Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) of Horse logging

What is the best horse for horse logging?
Logging is a vary demanding and athletic occupation for a horse. It takes a strong, intelligent and calm horse to make a good logging horse. Draft type breeds are preferred for logging as they have been bred for hundreds of years for heavy work. In a general sense draft horses have a calm disposition and are heavy boned to endure the tremendous demand placed on their physique. Although draft breeds are the convention, many crossbred horses with draft backgrounds are as good or better than purebreds. Because of the many variables in types of logging, size of people and types of horses, other considerations such as the convenience smaller horses have over large horses for cost of maintenance and ease of harnessing or the availability and price of horses in a certain locality, what a person starts with and what a person needs may or may not be what you can afford or will eventually end up with. My favourite saying is 'You can't pay too much for a broke horse'. If you can find a horse that you can put to work the next day, you will be money ahead in no time, recovering your initial investment and earning a wage. Too many times near disaster is the result of a green horse and a green teamster. Until a level of competency by the teamster has been acquired the value of an experienced horse is immeasurable. "A well broke horse can teach you. Go slow, work smart, be steady, the rest of it comes easy."
 

What equipment is necessary to get started?
Horse, harness, single-tree a rigging chain and a chainsaw are all that is needed to get started horse logging. There are quite a few extra accessories that a logger will eventually obtain such as cables, block and tackle, tongs, cart, bobsled and moving up to a team but a single horse, ground-skidding timber is sufficient and is the advised method of starting up and keeping down your overhead.

Is a team more productive than a single horse?
The size of timber dictates the size or number of horses. If a single horse will do then you will save much overhead. It is also handy to consider rotating your horses working them single to spell each other or a third horse to rotate in the team or have for a replacement. Baring misfortune a well-maintained horse can work day after day for many years.

Is a cart or sled necessary to increase production?
On the right ground a cart saves both the team and teamster energy. A cart or arch allows the teamster to ride saving many miles of walking and can be designed to raise the front of the log off the ground making skidding much less work for the horses. Although a cart or other device makes skidding easier, ground skidding is the convention and until experience is gained, the beginning horselogger should spend considerable time ground skidding.

Do you need shoes on your horses?
In my opinion shoes are mandatory, even in good ground shoes may save a horses foot. The danger of slipping, tearing off a hoof wall or getting a "gravel" isn't a worry with shoes on. There are many conditions such as snow, ice and mud where special shoes that provide traction are necessary. At times, such as in rocky conditions or where work on pavement is frequent, special shoes with hardsurfacing to prolong shoe life or rubber shoes might be in order.

What are the different methods of decking logs?
Putting up logs in the deck is a difficulty for a horselogger. Running out of room to put logs before a trucker can get them out is a regular problem. When spread out side by side, on both sides of a road, logs take up considerable room. A horselogger gets tricky taking advantage of natural features of the terrain such as a handy ditch or ravine that can be filled up, or trees used for bunks on the down-hill side of a road. Using self-loaders has been the making of horse logging but even with this handy equipment its common to run out of room for decking. Many truck-loads can run up to 80 logs. Cross hauling, using a block and tackle in a tree, a teamster can pile up many logs. An A-frame or hoist can be used to deck and load trucks with. A tractor or other machine can be used to deck with also.
 

Does a horselogger need equipment such as a crawler or tractor?
The more equipment you have the more overhead and maintenance you have, which takes time away from the main job of falling and skidding. One of the reasons horse logging is viable is the low start-up costs and overhead. Many of the things you need a machine for such as road building, and snow removal can be hired out. There is no denying a crawler with a blade greatly enhances the business of logging with horses but much of the need for a machine can be hired out, leaving the bulk of logging to the horses. Logs can be pushed up in considerable piles in small places using a machine. Road building and maintenance, culvert installations and even pushing in main skid trails are a great consideration that a machine alleviates. In some localities having a machine on the job is a government requirement during fire season, if you dare work in such conditions. I firmly believe that to be a good horselogger one should spend as much time with the horses as possible before considering the addition and expense of a machine to the business. The fact is, although slow, horses can do the entire job, even road building and snow removal if necessary.

How many horse logger's are there?
Horse logger's are an extraordinarily independent lot and it is hard to say how many there might be. We at Horse logger's Int., News, are dedicated to networking with horse loggers around the world. We can say there are an average of 100 horse loggers in the each state that timber production is a resource. Outside the Pacific Northwest including British Columbia, the largest number of horse loggers is in North East United States. Outside of the US, the largest and most developed horse logging industry is the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden with thousands of horses employed in timber extraction. Research and development of horse logging and equipment has been extensively pursued by the University of Garpenberg, Sweden.

What is the demand for horse logging?
Because regulations and environmental awareness is becoming a dominant feature of today's timber and land use policies, horse logging is a very viable proposition. Horse logging is particularly attractive to timber clients with small acreage's or others with larger timber holdings that value the sustained, low impact, benign technology of horse logging. Horse logging provides the ability to easily set up for a small amount of timber in a short time. There are few horse logging sales set up by federal and state agencies, although that varies depending on location.

How much can a horse/team pull?
Without getting scientific, he rule of thumb is 'a horse can pull his own weight'. Some horses can pull more than there weight for short distances. Horse drawn farm equipment is engineered with a horse's 'draft' i.e. the resistance of the load being pulled by the horse, as the consideration. A single 14" single bottom plow has about a 400# draft. A horse can be expected to pull 10% of his body weight at a constant hourly labour. It would take two, 2000# horses to pull a 14" plow all day. In contrast to farming, logging has many variables to contend with. Each pull has a different weight and terrain to be dealt with. As an example, a green Pine sawlog 13" in diameter on the small end measuring 16' long will weigh 1000 lbs. This is half the weight of a 2000 lb horse, obviously he can pull the log but if we embrace the above rational for farming implements, we should not expect the horse to have to pull the horse for any great length of time without a rest. Herein lies the secret to logging with horses. The ability of the teamster to consider the weight and difficulty of the skid. To make pull after pull 8 to 10 hours a day with the same horse or team takes some creative and judicious consideration. A 13" x 16' log has 100 board foot of timber, weighing 1000 lbs., if we hold that a team will pull 1000 board foot per day that would be 10,000 lbs of weight pulled. In an average year of 300 working days the team will have pulled 1 million pounds of timber. In a carrier of 10 years that would translate into the astounding accomplishment of pulling 10 million pounds of timber in every conceivable weather condition over who knows what kind of ground. Every consideration must be made for the welfare and condition of these wonderful workmates if such demands will be expected of them.