongue like that.
This neck yoke's first thing you hook up to your team.
It goes back against the neck yoke latch on the bottom.
I never put a pin or anything in this, if you have to unhook, it's a good safety feature
because the horses can walk right off the end of their tongue.
Back here, we got the double tree.
The neck yoke and the double tree should be the same length.
These are 42 inches, that allows your horse to work parallel instead of catty cornering
each other or cockeyed.
Your single trees, single tree is 36 inches long.
This allows the horse enough room to work free between the tugs.
It varies on the size of the horse.
A smaller horse can take a smaller single tree.
These are the butt chains here, hooks on the tug.
The tongue from the pin, double tree pin here, to the latch in the end, the neck yoke latch,
is 9 feet 10 inches.
The overall length of the tongue is about 12 feet 8.
I guess we're ready for some horses.
Back son, back, pull.
We'll hook our neck yoke up.
Take the end of the neck yoke, take the pull strap, hook it in the ring, hook it in the
breast strap, bring it over to the other horse, do the same thing, pull strap and breast strap.
Then you take the end of the tongue and bring it through the ring.
Pull back, pull back, that a boys.
While I'm up here in front I want to give a few tips.
Old Prince here, he's got a bad habit of opening his mouth and sticking his tongue out.
So we put a little wire cavus on him.
He's pretty hard on the bit.
He really likes to pull on the bit.
You want draft horses to get a hold of the bit, but Prince, he gets a little anxious
and really gets on the bit.
So this wire cavus makes him a little softer, keeps his mouth shut.
If you've got fresh horses, just brought them in and you're going to start feeding cattle
or something, it's a good idea to have an old driving bit around or maybe a wire cavus
made.
That way you've got a little more control of them with a snaffle bit like this.
They like these bits, but they can just grab a hold of them and pretty well take off if
they want to.
Now that I've got Prince hooked up, I always hook him up first.
He's the gentlest horse of the two.
Then I get a hold of my lines and come back around here.
Hook up the inside tug first and stay between your horse and the double tree.
Don't get behind your double tree.
The horse steps forward, you might pin you in here.
Get a hold of the outside.
The butt chains might point this out while I'm here.
If you're helping somebody and they say drop two links, drop three links, say if you drop
three links, you just drop them like that, hook them over the end and then just hook
that in the single tree.
Then just hook this in the butt hook.
Good to have your horses hooked as close to your single tree as you can.
You don't want them bumping their legs into the single tree, but you want them as short
as you can to the wagon.
Get them up nice and tight.
That way you don't have to worry about them walking off the end of the tongue.
Well let's get to work.
Sometimes it doesn't seem like it, but most horses aim to please.
They want to do the right thing, but you have to let them know what that is.
So what you want when you're driving is the best possible communications between you and
your horses.
There are two ways to communicate.
One is with voice commands, which we'll talk about in a few minutes.
And the other is with the lines.
There are several ways to hold your lines.
I hold mine coming out on the bottom of my hands with the slack up over my thumbs.
No matter how you hold your lines, it's important to keep tension on your lines at all times
while you're driving.
Your horses should be trained to stop on a loose line.
Traditionally the driver stands on the right side of the wagon next to the brake.
Normally the smaller, faster horse works on the left, so standing on the right side gives
you more control over him.
We're going to give you a few pointers of working draft horses by yourself.
Whoa, boys.
Whoa.
Whoa.
A good team can be a lot of help if you're feeding cattle by yourself or going through
a gate.
If you're feeding cattle by yourself, you put the lines up on the headboard and let the
horses go off by themselves, and you kick the hay off.
If you go through a gate, always make sure you've got your lines where you can get a
hold of them handling quick.
Just put them off this side and whichever side you're going to stand on in the gate.
Just stay there and you can get a hold of the lines.
On your voice commands, always be consistent.
Don't let the horse anticipate what you're doing.
If you're hitching or unhitching, make sure that he goes by your commands, not what he's
thinking.
Have him wait until you give a command, and always make sure you're consistent about your
command.
A certain cue for a walk, we'll use it consistently or trot for consistently.
Always say, whoa, real quietly unless you need to.
Raise your voice.
Whoa, son.
Up step, easy boys.
Whoa, whoa.
Always stay on the side that you put your lines on.
That was a little fast, but your horses are sensitive to the tone of your voice.
They don't understand so much what you're saying as how you're saying it.
If you do have to raise your voice, make sure you carry it out with authority.
Safety is very important on the ranch, so I'd like to pass on a few tips that might
help you avoid an injury.
