All about mule shoes

Off Topic Homesteading
#21

I took motorhome carvans around Mexico and Alaska for 10 years. One old boy from Georgia told me; you talk like a yankee but, you make sense like a southerner. I considered it a complement.

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#22

They say more people died in the civil war from starvation than the war itself,it would be far worse now days,hardly anybody has any reserved food , living from paycheck too paycheck, Think you are crazy if you mention any thing this reservational,what good are guns with no food too maintain strength.

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#23

Good morning all.

Just so yall will know I’m not trying to pull your leg below is a video of a saddle bred hinny with a close up view of the hoofs .

Around here it is pronounced like " henny "

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#24

I like it!!! Maybe that will be my next try at alternative transportation. Think on it. You ride all day then turn her out to pasture and next morning she is ready to go. No cutting, splitting, chunking, and drying of wood. I may have to leave for Argos a couple of days sooner, but those make up the days of preparing wood. Oh and by the way, when I do show up I will be called “Festus” not Tom after Gun Smoke who also road a “henny” TomC
PS And remember the " road apples" will be good biochar for the soil.

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#25

Only problem I see with that Tom is that they still require food when you’re not using them, and they do have a mind of their own. I trained horses for three years in Kentucky and loved every minute of it but during that time I found out that it takes work and a lot of patience to keep horses, or mule, attitude in good shape.

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#26

Hello Wayne
For a little bit I didn’t know what you were talking about when you ask about a hinny.
Here in the Ozarks all the hillbillies call them jennys.

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#27

those aren’t screws, they’re nails. I drove a horse for three years in an amish community (no car). I’ll cut the wood if it comes to that, thanks. We still have a buggy horse though. Don’t use him much on the road now, mostly logging and plowing. The boys drive him for trapping season. We use him on rescue sometimes (rescue squad). Fact is, it’s all work. And the absolute best horses in top shape and big feed are limited to about 50 mi/day and about 500-700 pounds depending on the horse. It works ok for local if you have the time. I think horse and buggy is a wonderful “recreational vehicle”. But I’ll stick to my vehicles as long as I can. By the way Wayne, we call them Jenny’s on this side of the hill too.

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#28

Men and horses working together in 1915. From felling to sorting sawing timber from pulp on the frozen river.

I live 10 miles upstream from the paper mill where I work (it started up in 1898). When I was a kid the river was still full of logs floating by in summer time.

Both my grandfathers made their living from this kind of work. They reached 93 and 94 years of age.

Look at the loads horses are pulling at 2:50 and forward.

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#29

Good morning Billy .

Hope all is well on your side of the mountain .

I have owned several jennys , I gave three away just a couple years ago . Also I have owned and worked several mules years ago. I had one mule born here and still have the mom here at the house. ( I bred the mare horse to a jack to create the mule )

I bred twice for a hinny a few years back but failed on both attempts ( jenny bred to stud horse )

The article below explains the reason the hinny is more rare than a mule .
A donkey has 62 chromosomes, whereas a horse has 64. Hinnies, being hybrids of those two species, have 63 chromosomes and are sterile. The cross breeding works best if the lower number of chromosomes come from the male .

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#30

Good morning JO

Thanks for the video , enjoyed it much.

As a kid I would hang out with my Grand dad and uncle as they were snaking timber. My uncle would be at the farm at the wood pile and me and my Grand dad would be in the forest . Grand dad would hook the mule to a log and send him to my uncle were he wood unhook the log and send the mule back to locate us in the woods .

I wish my log skidder or tractor would self navigate :grinning: .

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#31

JO; That could have been filmed here where I live 100 yr ago ( from what I hear, I’m only 78 ) One story; We have 5 dams on the river that they use to float the logs down to the mill. Because the dams are nearing 100 yr old, they are needing work. They drew the water down on the back water of one dam and out in the old river bed were two large piles of stones. Everyone wondered what the piles were for or had been for. It turned out that the loggers stood on the piles and sorted the logs as they floated down by pushing them with a long pole. I love local history.TomC

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#32

I didn’t know autopilote was an Alabama invention :smile:

Tom, you might want to watch this one. 1970 - last year of log floating work in Skellefte river:

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#33

Thanks for the videos JO.

I bet those loggers sleep very well at night :blush:

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#34

Thanks JO; I love to see how they “use” to do things. The story is that most of the lumber to build Chicago, came out of this area. ( Eventually it burned up in the famous Chicago fire ) The saw mill in Peshtigo Wi. had it’s own dock and ships to ship the lumber to Chicago. The Peshtigo River is so small that I really don’t see how they could float logs down it but I do have some pictures of the logs coming over a falls where we now have a electric power plant. The original growth was some huge white pines. After 100 yr. we are now logging off the second growth and it is mostly pulp wood — some saw logs.TomC

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#35

Gramps used to say that French creek was deeper before most of the land was cleared. The forest was a water capacitor or buffer. Slow release of water through the year. Could be all old timer talk.

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#36

Great stuff JO.I’m sitting in the sawmill office, but still get cold watching. All our “stock” has the same name: CUMMINS

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#37

I can vouch for that benefit to working horses and mules. I had a disk seat break off while I was disking a couple years ago. I lost the lines when I fell down into the disk. If I had done that on a tractor I’d be dead. As it was, I had a good team and they stopped immediately when I yelled “whoa”. I have also slept on the way home a few times and let the horse drive me home----(not an act I fully recommend). There are definately benefits to the horse. They’re great for snow. and mud. and small spaces…

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#38

That is a fascinating vid. I recommend, From stump to ship: A 1930 logging film - YouTube
Sorry, there aren’t any mules shoes in it.

#39

I know I am a little late to this thread but have a question for you sir. I am trying to find out why farriers would have bent the tips of mule shoes as opposed to the straight tips on horseshoes? I am an educator trying to answer this question and google has not been kind and you look like a man that knows what he is talking about. Thank you sir.

#40

You’ve got that right! When Wayne talks, people listen.