Maynard and Jane

Maynard and Jane are back.

They are a Belgian team that belongs to a vet in town. In the summer they go to a lot of parades but in the winter they mostly stand around his corral and eat hay. A lot of hay. So Doc seems glad to have John put them to work here and feed them for a few weeks every Spring.

My brother, Tim, loves to drive horses. He has had a few teams of his own and also fed with them which was where John got inspired to do the same. It is a quiet relaxing chore for John. He usually picks the nice days to take the team out to feed.

Saturday, Tim was here and John asked him to feed the cows. Tim had a good time doing it.

My younger brother, Ben, made the feeder. It works pretty slick.

When we lived south of North Platte, John and Byron built a feeder to be pulled by a team there too. It seemed like they were always talking about the design and what they needed. I would overhear them say things like "We need to go to town and get a wench." I finally figured out they were talking about a winch....not a wench. WHEW.

Anyway....the big round bale is picked up and sat down by manually turning the winch behind the driver. The team has to back up to the bale and the arms of the bale holder part are stabbed into the center of the bale on either side and then it is winched up and away they go. The bales weigh around 1500 lbs each. Maynard and Jane barely feel it. They trot right out.

When they get ready to feed, you have to cut the twine off the bale and winch it back down and the horses pull it and the bale unrolls.


When they are all done they have to be unharnessed.


Tim is getting them unhooked. They make him look small. He is not small. He makes everyone else look small.
Jane lost the vision in her right eye a few years ago. Some kind of rare degenerative disorder. It is her inside eye so it doesn't bother her when she is pulling because Maynard is on her right. But it does make her a bit easier to freak out when she is loose and has half of her visual field out of commission.





Rex was MIA for most of the corral work which is not like him. I spotted him later on the pickup.



"Dibs on the best place to sit on the Flatbed!" Rex has some issues.