Remember what I said earlier about controlling a young, fresh, or waspy horse with a driving
bit or wire calvice.
If you're fresh, just starting out, don't try something without good advice or education.
Also, when you're driving young horses or ones you aren't used to, it's wise to keep
passengers off the wagon.
Kids love to ride on hay wagons, which can turn work into family fun, but kids and horses
create safety problems you should keep in mind.
Educate your kids to respect their big friends, even the ones that seem completely gentle.
Kids should never stand in front of a hitched team or a team that's being hitched.
Keep the kids in the back or side of the horses.
Also, when the kids are riding on the wagon, make sure they're not in a position that they
can fall and ruin the fun.
I mentioned before how sensitive the team is to your voice commands.
Make sure your kids and passengers are aware of your particular signals so that they don't
make noises that confuse the horses.
Now we're ready to put the horses up and we're going to show you how to do the lines up and
unharness the horses.
First I have to unhook the lines from the bit.
Then we undo the draw rein.
We bring line up between the two hams and over the hame ring.
And usually you just put the check on the bottom, drape over twice, take the bridle
off, put it on the hame like this, put your lines through the ring and over the hame and
it ties it all together so it stays in a nice neat package.
Now we're ready to start unharnessing the horse.
We'll start from the back and work forward the same as when you unhitch.
You start at the back, unhitch your buck chains, go to the front, take your neck yoke off,
and the same as taking the harness off.
Start at the back, the quarter straps, take it off the pole strap.
Then we go up to the belly band, undo the belly band, take the pole strap off, hook
it on the opposite side on the hame, take your breast strap off, hook it to the opposite
side, undo your hame strap last, grab a hold of the hame on the opposite side, get a hold
of the back band, get a hold of the britchin, and it all comes off right there.
There's several ways to hang up a harness but they're all basically the same idea.
You hang it up just like you'd put it on a horse.
You start out with the hames, put the hames up, the back band, and the britchin.
It's complicated but that's about all there is to it.
We're going to show you a few pointers on starting colts.
This isn't complete by any means but this is some of the things we do at the ranch.
If you're a novice, don't start out with colts.
Get a good, gentle broke team that you can use and do something with.
Then after you get the feel of a team and you want a little action, you can start with
a colt.
We start out with a running W. You put it around his girth.
Depends on the horse.
This colt's real gentle and that's a nice way to start but they aren't all that way.
If you've got a pretty waspy colt, you might want to tie up a hind leg so you don't kick
you.
Just put this on like you're cinching up a saddle.
Get plenty snug.
Then to get the hobbles, put one of these hobbles around each foot, front foot.
Put the D at the back.
This is a real nice colt, he's sure gentle.
Now we're ready for the rope.
We're going to work this colt on the left side so we tie it hard and fast.
On the right side, oh son, step over, step over, step over, step over, oh son, atta boy.
It's nice to rub these colts, keep them gentle.
We'll tie hard and fast on this side, we'll tie a bow one so we can get it undone.
Might be a lot of pressure on this.
Run it through a hobble, up through the belly band.
Toss it over on the other side where it's free, oh son, step over, step over, step over,
step over, oh son.
Get it through the other hobble and up through the ring.
You can see that makes a running W. Running W helps you have control.
These colts can grab the bit and just take off.
With this running W, if you say whoa and pull him, it will pull his front feet out from
underneath him.
Always make sure he's in a soft corral so you don't damage the colt.
That way when you say whoa, you can use a little authority and make him listen.
Come on son.
Come on.
Come on.
Have patience with your colts first, they don't know exactly what you want.
Always walk between your lines, it's the safest spot so you don't get hung up and don't wrap
anything around your hand or you can get hung up.
This can happen pretty fast.
If the colt gives us any trouble, we'll just yell whoa and pull on the running Ws.
It really doesn't take that much pressure to pull his feet out from underneath him when
he's moving.
Whoa son, back, whoa back, whoa, this colt's doing real good.
Easy.
Come on, get your line up under his hands there and encourage him a little bit.
Get up.
Get up.
Cut it out.
Easy.
You do this for two, maybe three days in the corral.
Make sure you can steer him, guide him and stop him.
I think we'll put the harness on, tie him into an old horse.
I'm working a little bit.
Whoa son, whoa son, whoa son, whoa kid.
Here's your new working partner here.
We're going to hook him together now.
Always take two lead ropes, one of them.
We hook in the halter here and tie back to the old horse's billet right here.
The old horse will help you hold the colt but if the colt pulls the wagon on him, he
isn't going to stand there and take it.
But if you tie him back, this old horse can help hold his head.
