January 2024 DAPNet E-News welcome
I've been doing this long enough to know that a younger version of myself would have lost my cool. I would have made mistakes and created setbacks that perhaps would have tired me out enough to see the error in my ways. I also know that these mistakes would lead to no positive progression for the horse or our relationship. This morning I didn’t, I think my instincts have finally created a feedback loop that is set in stone and knows better. Or Maybe it was all for a reason and someone was giving me a sign that I needed to do what needed to be done.
Either way, my compromise for the mare was I put a halter on her, hitched her short and threw her collar at her feet muttering a few cuss words and threats of exercise. When I got to Jake he had tailed the fence around him in a nice 1/164 of an acre paddock and he was walking back and forth in it just outside the original pens fence. When I released him from his own built paddock he ran down the hill desperate to catch up with her as if the physical abuse he had just suffered meant nothing.
When I have a horse who is being pushy about food or in general I always say the solution is exercise. If she had been more tired that morning she wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to get where she was going and everyone would have been able to avoid the pain and suffering of wondering if Jake might end up injured or dead.
Out of spite, I came to the conclusion I was going to hitch her single, something I haven’t done in years or possibly ever since I have had her matched with Jake. He always comes along and ends up tied to a tree if we are working single.
It's no secret that my animals are aging out of commercial work, Jake more so. In fact I have been saying he is a working retiree for almost 5 years, hard to believe, but it's true. I haven’t wanted to leave him at the barn and deal with the separation consequences that could potentially occur. I've had this idea stuck in my mind that both him and her would be downright miserable to deal with if separated and asked to perform.
Just another scenario where Carl’s honest advice, given to me over a decade ago, resounded in my head. “Just as soon as you think you got something, they (horses) will humble you again”.
Jake hardly picked his head up from his feed as Molly and I left the barn, but no complaints. Molly worked with intention and attentiveness the whole way around a long exercise course. If anything, She was more responsive than with him next to her. There was a weight that left both me and my mare, we both will remember it tomorrow when we go again.
The point of this story is that I think when Jake got belted right in front of me I made a choice, I think that was Jake’s Gold Watch. I think he really is ready for retirement and she is ready for work. Congratulations old boy, you’ve earned your rest.
Jake and me met on Nov 7th, 2014
February DAPNet Welcome
That brings me to a thought I hadn’t had in a while. During my final conversation with Carl Russell in 2022, nine days before he passed, we talked about the warming winters, the struggle of moving wood off landings that were holding water, or just not freezing at all, no matter how much they were driven on. He recited a story of a mechanized logger telling him that he was “pulling mud” and that the mechanized logger was following that up with “you oughta come see, you would be proud”. At that point, in almost unison, me and Carl rolled our eyes and cursed quietly. The following comments were not so much at all about the equipment used in the woods to make the mess or clean it up. The following conversation me and Carl had was in reference to economic pressures that force good operators to make bad choices. Having a machine that can clean up any mess is no replacement for making the choices which avoid making the mess in the first place. This is true for both mechanized loggers and live power loggers.
Last month I wrote an arguable length welcome about Jake, my elder gelding retiring. Well I'd say that the hardest working law in the world is Murphy’s. 48 hours ago I lost my mare to a twisted gut. The challenge now is to lean in and find the funding to replace them both. If I am being honest there is something about a forced fresh start that I find appealing at this moment with my harvesting business. I don’t say that lightly, I obviously feel a huge weight losing Molly Mo. That mare had a way of never giving up in the collar, I don’t expect I will find that again easily. What I have been reciting to folks who wonder what is next for me is “if you lose your queen in a game of chess, it better be for a good reason, make your next few moves count”.
I hope you all enjoy this month's Enews, I have to go attend to my lonesome gelding and a laundry list of other to do items on the “get John back on track agenda”
March 2024, John goes to Indiana
My own personal connection to the American Belgian Registry is nil, I have no personal history caring two cents about the genetics of an animal other than what is present right in front of me. That has mostly been due to my upbringing in the horse world, Sterling College bought cheap and did not talk about genetic disposition much. Carl Russell hardly ever paid for horses and made quality out of nothing more than a few times. The northeast workhorse scene is just not wealthy enough to look at pedigrees and make decisions based on these factors. I don’t hold some clueless opinion that the genetic markers are not valuable, all I am trying to say is that I just haven’t been exposed to it.
