Jimmy

The boss called Henry into his office.

‘I have a large order for larch cattle yard rails,’ he said, ‘I want you to extract them with old Jimmy.’

‘Hang on,’ protested Henry, ‘I’ve never pulled logs, rails or posts with a horse before!’

‘Yeah, I know.’ Smiled Jack, arms held up to stop Henry’s protest, ‘I’ve seen you in the paddock with Jimmy and Queen. You seem comfortable with them. Remember old Bill Hayward? He’ll come and give you a couple of day’s training.’

Henry wasn’t too sure about all this but knew he couldn’t get out of it and, old Bill was a good hand with horses.

‘Theo will be with you – he doesn’t like horses so he will do the felling and trimming work. They’re just thinnings, but with larch there can be a lot of hang-ups so you might need to pull some down with the horses.’ Jack explained.

‘Horses?’ Henry picked up on the plural, ‘I thought it was just Jimmy!’

‘No,’ replied Jack, ‘work them half a day each.’

Henry rode Jimmy leading Queen out to the larch stand – uncomfortably bareback, with his legs sticking out because the horse was so wide. Jimmy seemed to have a placid temperament but must have had an inward grin because he tried to wipe Henry off by walking close to low, overhanging branches. Queen had her halter on and plodded along tethered to the rope Henry was holding, but he didn’t even need to holder her, she put no weight on the rope.

Earlier he had asked and was told that Jimmy was blind in his right eye because some idiot had thrown a bad-tempered pinecone at him!

Theo and Bill travelled in the truck with the gear and chaff, so Bill had the collar, hames and other gear – leather and chain – all laid out ready. He had strung out some wire to make an enclosure where there was good grass for the horses to overnight or to wait during one or other’s half day off.

Bill said that it would be easier to set up Jimmy first and told Henry the names of the all the paraphernalia – and advised not to use the bit on either horse.

Henry found the process of preparing Jimmy to be easy enough and Bill was a good teacher with an obvious rapport with horses.

‘Jimmy will pull and follow the skid track and he will stop at the skid-site, even pull the butts up so they’re even.’ Bill explained. ‘If the logs snag, he will stop for you to clear them. But not Queen, big strong bitch she is! She will pull until whatever it is frees - or something breaks. You have to keep out of her way! She broke my leg once running over me! And when you hook on, she hears the click of the chain in the hook and she’s off – you have to watch her all the bloody time.’

‘Great.’ Henry muttered.

Meanwhile Theo had been felling the trees and roughly trimmed them ready for extraction. Jimmy could haul four or five pieces at a time and it was down to judgement as to how to group them together – sometimes with Jimmy, sometimes Henry’s muscle and grunt.

Henry managed just fine and soon Bill left him to it.

He found it was best to work Queen in the morning while he was fresh and more alert to her idiosyncrasies but actually both horses worked very well for him and progress was good.

‘There’s a surprise for you in the paddock.’ Jack grinned and followed Henry out to watch his reaction.

There was a huge, brown gelding standing there eyeing Henry’s approach.

‘They sent him from Beaumont, they reckon he’s no good,’ explained the boss, ‘but I told them you’ll handle him. His name’s Jock.’

‘What!’ exclaimed Henry, ‘How am I going to train the big bugger?’

Jack grinned.

The next morning Henry rode Jock out to the job and considered him fairly placid. The big horse stood quietly while Henry fitted all the gear and then led him into the bush.

Jock didn’t take kindly to a load behind him and as soon as he felt some weight, he kicked all the gear off. Patient Henry must have replaced the gear fifty times until he came up with the idea roping Jimmy beside the big horse - he had to widen the track a bit. Jimmy enjoyed no load and Jock behaved himself - Henry was chuffed!

They never used reins – just let the horse pull the logs to the skid-site, and that’s how it was done - Jimmy just knew what was required.

Henry took no credit, Jimmy trained Jock - within a couple of days Henry the big fella could be trusted.