Whoa son.
Then we'll hook him together.
I got the colt still tied up.
I'll leave him tied until the last.
Always get over here and hook your old horse up last in case the colt makes a jump or something
that doesn't bother your old horse.
A guy can use a jockey stick too.
It's a stick with a snap on each end and put in his halter and put in the breast string
here.
It helps.
You can tie their britching together too to keep their fannies together.
The last thing we want to do is untie our colt from the fence.
This is outside lead rope.
We're going to run it through the breast track ring on the hame.
Hook it over the hame like this.
Then in case of emergency, we can just grab it and we can get a hold of the colt.
Oh son.
Now we're ready to drive him.
There are several things that will help you get your colt hitched to the wagon.
Earlier we tied his head back to the old horse, but that doesn't solve the problem of the
tail end which never seems to be where you want it.
You can get some control by tying the two horses' tails together.
This is another way a steady old horse can be a big help with a colt.
Go park your wagon in the corner so the colt doesn't have any room to move around.
He's caught between the fence and the old horse.
When you're hitching up, always hitch your old horse first and pay extra attention to
safety.
Don't get in a position where the skittish young horse can cause an injury.
Oh son.
When we're working a colt, we like to use a fiberglass prod.
This way you can touch the horse, not stir the old horse up, or you can get pretty severe
with one of these things.
It sure works better than a buggy whip.
A buggy whip is good to have with you in case you have to get after both of them.
But the buggy whip stirs up the old horse too.
We're going to make a little circle here.
Easy.
Come on kid.
For the first few days, drive your colt in a crel where he has some control.
Also when you first train your colt, work him on all of the sides.
You want him to feel comfortable on either side so you can team him up with any horse.
There's a lot of work to be done on the ranches of America and about as many different ways
to do it as there are good ideas.
Jerry Miller has his own reasons for using draft horses with his unique feeding system.
In this area, it's a lot muddier than anywhere else I've ever lived.
For that reason, this team of horses gets the job done a lot simpler and without less
frustration than anything I've ever used down here.
You're not stuck, you're not worried about putting chains on with mud dripping down your
eyes and your ears and your neck.
It just works a whole lot better for me.
I don't know if it's for everybody but I sure like it the way it works for me.
We've been feeding for about six or seven years these draft horses and we used to use
the little square bales in the wagon.
When you use them little square bale system in the wagon, the team gets to rest while
you're doing all the work.
You're bucking the bales on the wagon and then you're taking it out and you're feeding
and you're working.
The team does a lot of resting.
This system, the team don't rest.
They're either going forwards or they're going backwards or they're outside enrolling for
the cows.
If there's any resting to be done, I do it.
I like that part of it.
The heaviest thing I lift in the morning is that harness that goes on them and I don't
lift bales tall anymore.
Sure helps my back and I like that part.
Draft ranchers can't afford a different piece of equipment for every little job so versatility
is very important.
Al, Jerry and a number of other Oregon buckaroos take issue with anyone who thinks the word
versatile doesn't apply to working draft horses.
One thing I like about this is it's so versatile and around here we get quite a bit of snow
sometimes and you notice this has got runners underneath it and when you get deep snow and
it packs good, you can take these wheels off, it just takes a few minutes and then you can
use the runners and that's really a slick way to do it then.
It's lower to the ground and it slides real smooth over the ice and snow and then when
the snow lays, well then you can put the wheels back on.
They say necessity is the mother of invention.
Well, that is sure true on the Oxbow Ranch.
Up here, Faye Burrell feeds with a regular wagon which can make for some big problems
in the winter but the Oxbow hands know what to do with big problems.
They get together and come up with solutions and here's one that works.
Yeah, this bobsled, they made it right here at the shop and it's just pipes.
These runners are all just big pipe and it's really neat, smooth riding, pulls easy, little
noise if you happen to hit gravel or dirt but other than that it runs nice.
Don't take half an hour to put the rack on this.
This is the back end, see, you couple it on right behind that front runners and your rack
sets right up on them rims.
That's about all there is to it and away you go.
Yeah, works nice.
Dave Hulick of the Bentz Ranch has his big fuzzy friends help him do just about everything
you can think of summer and winter.
When the snow starts piling up up here then we have a couple other pieces of equipment
we go to start using.
This is our bobsled that we use three to four months a year.
The main reason we use it, it pulls easy and it rides real smooth.
Makes easy to keep your load on, it's easy to stand on while you're feeding.
It just makes a real good outfit to feed with up here.
One thing you want to remember when you're feeding with a sled is always park it on some
rails so it will be easy to start the next morning.
