Timber Tongues

The AGM and Competitions will be held on the weekend of 20th-21st May, and we look forward to seeing you then.

The newsletter has been held back as we waited for the North Somerset venue to confirm, but unfortunately they have just pulled out. Kate is working hard on finding another venue for the same weekend -- in the South West if at all possible. Steffi will email you with all the details as soon as that has been arranged.

The Official British Horse Loggers Newsletter SPRING 2017

Chair’s Report Kate Mobbs-Morgan

2

Training Tickets Kate Mobbs-Morgan

2

Woodland Management Course Pete Harmer

2

Progress Event Steffi Schaffler and David Roycroft

3

HorsePower, Falkirk 3

Contract at Ty’n y Coed Kate Mobbs-Morgan

4/5

Mensuration Course Pete Harmer

6

Meet the Committee Julian Philipson

6

BHL Group Insurance Scheme Julian Philipson

7

Heavy Horse World 30th Anniversary Diana Zeuner

7

Membership Renewal Form

8

In this issue:

William from Dartmoor Horse Loggers at work on a large contract:

— see pages 4 and 5 for a report and more pictures

BHL AGM and Competitions, 20th‒21st May 2017

With the Spring Equinox comes glimpses of good weather and warmth from the sun and thoughts turn to what’s coming up, especially for the BHL!

It is time to renew your membership for start-ers and there are new possibilities for those members who make use of the insurance op-portunity.

At our last committee meeting, talk was of courses to run that might inspire a few more to join us ‒ despite the fact that it always means travelling for some! We have one or two ideas but need input from members to make it work … see the ‘Training Tickets’ box on this page.

There are two courses in place though already, which will be of interest to some of you. Pete Harmer is running his excellent Woodland Management Course subject to a good uptake, and Jo and Paul Moreton, Herefordshire-based, are hosting a Mensuration Course also run by Pete. Both of these are really useful courses, enriching your general knowledge and helpful when it comes to pricing work.

The venue for this year’s Competitions and AGM is yet to be confirmed but I am hopeful that will be fixed in place over the next few days, and details will be emailed out to you all so you can put it in your diary. Watch this space!

We will have a working presence once more at Confor, Longleat in Wiltshire later in the year, and volunteers are always welcome to join us and help promote what we do.

Chair ’s Repor t K ate Mobbs-Morgan

Page 2 Timber Tongues

SPRING 2017

Introduction to Woodland Management Course, 24th‒27th June 2017 Pete Harmer

The course was designed as an introduction to woodland management for BHL apprentices who generally have little or no forestry knowledge so we start off with tree ident of the major woodland trees both conifer and deciduous.

We then look at their individual silviculture and how through crop management we can either encourage qual-ity timber growth or even species eradication.

From here we then take a look at potential end uses and markets for the timber, establishment of new wood-land and potential natural regeneration and harvesting and extraction systems.

The course is run over four days and is based in the Herefordshire area, with site visits to several woods.

The course will start at 09.00 prompt on each day and we will attempt to finish for 17.00. I am sorry but this course is pretty full on. There is quite a lot of walking on this course and so it is suggested that students equip themselves with adequate outdoor clothing, a packed lunch (tea, coffee and biscuits will be supplied).

Ideally students will also equip themselves with a good tree identification handbook.

Cost: £200

Contact: Kate Mobbs Morgan: 07986 337205, or Pete Harmer: sowerpaw@fsmail.net

Training Tickets

Kate Mobbs-Morgan

If anyone wants to do any tickets that are work

related, large tree, windblow, first aid, chipper

etc BHL could advertise and pull something

together by hiring in a trainer and finding a

venue if there was enough interest. More and

more clients are requesting tickets for machin-

ery etc because of insurance.

Contact Kate Mobbs-Morgan: 07986 337205

We are holding a Progress Event on the 1st of April. We are hoping to look at lots of different bits of kit, horses and some timber. We are going to work our horses in our Woodlot, rent-ed from the Scottish Woodlots Association, and have time to chat round the fire about jobs and horses.

We are hoping to show a Swedish forwarder, arch and possibly the Ulvins combi drag and the bracken basher.

There might be a chance for a bit of a session about training horses with Jim Johnstone, or mobile milling and chainsaw mill-ing equipment. Will need to confirm that.

