Amish Never Forget

 One day I was driving down a country road a few miles from home and saw a mare with a colt in a small pasture.  The Amish family, who lived on that farm, were all out in the pasture admiring their new addition.  I slowed down, wound down my truck window and called out, "Nice Colt!" They all waived, with big smiles. I didn't know this family at all, but drove by occasionally to look at their horses.

A few years later, I bought a team of horses from this family at the sale barn. They asked to use the horses they sold me, that next spring, for plowing.  I was more than happy to oblige.
They invited me to come plow for a day with a six-horse-hitch, that included my two horses.

Stonewall and Jackson

(the horses I bought from this family)

When I was on their farm, I thought I should ask if they remembered a guy stopping by, one day years ago and hollering, "Nice Colt."  I doubted they would know what I was talking about.  If they did remember, it would surprise them that it was me.  Oh no! That's not how it works with the Amish!  Not only did they already know it was me; they told me, "You know what we were doing that day? We were counting the starlings on the telephone lines."

Most of us Americans are more familiar with celebrities or sports stars than our neighbors.  As a letter carrier, I have found that many people have no idea of their neighbors names. The Amish, on the other hand, are completely community oriented.  Once they know your name, they never forget it!

That day plowing and other experiences I had on their farm are part of the stories I share in my novel, Under the Heavens, http://www.tinyurl.com/underheavens
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A glimpse into "Under the Heavens"

        An Amish man appeared, walking toward them on the road.  When the man got within earshot, he called, “Sam, David, you boys are just on time!  My tractor is stuck, and I was going home to get my horses to pull it out. Why don’t we see if your grandpa’s horses can do it?”  Without saying any more, the older man jumped into the wagon alongside Lenny.  Sam headed his wagon through the nearest gate into a field, where they found a tractor half sunk in mud.
        “Whose boy are you?” The Amish man looked at Lenny, waiting for an answer. The boy’s face got hot; he didn't know how to answer that question.  Sam bailed him out by answering, “He is Jake’s stepson.”  The man gave a disapproving look, and nothing more was said.  Lenny assumed the Amish man already knew about him.

        They pulled up beside the helpless tractor; everyone jumped out and, in a few moments, they had both massive horses unhooked from the wagon, in place and ready to pull.  This was something Lenny hadn't seen before.  Sam held his horses in check as the older man mounted his tractor, starting it up with a pop, causing both horses to jump.  Lenny doubted these animals could pull out a heavy-metal  machine.

In a scene that filled his heart with wonder, both horses arched their massive black necks and heaved forward.  Muscles rippled in their shoulders and rumps and coursed down through their heavy boned legs.  One of the giants shook his thick mane and snorted as though gathering his strength, which seemed to spur on the other.  These horses dug their hooves in mud as the tractor wheels spun a little, and then took hold, spinning up out of holes it created when attempting to free itself.  Sam called his horses to a stop when the tractor rolled onto solid ground.

Lenny found himself letting out a victory shout when it happened, and the others all looked at him as if to see what was wrong.  Without much more than a nod, the older man drove off to finish his fieldwork as soon as the horses were unhooked.  His cousins hitched them to the wagon again,without a comment, they headed back down the road.  Lenny couldn't keep quiet anymore,“Wow, that was amazing!” he called from his luggage seat in the back.  Sam and David both turned and looked at him as though surprised to hear him speak. “That was so cool! Is that the first time you've had horses pull out a tractor?”  Both Amish boys gave Lenny a blank look.
          After a long, awkward silence, finally, the older brother spoke up, “Everyone around here knows Grandpa’s horses; they've pulled out lots more than tractors!”

Here is the link for more info

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Work Harness

        This is a drawing that was made for, Under the Heavens, but didn't get used so I thought I would share it on Amish Horses Blog.  It is a diagram about work harness and shows the names of harness parts. If you notice, the driving lines are crossed between horses. In this way the driver has a line to the right side of each horse in his right hand, and a line to the left side of the horse's bits in his left hand.

These horses have a strap under their tails called "butt breeching" by draft horsemen in Iowa. This strap is used when the horses are backing a load, or going downhill. The weight of the wagon pushes on this strap.

My own horses, here on the right, have on what we call "hip breeching." That strap is just above the tail and works just the same as the butt breeching.

Most Amish, in the Kalona area, use the hip breeching style on their work horses. The Amishmen that sold me horses and showed me how to work with a team all used this style. One of them said, "Horses like hip breeching better, they can get under a load and really push on it."  I am impressed at how much these guys notice with their horses. On many occasions I've heard comments about what horses "like" and I believe they know what their talking about. The man I bought Karma from told me that she loved her collar.

       Above, you can see the wagon tongue up between my horses. The piece crossing the tongue is a "double-tree" or "evener" (single tree for one horse.) You can see straps coming from the collar area, down toward the double-tree, these are called "tugs" or "traces." At the end of the tugs are heel chains, these are hooked to the double-tree. This is the mechanism for pulling a load with horses so they can share the work.

See the red pole between my horses? That is called a "neck yoke" and ties the front end of two horses together at the collar. My wagon tongue can be seen below the neck yoke, it slips into a ring on the neck yoke and is the connection between the breeching and the load, to hold it back, or to back it up.

In this picture you can see the front end of the tugs coming from the thickest part of the collar. The tug is attached to metal bars, called "hames" these hames lay in a grove in the collar. The collar is a comfortable leather oval that horses push against.

       Horses actually push loads by leaning into their collars.  We call it "pulling a wagon" because they are in front of the wagon, but they really are pushing.
       Harness in other regions of America are constructed slight differently, and in Europe work harness looks very different. This is typical Iowa work harness.

       I hope you enjoyed learning a little about harness and hitching horses. If you did, check out Amish Horses Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AmishHorses

Under the Heavens {Behind the Scenes of the Photo shoot}

Sunday was the big day for Robyn Rasmussen from Ruby Ellen Photography to do the cover photo shoot for the first book in the Amish Horse Series, "Under the Heavens". Take a peek at some of the behind the scenes look at the horses and their owner, the author of the book, Tom Nye.

 More photos of the horses with the actors standing in as Lenny and Leah, to come later. Keep coming back for more!