Hitching 3 Abreast

One of my mentors was always very concerned with keeping them spread apart so that middle horse could “cool”….especially if you are mowing and have the hills, etc.
JH

hey jen, on a two way plow, the horse on the same side as the share you are plowing with goes in the furrow. you must offset the pole. and adjust the pole by pointing the share towards the plowed ground with three. (into the land with two). on a walking plow, same way. the horse on the side your plow throws the soil drops in the furrow.

When I used three the reins went to the outside horses, outside bit rings. The inside runs to both sides of the middle horse. Checks can run from center horses hame rings to inside bit ring of the outside horses, or I’ve also seen and tried running a strap from the middle horses bit to the inside bit ring on the outside horses. For this I just used rope with snaps on both ends. I never used a jockey stick set up but have seen that done a lot too for three abreast. Set up the team as normal and run a jockey stick from the team horse that becomes the middle horse. Usually hooks into the breast strap snap of the middle horse to the outside of the bit of the extra horse. Then a check strap is run off the inside of the bit of the extra horse to the middle team horse, either bit to bit, or bit to hame ring. I never tried this and never liked the looks of it. Seemed very hard on the jockey sticked horses mouth. A lot of jerking and no soft touch at all. I saw a lot of Amish and Mennonites use this set up when I lived in Pennsylvania. I was told it worked well for rowdy horses since the more they acted up the more they beat themselves up with all the jerking around. Again, I was not impressed with this set up, but that’s just my opinion, it seemed to work fine for getting work done. To help keep the middle horse from getting crowded in hot weather try using another neck yoke from the middle horse to the horse that isn’t on the pole. This will keep some space between them. Lastly, I’d probably put the haflinger on the outside off the pole. Keep the weight off the smaller animals neck. I saw the article about you folks in DGJ, nice article. I hope you can desifer my post and I hope it’s helpful.I’m sure others will have some good advice too.

The jockey stick set ups I saw were used with walking plows and spring tooth harrows. So only one horse walked the furrow, the jockey horse was always on ground. I don’t recall a tie back strap being used. Usually there was a strap from the center horses hame to the inside of the jockey horses bit. Most of the farms where I saw this setup didn’t use britchen harness anyway. The main style in that area was what localy was called a chain harness, more commonly called a plow harness I think. It has a tail croup off the back strap and no britching. Very plain, simple style of harness. This style was tough on the horses when on wagons and mowers. Breaking was done on their necks from the collar pushing down and forward as the toung raised up. Saw some horses get knocked in the chin from the neck yoke. Some people using these harnesses would use hip backers as a type of britching for stopping and backing purposes. Most didn’t though so there was nothing to tie back to accept the hames or maybe the belly strap, but I think it was the hames. Not saying it’s a good set up, just that it’s done in some areas.

hey george, there is a “special” evener that pioneer sells and probably everyone else and you could of course make it yourself. it pins to your pole in two spots 9″ apart fore and aft. its a heavy clumsy thing but works good. mine isn’t adjustable anyway to give a horse some leverage or help against the other two. but you don’t have to move your pole. i wouldn’t go out and buy a third horse if i didn’t have to, but if you have one they become very handy in field work. you can just go and go.

Les’s article was in an issue just a year ago I believe. I can’t put my hands on it right now. He subscribes to an unique line set-up as well as his own 3-horse evener. He has all that info, and I’m sure he would enjoy sharing it with you George. Don’t hesitate to pick his brain for all you can. He is still vital for an octogenarian, but he won’t be around for ever.

Carl

hi George, First the short answer. Yes, center fired evener is perfect for a off set tongue. You already figured out some of the advantages – you can use a doubletree and singletree you already have. When hooked to a tongue the animal power will be centered in front of you.

How much to move the tongue is simple. You measure the evener from the point of draft to the center of the space between first and second horse. You can put the singletree on one side and the double tree on the other or you can split the doubletree over the tongue. What ever will help hold the whole thing up.

On hitching remember to attach the neck yoke in some way. There is nothing stopping the third horse from stepping back and letting the neck yoke fall off. It can take a little practice to figure how tight to hook as when that third horse is standing relaxed, the hitch of the other two may be tighter than it looks. Just look while they are working and see if it looks too tight, adjust accordingly.

I don’t think it was mentioned earlier but most all pioneer forecarts were made to have their tongues moved to either side. Just look under the seat tube.