It’s a chance for everyone to meet and see what and who’s out there. New people and the old hands, the more the merrier.

Meet at 9.30 at Hillend Farmhouse, Auldgirth, Dumfries, DG2 0UB.

Bring lunch and clothes/boots to be out all day. Camping available.

More information from Steffi: steffi.schaffler@gmail.com or 01387 740945

Page 3 Timber Tongues

SPRING 2017

Progress Event — Saturday, 1st April, Dumfriesshire

Steffi Schaffler and David Roycroft

HorsePower, Falkirk, 9th September 2017

BHL will be demonstrating horse logging at this event.

For details: http://www.thehelix.co.uk/all-events/horsepower/?date=MDkvMDkvMjAxNw==#.WMVxCW_yiUk

“HorsePower is an imaginative and exciting event that celebrates our relationship and reliance on the horse. There is no better place to host this celebration than The He-lix Park, home of the magnificent Kelpies, the world's largest equine sculptures. Eq-uine history and archaeology is brought to life with a wide range of activity. The event will count live demonstrations, talks, exhibi-tions, archeological digs, fun activities for the kids and many more.”

Page 4 Timber Tongues

SPRING 2017

This contract that we undertook this winter was for Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and our remit was to halo thin 300 m3 of Norway Spruce with care to open up the canopy around a number of ancient Oaks nestled within the softwoods.

There was only one possible exit point out to the stack site just wide enough for one horse with arch and timber attached, exactly why this contract could only be undertaken by horses.

The woodland has not been worked for over 20 years so was sore in need of some thinning.

This is the largest contract I have undertaken thus far and has been the most amazing experience for many reasons.

With the amount of timber to come out and the need to bring it in on time on budget I was joined by three other horsemen, Will Hampton from Dartmoor Horse Loggers, Toby Hoad from Greenwood Workshop and Richard Branscombe from Swainsford Heavy Horses.

Alex Deuchars, also from Dartmoor Horse Loggers took control of the stacking area along with help and two other friends, Charlie Ballinger and David (Red) Wilkins, took on the majority of the felling.

Between us we have had eight horses on site with up to four working at all times. It has been exciting having so many horses working together and it has worked really well.

We rented a large field close to the contract and the horses were turned out together at night whilst we all camped in the woodland. It meant that very quickly the horses became a little herd and there was very little silly behaviour between them during the day.

As you would expect the timber was left as large as the horses could manage to maximise our efficiency particularly as the extraction route got longer and longer as we worked further into the woodland. A goodly number of pieces came out at well over 20 metres long ‒ fiddly to extract but necessary to get the timber bowling out as quickly as possible.

The extraction route threw up some challenges … a brook to cross, a deep ditch to bounce through with a bit of a roller-coaster ride at the end down

into the stack site but all part of the fun!

The stack site was pretty small too and needed careful management and hard work to keep the dropping-off areas clear for the horses.

What I will finish with though is what an absolute pleasure it has been to work with these lovely people who committed care and attention to detail on this contract, bringing in a job to be really proud of. The dynamics worked really well and the end result shows what a strong team of people can achieve when all pull together.

Happy days!

Contract at Ty'n y Coed, Creigiau, South Wales

Kate Mobbs-Morgan

Page 5 Timber Tongues

SPRING 2017

Previous page:

Above: Fleur and Toby

Below: Busy stack site

This page:

Above left: Sol and Kate

Above right: One of the extraction routes at the end of the contract.

Right: Beano and Will

Below left: Levi and Richard

Below right: Tea break!

Page 6 Timber Tongues

SPRING 2017

from BHL matters, lest the wisdom of old age become the dead hand holding back the enthusiasm of youth.

For most of this period on the BHL committee I worked closely with Doug Joiner who became a dear friend. BHL became a dynamic organisation with a sound membership base during this time. We can be especially pleased with the insurance scheme run through SEIB; with the various training courses and progress days; and with the contacts made with horsemen overseas, opening our eyes to other working methods and other excellent breeds of horse. We also established the apprenticeship scheme, with some good results, and I have served as trustee of that body from the beginning.