If they get froze down they're real hard to start the next day.
They're steel plated runners and they'll freeze to the ground real solid so always
park them on a rail when you park them.
This is the other piece of equipment we were talking about earlier, it's a roller to roll
the snow with in the winter time.
When the snow starts piling up around here we get a lot of wind and rather than to start
the cat and plow drifts out that I've created from plowing snow, I just roll this and I
don't have any berms for snow to drift by that way.
To pull this roller I use a four cart which is just a draw bar for a team of horses, about
all it amounts to.
I can hook, I use a gravity feed PMS tank, we use this roller, I can hook regular wagons
to it, I can hook anything that you would hook to a tractor, straight draw bar on a
tractor to this four cart and my team of horses which works real well for us.
Prince and Dick deserve a long vacation when the pastures finally spring to life and the
feeding chores end for the year but no such luck.
As usual there is still work to be done.
Now when you're hooking up I use about an eight foot log chain and I got a slip hook
on each end so I can either hook on two logs and bite in the middle or hook one log and
then hook up short.
When you're hooking up always keep a hold of your lines, if you have to let go of your
lines cradle them in your lap like this so you can get a hold of your horse.
And then just put your chain on like this, hook up, grab your single tree and when you
fix your single tree have your hook so it swivels like this so it doesn't flip your
single tree over and foul your horse.
Don't hook up as close as you can, don't hook so close that the log bumps his legs
and hurts the horse and stay out of the by of the log.
If I was on that side and the horse made a jump he'd hit me because I'm going to be going
out this way.
So I'm all ready to go.
Up step Dick.
Al appreciates the peace and quiet his boys bring to the forest besides they don't blow
smoke drip oil or tear up the forest floor.
We shoo all of our own horses here on the ranch, our saddle horses and our draft horses.
This is a pony shoe, this is a number one saddle horse shoe and this shows you what
princes wear.
These shoes before we get started, oh son, oh son, oh son.
These are our shoes after we work on them.
We put corks on the toe and on the heels.
We use borium rod for hard surfacing these corks, that helps give a little better traction.
The one cork on this side should run parallel with your shoe so the horse, for two reasons,
so the horse can get a little stability sideways and so the horse can get some relief when
he twists his foot when he's got pressure on it.
These are pads, we use pads in the snow so we don't get big balls on the feet and hurt
his ankles.
We also use truck liners sometimes, these pads are real expensive so we use truck liners,
it's real cheap and we just put the shoe on the truck liner and cut it out and nail it
on.
These pads are reusable though so that helps the price a little bit.
We use number size eight nails and this is an eight shoe.
Draft horse shoes come in six and eights both.
If you're shoeing these big horses and they want to give you a fit, they can really give
you a fit so we're going to show you a few pointers on how to tie their foot up.
This here is a regular saddle horse hobble, you can put this around their ankle and around
their forearm, keep it up.
Or you can have two ropes, one in a loop like this and one full length, the one with the
loop you put on the far side.
Then you get the other rope, put it around the ankle, tie a bowline so it doesn't cinch
up too tight.
Keep it in there nice and tight, bring it up here, come down and cinch it right up,
give me your foot.
You can tie it off here with a slip knot just like that.
You can get it off fast and easy.
Now we'll go to the back end, show you a few pointers back there.
When you put a scotch hobble on the hind end, take your rope, bring it over the neck, tie
a bowline so it doesn't slip up and choke him.
Come back, this rope is nice and soft, cotton rope, it's about 40 feet long.
Come back here, get your horse to step over, rinse.
Work under his ankle, bring your rope through and just pull his foot up and tie it off.
Then you can work on his foot.
Just a couple pointers on how to tie your horse's feet up.
Now we're done with the shoeing tips, I'd like to give you a few final tips on selecting
a team.
When you select a team, it really doesn't matter on the breed.
There's good horses in every breed, the size, the color, it doesn't make any difference
as long as they're sound and a good, gentle team that you can get something done with.
Contact a vet, have him inspect the horses before you buy them.
It's very cheap to get a vet to come out and look at them and it might make a big difference.
When you get the horses, then you're going to be looking for harness and wagons and toboggan
and everything we talked about in this video.
Most states have a draft horse association.
If you contact associations, they'll give you a list of people to contact.
There's a lot of good draft horse people out there that raise draft horses.
For those of us who love horses, these draft horses are a good way to do your work.
They're quiet and peaceful.
You always got somebody to talk to.
For the reasons we showed you in this video, draft horses make sense and they sure work
for me.
Have fun.