[Grandad]

Hello Near Horse,
This Clearwater River is in Alberta near the town, Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. These pictures were taken about six miles from the eastern boundary of Banff National Park. The headwaters of the Clearwater are in the park.

[Grandad]

Skype is free…computer to computer. For an almost miniscule amount of money an account can be set up that enables the skyper to call land lines and cell phones. I had a long conversation with my brother last night. He is currently working in Bogata Colombia and I am in a remote work camp in the wilds of northwestern Alberta Canada. By contrast, my brother was working in Colombia in 1969 and wanted to call home on Christmas day. He and his wife went to the main telephone office in the town they were in and it took 6 hours to get a phone line out. Times and technologies have certainly changed. Old fashioned vacations are still in style though so I’ll take this oppurtunity to post a couple of pics of my grandsons and I on vacation. Merry Christmas to all!

[Grandad]

I built a set of double poles for three abreast and am very happy with it. Originally I built a one piece neck yoke and then modified the neck yoke into a two piece affair. The one piece neck yoke is fine for level ground but the two piece is much better if the ground you are working on is uneven. I have attached a couple of photos. One of each type of neck yoke. The focus isn’t very good for the two piece yoke but it gives you the idea.

[Grandad]

Robert and DDD,
Here are some pics. Better late than never I’m told. I have removed the poles for transport and forgot to take pictures with the poles still on. Sorry. The side view shows the coil spring which helps take the weight off the horses necks. The tighter the spring the lighter the poles The top view is what you see when looking down from the wagon box. The front views show the three recievers to which the poles can be attached. I can use a double pole for three abreast or a single offset pole also for three abreast. The advantages to the two pole set up are all three horses can help with backing up as well as holding back on downhills. I can also run with one pole in the center and go with two horses in the event the trail is to narrow for three abreast. So far the only disadvantage I can see is the fact the horses are a long way in front of the wagon. Tight corners may be a little dicey. I am about to embark on a trip into the Canadian Rockies with the grandkids before school starts. Good luck to all of you who find yourselves in the path of the hurricane.
TN

[Grandad]

Will try to get a couple of pics up in the next couple of days.

[Grandad]

Big Horses,
Bought the 556 from a neighbor 3 years ago and have had very little grief. Changed a hydraulic hose and one of the pins holding the gate lifting rams fell out which in turn broke a hydraulic fitting. The one thing I don’t like about the baler is that the twine arms put the outside twines to close to the bales end and it is very easy to knock the end twines off when you go to move the bales. There appears to be no way of adjusting the arms so I am thinking of cutting a couple of inches out of the twine arms so the twines won’t be so near the ends. Other than that…no complaints.

[Grandad]

Thank you all for the input. Three abreast sounds as though it is the way to go. Some internet searching leads me to believe that the idea of being able to move the tongue to the center for two horses or to be offset for three horses has merit. I am quite intrigued by one photo I saw, where the center horse had a pole on each side and all three horses were hooked to a common neck yoke. I think with a cross piece perpendicular to the tongue a person could mount (weld or bolt) recievers that would allow for a pole to be fastened on the left, right or centered on the wagon. Such a setup would even allow two poles (shafts) to be used.
Thanks again.

J-L. Round bales. 5×5 made with a John Deere 556 and probably weghing 1000 pounds. I did weigh some second cut alfalfa last year and they came in at 1210 pounds.

[Grandad]

Now is when I have to admit to not knowing the basic meaning of some (some=most:o) of the terms used in the replies to my question. I don’t know the difference between a tongue evener and a field evener. I have seen photos of a double pole setup as well as pictures of an offset pole. The double pole setup had a neck yoke that tied all three horses together. The offset tongue appeared to be the same as two horses hitched to a regular tongue (offset of course) with the third horse hooked to the end of the triple tree. In this case the third horse had no hold back or backup capabilities. I also saw a picture of an offset tongue hitch with the third horse hooked to the end of the triple tree but hooked to a three across neck yoke. I suppose the triple neck yoke has the advantage of of keeping all the horses together? What would be the disadvantages of the triple neck yoke? What would be the approximate distance in inches to offset a tongue for these horses of mine? They are “medium sized” horses weighing in at 1500/1700 pounds. With double poles I’m guessing the middle horse would be backed in first in order to start hooking up? There will be times when three abreast will be no problem but other times when three abreast are too wide (on the trail into the mountains). That said, I am a reasonably good fabricator and envision building a hitch for my wagon where I could have the pole offset left, right or centered. I think it would be easy enough to have the same hitch capable of having a double pole (shafts) attached. ???
blue80 I do have”Draft Horses and Mules” by Damerow and Rice and find the pictures to be worth a thousand words. I am going to attach a photo of what I hope to be doing next August.
Thanks All…

[Grandad]

Thanks kindly for the welcomes folks. Sorry it has taken a while to respond but I have been busy weaning calves and getting them to market. The team in the pictures I attached (Slim and Pete) were purchased this fall. Their former owner passed away this summer and I got them from the fellows widow. The fellow who passed away had two teams and a spare horse. One of the teams was bought by someone else which left one team and a spare horse. When I picked up Slim and Pete the spare horse (Shorty) was very sad to see his friends go and I felt bad for him. To make a long story short, I wound up buying Shorty a month later. The horses were all glad to be together again and my guilt feelings subsided. At any rate my team now stands at three and I have questions about driving and hithching three horses. I’m not sure which forum to ask the questions in but I guess I’ll just pick one and ask away.
Thanks again for the welcomes.
J-L Not set up for feeding cows yet but I will be in the future.
PS blue80 The Flames 🙂

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