Sammy Goes North and the Harness

"Joe has spent hours cleaning and polishing the harness he is going to use on Sammy and Ebony".

It's not just to make it sparkle and shine although that is superb to see.

The Harness is Joe's only physical control over the horses, he will be giving them their minute by minute instructions by word of mouth of course, but he needs the harness as back up.
Also of course, the harness is the means for the horses to be able to pull and stop the vehicle they are working with. 
If the vehicle like the London Brewery dray, weighs several tons with its full load, then the harness is going to be under huge strain as they climb or descend hills.
The harness transmits the full power of the horses and their braking effort too!

The harness is made of the best possible English leather and is hand made. The composition is made up of layers of hand stitched leather, cut and shaped to fit the size and type of horse...perfectly! It costs many thousands of pounds and will have the badges and designs of the Brewery attached in prominent places too. The collars are made for each individual horse; they are filled with soft rye straw and covered in soft English wool cloth, so that their fit is perfect and will not cause any problems for the horse during his day's work.
 
So Joe will not only clean the harness every day to remove the sweat and dirt but he will totally dismantle it, piece by piece to ensure that the bits that wear are free from damage and will not break under strain. It will take him several hours to dismantle clean polish and reassemble each set of harness with its many buckles and brass fittings!  Every day!


 Another info... post from Keith and Cracker!

 

Sammy on E Books

It isn't just Sammy on Kindle anymore.
Sammy and his books are now available on all other e readers through the 
worldwide smashwords e- book platform. http://www.smashwords.com/
So no matter which kind of e-reader you use or where you choose to buy your e-books.....
Sammy and his friends are there too! 
Please try it and find us.

Sidetracked but you could be to!

I should really be writing about Sammy and his harness this time but got sidetracked while completing research for Sammy's next book, "New Adventure".
Readers and followers, have a look at the Daniel Thwaites website: http://thwaites.co.uk/
My reason for looking was to confirm information about Mr David Kaye who kindly opened the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre, Visitor Centre in July 1989.
Thwaites do still use Shire Horses and have some lovely pictures on the web site. I also enjoyed "brewing my own pint"! I can thoroughly recommend having a go!
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ends

We're Changing the cover picture!

Hello Readers,

Big decision today, we're changing the cover picture for "Sammy Goes North". When we used our first choice for the "Createspace" paperback publication the picture proved to be too low in resolution. It would look blurry and not good.
So the cover will be changed for the ebook too. No difference inside. Hope you enjoy your read.

Createspace version will be available very soon. Then look out for the audiobook.

Thank you for reading and following out blogs.
Keith

Why did Ebony retire so early?

ISSUES RAISED FROM THE SAMMY GOES NORTH STORY for Children.


The first question is "why is Ebony retiring after working at the Brewery for only seven years,"


Surely, you might well ask so short a time, horses can work for several years longer than that!

Ah yes but not all the time working on hard modern tarmac roads.

It is the roads that are the issue;  Constant pounding on the hard surface transmitted through the rigid

steel horseshoe would cause permanent damage to the horse's feet and legs if sustained for too long.

Even at rest, the horses in a permanent working environment are on a hard surface.

O.K. they have a straw or sawdust or rubber matting bed, but all around them is concrete or stone.

They get an annual holiday but only for a couple of weeks.
 
Agricultural horses have a far different life. The work is still hard but not beyond their capacity; in

neither places do they work all day. Only for so many hours in that day. 
The agricultural horse will be asked to pull loads on the roads and also to travel to the fields by way

of roads, it is in the fields where the more demanding work is done where it is easier on their feet and

legs. Mind you, there are different problems facing the horse in the field;  he has to have sufficient

time spent on him or her to ensure their coat and legs and feet are completely clear of dirt and mud.
Long term problems quite quickly occur if the coat and feet and legs are not perfectly cleaned after

work and before work begins the next day.

This is why the horseman would begin work with his horses several hours before they begin work

themselves and then for several hours afterwards.

Next time we will deal with the harness.


As a footnote, just before I started working for the Firestone Company in 1966 they had ceased

production of rubber horseshoes. It seemed a good idea at the time and I am not entirely sure what

the  reasons were for not continuing, apart from their being fewer horses working on the roads.

Perhaps some other readers have more information on this?
 

Thanks for reading.

KS

The Picture provided by Joe House, Ebony's Horseman shown leading him out of the wagon.

Sammy On Kindle

It has taken since 1993 to get this far!

How come you might ask, well around that time I was running the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre and struggling to give it a good sense of direction.

Then came huge financial problems connected with the UK National Lottery, most folk do not realise the the Lottery takes about £120,000,000 out of the economy every week!

Yes every week!

Well when that all started, that money had to come from somewhere and it hit small animal sanctuaries and similar places really hard.  Folk used to visit these places and their entry fee or donations kept these places afloat.

When the Lottery started, folk stopped visiting so often or did not visit at all, that is what happened to us. We are out in the countryside and getting there costs money, so many many folk decided they would rather take a chance on the Lottery, spend their money elsewhere!

Follow the fortunes of the Northcote Horses today at www.northcotehorses.com

The first Sammy stories were written to try and raise some extra income, but find a publisher was impossible and they were self published. I had some great help from folk locally; an artist who painted huge murals at the Centre did the illustrations and another friend who was retired produced an audio tape. A local lady produced the music.

It took ages to sell the first print run and there was no profit left at the end ....but the books are still there and together with a further 10 or so story ideas, Sammy the Shire Horse is coming back to life on Amazon Kindle! 

That will do for this time, look out to read how the story continues.

Also look at our website on www.crackerbooks.com to follow the progress of Keith's true life stories about his unusual way of life. Also coming on Amazon Kindle.
You can e mail me at crackerbooks@orange.fr