Horse Logging Hardwoods during Vermont Winter @ Rugged Ridge Forest w/ Amish Bred Percheron Crosses
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- Join us in our forest as we utilize our percheron standardbred cross horses to extract beech trees from our maple sugarbush!
And we greatly appreciate your support by ordering some of our wood-fired, organic, pure Vermont Maple Syrup from ruggedridgeforest.com/
Index:
Intro: 00:00
Philosophy and Some Simple Pulls: 00:50
Some More Challenging and Complex Pulls: 09:47
Conclusion: 19:37
Hilde is our 10 year old Amish bred Standardbred Percheron Cross. She came to us as a 7 year old, broke every which way to ride and drive. We later matched her with Hugo, our 3.5 year Standardbred Percheron who we purchased at 2 years old and have completely trained to ride and drive on the farm. Check out more of their story by enjoying more of our content!
On this logging job, we are logging about seven acres of very steep and rocky mountain side (Rugged Ridge... if you will ; ) to improve the land for maple syrup and sap collection. We just wanted to let a little more sun hit our maples and remove some of the diseased beech from the stand. This allows our maples more access to sun, soil, and water which should lead to increased sugar content and volume. Additionally, this firewood will be used to either process maple syrup or heat homes in our community.
We also utilize heavy equipment to log, however when the circumstances are right, nothing does a better job than the horses. This stand is about half a mile from our landing and very tight with regeneration, steep and stony; therefore we just got the logs out of the woods to the logging road before calling in the skidder to take it the last leg.
We take a ton of pride in our process and the quality of our wood-fired maple syrup and the forest that produces it. We really hope you enjoy this tour of our farm/forest and fall in love with our horses. 
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Now I understand why horses are better for this work than machines. Also have mad respect for the way you care for the land to protect the trees for the future. With your values I wish you much success with your business. Vermont is even more beautiful in Winter than I witnessed in the Fall. I feel like I just had a winter vacation.
Thanks so much for the kind, positive feedback
Amazing animals! Yell at them in French. They love it!
We try not to yelll....
@@ruggedridgeforest7775 joking 🙃 but yes, no yell! I am no horse expert but they seem very sensitive and intelligent.
@@chuch541 that they are!
Love perch crosses, they make for such hardy yet elegant horses. What an amazing skill you are help preserving! Would love to learn how to do this one day. Great video! Keep it up!!!
Thanks so much! The percheron standardbred is quite a practical mix : )
I had no clue until saw this video that there was a horse logging team about 15 minutes away from me here in Vermont just wondering why you were walking in and out all that time well skidding the logs out wouldn't using a logging cart or logging sled with the horses be easier??
@@adam41280 this particular stretch is a little steep and narrow for a cart, and im still spry enough to get away with it
Absolutely fantastic, suck s good job done from all of you! ❤️ I'm really glad to see happy horses doing what they are made for. Oh my god how I miss to work with the horses like that. Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much for all the kind words and support!
josh
I stumbled on your video of Hugo and just had to see how he's doing.
I'm impressed. You and your mare are teaching him very well. He's got a good, willing nature, which can easily turn into a nervous horse.
Thank ya kindly! He is super confident, i love him
Augie and I loved learning about the horses and seeing how you work with them. Your narration is on point with Ken Burbs! We hope to visit this sugaring season. :)
Would love to have ya! Glad ya found us
Extraordinary - such great scenery and horsemanship. I'm hoping to do some hobby maple sugaring and horse logging on our Northwoods WI land one day. This inspires me to continue the pursuit.
Good luck and enjoy! It aint the fastest or the cheapest way to do it, but it is the best by nearly ever metric!
Great video
Thanks very much!
awesome video
Thank you kindly
Good practice to let them work without blinders. They get more dependable this way as they are hardly fazed by anything after a while. My experience at least.
between channeling sticks into their eyes and getting them angsty at whats going on around them, no blinders is the way to roll : )
Worcester Mass here...
Greetings! What do you all call folks from Worcester? I'm trying to get worcesterians to catch on in these parts
People feom worcester. Lol
And just think, that's only 2 horse power!
I enjoyed your video. Looks like a good team you're developing. I am surprised to see that you don't use blinders. I 've watched a lot of other horse logger's videos and the all use blinders to focus the horses and protect their eyes from branches. Have you used blinders on this team before?
I dont like blinders myself for several reasons
1. They make a horse less spooky by not showing them whats going on around them. Id rather my horses be less spooky knowing whats going on around them
2. It actually funnels twigs into the eyes as much as it protects from a branch. If a horse moves forward into a twig that would miss its eye by an inch, the blinder could direct it right in
3. More tack, more cost, more stuff to worry about and dial in.
4. Horses that dont use blinders can use them. Horses who only use blinders may become dependent on that security and dont function well without
I think alot of amish over the road horses run them so they dont get spooked by big trucks overtaking. The amish also tend to run young horses, then sell them in their prime. For that reason they may just use them out of convenience, those horses are used to it, and so most folks have blinders on their tack to accomadate for that market of horse.
Ask 10 horsemen and youll get 10 different philosophies, but thats mine : )
Do you run horses and utilize blinders yourself?
I like how you babble on about health and safety while acting quite the hoolie.. funny
Life is either a daring adventure... Or nothing at all
-Hellen Keller
Could you advise some nice shop in the internet, to buy horse harness different models? Thanks!
I buy from the amish in ohio. Call them up and they will send a catalog. Wonderful folks to deal with. Bowman Harness Shop out of ohio. The best over the phone customer service you could hope for
@@ruggedridgeforest7775 Thank you very much!!!
I think Hugo’s mouth is tender, look into that…….
What gives you that impression? He is a youngster still "chomping at the bit"... he hasnt quite forgotten about it being in his mouth yet, unlike my mare, Hilde
Thanks for the feedback, just trying to better understand
@@ruggedridgeforest7775 Oh, my goodness. And here I was enjoying in video after video how responsive and soft his mouth is!!
@@archeanna1425 under saddle we pretty much neck rein in a snaffle. Hes a pretty soft and easy guy