been working with my ox this way (forehead yoke) before we started pulling with different kinds of harnesses (the latter requiring some muscle development to fit properly); with the forehead yoke he will still pull, when he does no more with f.e. a withers yoke; the animal has to figure out his own way of maximum power transfer, especially in the beginning mine tried a lot of diffrent neck/head positions until he found his comfortable optimum; there are different sizes of forehead yokes but they barely need fitting….
positives:
absolutely easy to work with, nothing you can do wrong
will not chafe, as it “falls into place”
have not managed to break one yet
easy to maintain, little storage space needed
negatives:
no way for the animal to keep flies away (so add an additional item: leather-strings that hang down over the face)
definitely needs horns to be fixed to
any ideas how to make it, or who could make it?
mine has a wooden bow between the iron bar and the leather pad; there are some made of only iron and leather, which is what I would be looking into if I had to organize them nowadays (only a smith and a saddler) – but be sure to show the saddler what you want, otherwise you end up, with straps put on the wrong way :rolleyes: ; I also have old forehead yokes that have a flat piece of metal between the pad and the iron bar that works like a spring and adds “cushion” when beginning to pull a load
being of leather, how do you maintain it?
wipe it off after use; clean it with saddle soap every once in a while and oil it (including wood and iron)
I can’t understand how they carry the pole.
hmmm, I was taught, the pole is not to carry but to steer…….; the chain runs from the pole to a simple leather collar that goes around the neck
how do they hold that cart back going downhill or backing up
with a back harness/britchen, anything that runs all around the animal and hooks to the chain that comes from the pole; plus: brakes on the carts
hope this answers some of the questions
elke
.
