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TBigLug
ParticipantIt would work with any cart that is stable enough to be driven with one wheel in the furrow. It helps if the tire is directly behind the horse so it doesn’t pull off to the side. Once I hitched my tire stack behind the forecart while we were in the furrow but that was it. All of her initial load pulling was on the stone boat. When we prodded the Percherons we just had two really thin branches. One guy on one side bahind a horse and me on the other. We didn’t beat them with the sticks just tapped on their rumps lightly so they could understand we wanted them to go forward. When they moves forward we stopped touching them altogether until they got that look int heir eyes like they wanted to stop again. Then brush them again with the stick and they kept on moving. Only once did one try to walk out of the furrow. Never tried to bolt. Amazing given they were pretty wild the day before on the wagon. I think they were late 2 or early 3. Worked good. We had a sum total of 250 years of experience among the 5 of us standing there. I’m the rookie with a mere 10 years or so. The rest of them (my grandpa and three of our friends) are all over 70 and have forgotten more than I may ever learn.
ParticipantI can’t say that I’ve ever had any cencorship problems here even though my opinions don’t always match everyone’s (or anyone’s at times for that matter lol) opinion but I am truly grateful to Carl for having a great site where us “draft horse relics” (as my friends refer to me) can come and share our knowledge, stories and thoughts with our fellow teamsters. I think with sites like this, Rural Heritiage and even the other site (which I have not visited yet) it is a huge step towards helping out beginning teamsters and helping others who may never own a draft understand why we do what we do.
Thanks to everyone!
Participant@Vicki 11243 wrote:
Similar story: Borrowed a rusty old horse bumper pull trailer to take a steer to the abbatoir. It had a “people” door on the side that we never used.
Reminded me of something else. When we haul cattle we tie a small gate (4×4) up to the inside of the trailer in front of that door. We’ve always worried about them pushing the door out given it’s just thin sheet metal.
ParticipantThat sounds like it might work. When I was breaking my young filly to plow I would hook her to the forecart and ride around. Then I’d head out to the field and walk the other horse in the furrow for a while so she could see. Then, I’d let her walk in the furrow for a while (all this while still on the forecart). After a couple 5 or 6 times of doing that I hooked her to the plow and she worked like a champ. There was a couple young Percherons a friend had that would not pull the plow (never had a heavy load on) so we had two of us walk to the side and behind them and kind of proded them along like a couple oxen for a round or two until they figured out his scenario and theyve worked fine ever since.
As long as you keep it a positive scenario they usually catch on pretty fast.
ParticipantWow, scary experience. We have two brand new nylon hame straps that secure each door on our stock anytime we move anything. Just in case…
ParticipantMan that all sounds so good. Most gardens up here didn’t do too well this year. Too cold. We made good use of what we did get though.
ParticipantAs long as you have your health you’ll never be old. Take that nugget with a grain of salt as it comes from a 27 year old in relatively good health. I saw a story on the news last night about Earnie Harwell (an old announcer for the Detroit Tigers). They asked him if he’d like to live to be 100 or 110. To wich he responded, “I want to live as long as I’m healthy so as not to be a burden to my family.” I suppose that’s what I’ll aim for as well!
ParticipantWelcome to the group! The only bad question is one that never gets asked.
September 17, 2009 at 11:31 am in reply to: 50 Acre Horse Farm/ Boarding/ Event Facility- Lebanon, MO #53863ParticipantTalked to my uncle this weekend and he took a deposit on the farm and should be closing this week.
Thanks.
September 15, 2009 at 2:08 am in reply to: state trooper hits stupid teamster between the eyes with a two by four! #54047ParticipantBummer. When I read the title I actually thought you were hit with a wood 2×4!
ParticipantI love a good pull. Sounds like that one was exceptionally exciting!
ParticipantSo, out of curiosity, I hear people saying metal works good if they find the right gauge, thickness, ec. sooo, what is the right gauge/ thickness/ diameter/ etc.?
Working on building a people mover right now and I’ve only got a couple old (aka not trustworthy) wooden tongues.
ParticipantFor what it’s worth, we feed oats and corn at 10:00 AM when they come in from pasture (mangers are always full of grassy hay). Once they have ate their fill and have munched on hay for 30 minutes or so we harness them up and go to work. They have free choice water and pasture when they are outside (4:00 PM until 10:00 AM). Grandpa’s done it this way for 78 years and his father did it that way before him. Never had a problem and the horses aren’t hungry while they work.
ParticipantYep, they were cleaning stalls. No need for a manure spreader when you had two strapping young lads to man the pitchfork! I’m working on sorting through more of their old photos and scanning them onto the computer so they can be preserved. If I come across any more good ones I’ll be sure to share them.
ParticipantSOLD, thanks everyone for looking.
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