svcummins

SV, While I farm somewhat with horses, they are also aided by my 1926 McCormick Deering 10-20; 1939 Farmall H; 1955 Farmall 300; 1959 Farmall 460; 1964 John Deere 3020 and 2016 Farmall 75C. I try to cut my hay with the horses. Stop by sometime and I'll be happy to let ya hold the lines of the team as they knock down some hay. kelly

Where on earth would this "show and tell" happen? I would love to see the horses at work. gobble

Tom, I live in Texas, just south of Austin. Most states have draft horse organizations. Most owners would be happy to let ya come watch and maybe handle their drafts. Our TDHMA (Texas Draft Horse and Mule Association) has "harvest" days or "farm" days which usually involve mowing, plowing, discing, harrowing, etc. Many times the horse owners will let you handle the team.
Last spring my wife and I went to a "play day". We took a mare/gelding team. Our first class was a halter mare class. My wife doesn't/can't run (to trot the horse), so we recruited a high school girl who was there to observe. We found she had riding horse experience and we recruited her to show the wife's mare at a trot. Of course, I'm darn confident of the behavior of my drafts and so have lots of willingness to share 'em. The freshmnan girl ended up driving my team in several events. It was probably a once in a lifetime experience for her, and I think she enjoyed it.
I told her that if she ever felt threatened in school or in life to remember that she was plenty strong to handle about 4,000 pounds of horses and she could probably handle most gals or guys. : ) kelly

Thanks Kelly for your response and suggestion about draft horse events. Yeah, Austin is a long ways from central Iowa. I watched some teams pull the binder and plow out potatoes last year. Very amazing to watch team and driver communicate. One owner driver kept getting after one of his pair, told me he was not leaning into the harness the way the other one was. Any way thanks for posting back. Sounds like you have some wonderfully trained horses. gobble

Some day I?d like to come see your operation and learn about the horses it?s always been a dream of mine to do some farming with horses . I always wanted a team of work horses but grandpa never would give in he?d been walking behind them since he could walk and just couldn?t see why I thought that would be fun .