So, here I am driving into the heart of the American Belgian pulling bred territory, clueless to what I am about to experience. Lucky for me I am a student of the trade and always interested to ask questions and lean into those who have knowledge. Additionally, I had some great guides to help me out. One was Derek O’toole, who really needs no introduction; long time DAPNet member and multiple time presenter at the Draft Animal Power Field Days logging intensives and demonstrations. The other is a friend of Derek’s, Kevin Wagner an Amish horse breeder. Kevin lives down the road from the auction house and breeds for the best pulling genetics around. As with most Amish I’ve met I knew I had a lot of respect for Kevin the minute I shook his hand. The way he holds himself, the way he spoke to me, his openness to Derek and myself to work his horses. He is invested in these animals in a way that really strummed a chord for me. I just don’t find that connection when you talk to English folks and it just resonates. We went straight to talking horses and working horses and didn’t stop until we left three days later. It was quite a surreal experience, like something new had been seen or a next chapter to my book had been opened.
Horses in these communities are like family, they have histories, names, reputations and it is not only the one farmer or a few farmers who know it. The whole community knows these things and talks about them. Sometimes, as an outsider, you get oddly comfortable talking about horses in such a way that you get caught assuming that the topic is a horse but this time it's actually a human. Easier to sit back and listen attentively and ask questions when you can and know you won’t catch it all.
The day of the auction was an exciting day, I have never been to a horse auction and I had only brought a modest envelope of cash. I had little hope that I would be able to turn this modest amount of money into my new skidding horse. I had brought the money thinking I might be able to use it as a down payment for a private sale. Either way I entered the auction with an eye for finding some horses that I liked and might fit my budget, on the block. I looked around the stalls and tried to select the horses that had the vaguest pedigree or lacking details all together. These were the horses I assumed would go cheap, but what that meant, I didn’t know
Personally I always have this moment of anxiety when it comes to new purchases. The waves of questions, shoulda coulda woulda??? I’m sure some of you can relate if not all of you at one time or another. This horse came to me as a wild card and the more I learn and spend time with him the more I like him. My new horse name is Ted, Ted’s a good horse just like everyone told me he was. Kevin decided quite quickly that although he believed that he had purchased a great colt for a fair price at the sale. After what I spent on Ted he believed that I had purchased the “buy of the sale”.
I will close this story with a very personal moment while I was out in Indiana. The day after I bought Ted; Kevin, Derek and I moved him over to Kevin’s farm from Nathan’s, where he’d been staying. We threw a sidebacker harness on him with the new collar I had bought the day of the sale. We put Ted in the furrow next to a 3 year old and a 5 year old, both good up and coming horses. I would describe the way that he handled that hitch with a single adjective - automatic. He worked steady in the furrow and showed that mentally he handles work very well. He didn’t get spooked the same way the younger animals did when we walked past a gas powered welder blaring exhaust. Everytime something new would appear for this gelding he handles it with a baseline of calming ease.
About an hour into this plowing session I was making rounds by myself on the corn field when Derek showed back up from his trip to the harness shop. I gave him the plow to make some rounds and try the new critter out himself. As I stood at the end of the furrow watching my new horse walk away I felt a familiar tug on my backstrap and a voice wandered into my head that hadn’t visited me in a little while.
“There is no doubt,
Mr. Jones,
That the sound
of a moldboard
slicing through soil,
muffled footsteps,
in cadence of eight,
and the odorous medley
of horse sweat
and freshly turned Earth,
complimenting
the physical connection
to living power,
moving in unison
to your silent command,
will touch something deep inside.
Bank that,
it is the value
that will support you
as you leave the readers
and bean counters
in the dust... “
Of their Personal Denial. Carl B. Russell 8/16/2014
Check! Challenging myself brought not only new friends and opportunities to my doorstep. It brought courage and desire to my heart where it had been lacking prior. New fire has been lit and I am so thankful I didn’t shy away from life when things got rocky. Thank you Derek, Kevin, Nathan, Ricky, Geordie, Zoe, Paul, Susan and Carl. I couldn’t have done this without you all.