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Horse Logging

Started by highway, December 17, 2015, 08:25:46 AM

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rjwoelk

Very nice. I use to go into our valley and get firewood, the quietness, and the echoing was somehow soothing.  I used my daughters gelding for dragging out the logs. 850 lb arabian dally around the saddle horn and was he game to go.
Lt15 palax wood processor,3020 JD 7120 CIH 36x72 hay shed for workshop coop tractor with a duetz for power plant

dustintheblood

Now seeing Tucker and Oz makes me miss Maggie and Amos.  That mom & son were a great team around here.  Same Belgians as you have.  Maggie was particularly good as a single hitch in those hard to reach places. 

Sold them a number of years ago when I got married and suddenly became an overnight dad to three boys.  The horses were my kids for many years, but as time went on they were just not worked as much when my focus became raising boys.   A fellow nearby got em and uses them for field work and a little bit in the woods - a good home. :'(
Case 75C, Case 1494, RangeRoad RR10T36, Igland 4001, Hardy 1400ST, WM LT40HD, WM Edger, ICS DH Kiln

Dakota

I watched all the videos again.  I love seeing good horses work.  Thanks again for sharing.
Dave Rinker

ppine

Mules in particular can learn their jobs and make a turn without anyone driving them. If something bad happens they will stop and wait instead of running in panic.  Logging with horses is a lot of work, but one of the great ways to make a living. I wish had done more of it.
Forester

maple flats

The first video, great by the way, reminded me of when my brother and I used to log for firewood using horses. Our routine once we had a route established was that I dropped the trees, and we used 1 horse to pull the logs out by itself. My brother stayed in the field to unhook the horse and turn it back around. He would walk back and I'd have the next log bucked. I turned the horse around, backed it up and hitched the log on. The main issue was that I couldn't rattle the chain as I connected it to the horse, that was his signal to go. If the chain made noise he headed out and I had to wait for my brother to send him back in. Fortunately that rarely happened. Our log road ran between about 500' and 1500' in length, on essentially level wet ground. In the field my brother had his tractor and he piled the logs as high as he could with that. Then when the snow started to melt and the woods got too wet, we cut the wood from the landing and split it. In our busiest years we brought out between about 50 and 80 full cord, most we burned but some we sold (My brother, Father and I each had an outdoor wood fired furnace at that time. Now only my brother has one, he no longer has horses and he uses a tracked skid steer with a Fransgard 4000 3pt log winch when needed. I still burn wood, about 1 cord at home and 3-4 cord in my evaporator.
Logging with horses was a great way to get the logs out. The way I spoke of only worked for 2 of the horses he had over the years and only with one horse in the team. He had 4 or 5 different teams, but only 1 team at a time.
When the horse returned, If I was still bucking or limbing, the horse stopped maybe 50-75' away and waited. When I'd shut off the saw and sort of call him, He'd then walk the final way in.
Each time we started a new route, my brother came in and we'd drop the first tree, buck it into 10-12' on heavier logs  (maybe 14" up to 2' butt end) and about 16' on lighter logs (under x14" roughly), then My brother, after I hooked up the horse, would hop on and ride the horse riding on top of the harness. After 2 or 3 trips the horse was good to come back in by itself. None of our tractors ever could do that!
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

brewdog

MUST BE ,more horse people on here still use mine for wood and haying

sandsawmill14

we have a neighbor that still logs part time with horses he has some nice black percherons and belgians  but he always works them as a team  ???  he was dragging 16-18" dia sticks 8' long out to the road on day and was stopped letting the horses blow when we were passing by on the road so we stopped to talk a min and my brother ask him why he didnt work them single in the small stuff he was dragging then he wouldnt have to stop  ??? he said he had never thought about that  but he still drags every stick with the team  :) looks like a waste of horse power to me ;D :D but to each his own :)  we always worked a team in the woods one take one log then the next turn would be the other neither horse got hot or winded and when the timber got big enough to need both horse they were there to hook to it or if it was really long turns we would use the team on stuff small as 20" but that was rare :) i am down to only one old mare now as her mate died at about 28 yrs old a couple years back and i dont know if i wil get another team or not i may swap over and get a smaller pair of mules this time (800-1000lb) cant decide  im not very old but its already getting harder to harness a pair of 17 hand 1600 lb pair of horses and at my age one more good young pair will finish me up far as actually working so i just dont know what im gonna do yet ??? :)
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