The Aluminum Hame Gang<\/h3>\n
by Brandt Ainsworth of Franklin, NY<\/em><\/p>\n The sun doesn\u2019t shine on this old dog\u2019s rear end often enough, but it was bright the day I backed my team up to the sled and took it down the track while all the local pullers watched. The buckeye sled was loaded too heavy for a team of lightweights, and it had to come uphill for ten feet before the track leveled out. There were about ten teams of pulling horses that day. We were hooking horses, having a couple drinks, telling stories and even trading horses. Nobody wanted to hook to the buckeye sled where it sat, not even the heavyweight teams. The other guys weren\u2019t watching the sled, so I decided to have a go at it. \u201cTiny-bop\u201d saw me backing up to the sled and offered to hook his heavy team instead, because it was too much for my little team. I appreciated his offer but nodded and kept backing the team up with one hand and hooking the eveners with the other.<\/p>\n When the eveners were on, and I called on the team, all the guys were watching. The heavy sled came up the hill and down the track about thirty feet before I called them off. It all came together; the horses started together dropped down low and pulled hard with perfect form; when they slowed down at twenty feet, I called, \u201cHere,\u201d they found another gear and kept on pulling until I called them off. That was just how we dream it, when a puller closes his eyes. As the team rested in front of the sled, I tried to be nonchalant, but I was definitely \u201cfeeling it.\u201d The guys slapped me on the back and Tiny-bop gave me an \u201catta boy.\u201d But as I basked in the praise, I could see them looking at my team while laughing at a joke my buddy Tony made.<\/p>\n \u201cWhats so funny?\u201d I asked as I unhooked and tied my team to the wall with the other teams. \u201cYou\u2019re the last member of the aluminum hame gang.\u201d Tony said, grabbing the end of my lines and slapping my butt with them as I hung them from the near horses hames.<\/p>\n That day the sun shone on me, and on the dull patina of my aluminum hames, but it made me think about how my comrades looked at me. I wondered if I was so cheap it was a joke, or if my old equipment was just part of my charm. A little of both, I\u2019m sure. When your good pulls are as few and far between as mine, you need a little charm to save face.<\/p>\n My rigging didn\u2019t seem obsolete to me until Tony pointed it out. He was right. I bought these harnesses in 1993. That\u2019s 25 years ago for those of you keeping score on the old and worn out scale. The harnesses are like the old saying about having Grampa\u2019s hammer, but you twice replaced the head and three times replaced the handle. Over the last twenty five years I\u2019ve added tail cruppers, changed the check straps, broke both belly bands and replaced them with saddle girths, repaired or changed numerous lazy straps, changed from swivel to D-ring heel chains, changed breast straps, hame straps, changed out the farm hames for aluminum pulling hames, and I\u2019m on the third set of lines.<\/p>\n The day I changed out the farm hames and joined the aluminum hame gang, (and soon became it\u2019s last member), was a high water mark for my cheapness. I was at my friend Tom\u2019s house shooting the bull about horses, as he cleaned out a section of his barn in preparation for a new foal. He was hauling harness parts out of the barn and into a heap in the driveway getting them out of the way so he could make a foaling pen. I had no idea he was going to take the heap of harness parts to the dump. When I realized Tom\u2019s waste; I pounced as quickly and greedily as a horse puller reaching into the cooler for the last can of beer. Tom laughed as I picked up the hames and some other parts and threw them into my truck. \u201cFree is me.\u201d I said, thinking of how often I used that phrase. Even in the mid-nineties, it had been a decade since most horsemen gave up on aluminum hames.<\/p>\n The aluminum hames worked okay, not great, but okay. They really never seemed lighter than steel hames, and you couldn\u2019t bend and shape them to fit with precision. If you got them to fit your collar just right you were both lucky and patient. I usually take about a half hour of loosening and tightening the hame straps and messing with the elevators before I get them to somewhat fit the collar, and get the draft what I call \u201cballpark.\u201d I would rather have a nice set of 26\u201d steel pulling hames, (stainless would be really nice). Then again I\u2019d like to trade my old truck in on one with a diesel engine, and four doors. I\u2019ll drive the one I have for now, for the same reason I use aluminum hames thirty years after everyone else updated.<\/p>\n I announced one helluva horse pull last weekend. We drew thirty-one teams of horses to my little home town. Toward the end of the heavyweight class, when it was getting down to odd bouts, I commented on how immaculate the teams were. All 31 teams were well groomed, well clipped, the harness not only fit right, they were shiny and well maintained. The teams matched, and they all behaved well, and all 31 teams pulled with good effort. I not only commented on how well the teams looked, but how professional the teamsters were. The crowd agreed, and gave the pullers a warm ovation to show how much they appreciated the efforts.<\/p>\n It goes without saying that the hometown boy was announcing, rather than pulling; or the professionalism would have fallen off sharply. While they didn\u2019t have my aluminum hames and harnesses that are wrapped in tape to goof on, I still provided some fodder for ridicule. Between classes I had gotten a roll of friction tape out of my truck and was wrapping it on a bare spot on the microphone cord. My buddy Tony, (remember his wit?), hollered to me; \u201cThat ain\u2019t a set of harnesses you don\u2019t need to tape up everything you touch.\u201d I don\u2019t get his humor, even though everyone else within earshot laughed the same as they did with his \u201caluminum hame gang\u201d line. I guess being funny is subjective, and I\u2019m often the subject.<\/p>\n My kids tell me that I\u2019m an, \u201canalog guy in a digital world.\u201d It\u2019s hard for me to argue that when, as I write this; I have an Eagles record playing in the background. You remember vinyl records; don\u2019t you? As long as I\u2019m in an admitting mood; I might as well admit it to Tony, and everyone else, that I really am the last member of the aluminum hame gang.<\/p>\n As soon as I\u2019m paid what I\u2019m worth, I\u2019ll have a new set of spotted harness with bright hames. Maybe then, if the sun shines on this old dog\u2019s rear once again; the boy\u2019s will remember the man on the lines and not my buddy\u2019s comedy routine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/smallfarmersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/sfj_aluminum_hame_gang_01.jpg\")