BHL has not been successful in all aspects during that time. We will always need to work on maintaining the credibility of horselogging within mainstream forestry, and it remains very difficult for contractors to build up a reliable clientele so as to ensure regular work to provide a regular income and to keep their horses fit for work, and to leave woodland managers confident that there is a competent local contractor to call on when needed.

BHL has a role to play in helping develop skills so loggers are not just horsemen but forestry professionals and businessmen.

Estimating Standing Volume Mensuration Course, 6th‒7th May 2017

Pete Harmer

My history with horselogging runs as follows: after some brief encounters with loggers at forestry shows, I signed up long ago for a 5-day course being run near Alnwick by Rob Rawsthorne and Ant Tull. That led to me joining the horselogging section of the Forestry Contractors Association, then to attendance at a couple of BHL meetings including that at Durham when horseloggers voted to quit the FCA and form their own independent body. I volunteered then to be treasurer and have continued to fill that role until now.

I have never claimed to be a horselogger. I trained as an accountant and worked in commerce until early retirement 20 years ago, when we bought a small farm in Northumberland and kept some beef cattle and a couple of horses. You will readily believe that the second career was more fulfilling than the first. We have just sold the farm, finding the work becoming too burdensome, so a new phase of self-invention must commence.

The work of the BHL Treasurer is very simple so it has not been hard to keep records and ensure members’ funds are properly used. I think a more valuable contribution to BHL affairs has been my knowledge of commercial law, of insurance, and of business practice.

I intend now to disengage myself progressively

The object of this course is to train the students in the procedures required to arrive at an estimated volume for a stand of timber, with an acceptable degree of accuracy for inventory, crop valuation or any purpose for which speed and low cost is desired over a high degree of precision.

The method taught requires the assessment of basal area per hectare, top height of the crop and the net area of the crop; to achieve this we will use metric girth taps, an optic clinometer and simple area survey techniques.

The course is run over a weekend at Morton Woods in Herefordshire by kind permission of Paul and Jo Mor-ton, where we will measure a pure crop of Norway Spruce we will also have the opportunity to use the same techniques on a stand of stored Ash coppice. The course will run from 09.00 for a 09.30 start till 04.30 on Sat-urday, and 09.00 for a 09.30 start till 15.30 on Sunday.

This is primarily a doing course and so students are asked to come equipped with suitable outdoor clothing, a packed lunch (tea, coffee and biscuits will be supplied) and if possible a copy of Forestry Commission Booklet 39 Forest Mensuration Handbook (available from Stanton and Hope, price £24.00).

Contact: Jo Morton, jo@moretonwood.co.uk, or Pete Harmer, sowerpaw@fsmail.net

Meet the BHL Committee — Julian Philipson

Page 7 Timber Tongues

SPRING 2017

We have negotiated new and improved terms for BHL members who insure through SEIB.

The premiums are a minimum of £385 which provides public liability cover to £10 million, and an optional add-on of employer’s liability cover to £10 million for £165. Carriage rides can be insured for £275, to include weddings and fu-nerals, and theft of tools cover to value £2,500 for £137.50, the first £250 of loss borne by the member.

These are the premiums for a year, and the basic cover is a lot less than before. There is no minimum premium, so members taking out cover part-way through the year will get a rebate for the months already elapsed.

Administration will be done by SEIB. They will contact existing insured members directly for renewal as from 1 April, and any new policies will be negotiated by the member direct with them. The contacts are Joanne Goodrich or Rachel Light, telephone 01708 850000. They will check that the horse logger is a paid-up BHL member.

The BHL Committee very strongly advises members not to take out the public liability cover without also the employ-er’s liability cover. You may say, “Well, I only work on my own and rarely employ subcontractors, and subcontractors are not employees, so why shouldn’t I make that saving?” Wrong! Or, “I only get help from volunteers and friends and family so I don’t need it, do I?” Wrong again! Don’t risk it!

The courts have a long history of stretching the law to protect victims of accidents at work and have held all sorts of helpers to fall into the category of employee and so to have a claim. Ask a passing stranger to move a branch for you, and you could find yourself liable for any incident. The potential cost of a life-changing injury is into millions of pounds.

We make the offer available, but choose with great care. And bear in mind that all serious forestry employers expect to see evidence of both public and employer’s cover.

One reason why premiums have come down is that we have a record of zero claims. Let’s keep it that way.

New Terms for BHL Group Insurance Scheme

Julian Philipson

Heavy Horse World Celebrates its 30th Anniversary

Diana Zeuner

Heavy Horse World magazine is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year! That’s 30 years’ featuring draught horses ‒ a valuable extra promotional channel for the breeds. Launched in 1987 by Diana Zeuner and her late husband, Chris, it quickly established a loyal following, becoming the ‘trade mag’ for the British heavy horse sector.

At its foundation it received great support from the Shire, Clydesdale, Suffolk and British Percheron Horse Societies, as well as the working horse associations, and heavy horse owners and enthusiasts have enjoyed reading the popular quarterly ever since. It’s the longest-running publication devoted to the UK heavy horse sector ever.

The magazine covers all aspects of heavy horse activity in the British Isles – showing, breeding, in-hand, turnouts, farm and market garden work, horse-drawn equipment – modern and historic, forestry work, promotional activity, driving trials and riding. HHW also covers working ponies and some heavy horse activity from overseas.

The magazine includes a big news section, excellent events coverage, personality profiles, practical features and tips, and fascinating historical features. In addition each Spring issue carries the popular annual free list of heavy horse events countrywide – the most comprehensive one published – together with directories of breeders, breed societies, working horse associations, harness-makers and wheelwrights.

It’s a complete one-stop shop for all your heavy horse needs! There’s a Heavy Horse World Shop in each issue – featur-ing books and DVDs on heavy horses - and you can make secure online purchases on our website, www.heavyhorseworld.co.uk, where you can also renew your subscription and keep up to date with news. You can also follow us on facebook at www.facebook.com/heavyhorseworldmagazine

For further information go to www.heavyhorseworld.co.uk, or contact the editor, Diana Zeuner, at editor@heavyhorseworld.co.uk, tel 01730 812419.

The BHL Newsletter Editor Cathy Vaughan

Bryn Tawel, 12 Llynfa Road Penclawdd

Swansea SA4 3XD 01792-850902

Email: editor@britishhorseloggers.org

The next edition of Timber Tongues will be out in

June.

If you would like to contribute, please email your

article in by Mid May 2011 to the newsletter editor.

The next issue of Timber Tongues will be in June, and contributions are welcome.

How about sharing your experiences, opinions and expertise with fellow BHL members? Have you been working on an interesting contract, for example?

Please email copy and photographs to Cathy Vaughan.

Application for BHL Membership

Our Membership year runs 1st April to 31st March. New members joining after 1st December will have the following year's membership included free of additional charge. There are only two membership categories: full @ £30 and for an additional £30 it is possible to apply to be accepted onto the Professional Register.

If you wish to apply to be added to the Professional Register as a horse logger then you must have been a BHL Member on the Working Members list for at least 1 year and additional information is required to support your application, details are available from Julian Philipson. There is an additional fee of £30 to apply and then, should you be accepted, to renew annually.

All successful applications for the Professional Register will have clearly demonstrated a proven track record of work to a high professional standard. Applications will be considered by the BHL Committee.

Name: ....................................................................................................................... ..............

Address:..................................................................................................................... ..

............................................................................................................................. ..........

Home telephone:.........................................................................................................

Mobile:...................................................................................................................... ....

Email:....................................................................................................................... .....

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I wish to join/renew as a full member (£30 pa 2017/2018)

I wish to renew as a contractor on the Professional Register (£60 pa 2017/2018)

I wish to be added to the Working Members List on the BHL Website (Free)

I would like to enrol on the BHL Members' Professional Insurance Scheme, please send me details.

I would like a BHL badge (Free)

I would like a BHL sticker (Free)

I wish to make an additional voluntary donation to the BHL Charitable Trust of £......…..

I enclose a total of £..........…. for the above.

"I support the aims and objectives of the British Horse Loggers and I subscribe to the FECTU Welfare Code for the Care and Use of Traction Animals"

Signature:..........................................................................................................................................................

Date:...................................................................................................................................................................

How did you hear about the BHL?..................................................................................................................

Please make cheques payable to "British Horse Loggers" and post, with this form, to Steffi Schaffler, Hillend Farmhouse, Auldgirth, Dumfries, DG2 0UB