hames

[jac]

Carl i noticed in some of your pictures the new style hames which i believe are cast alloy. I saw an ad in SFJ for them.. Any thoughts on advantages, disadvantages, ect
John

[Carl Russell]

jac;17495 wrote:

Carl i noticed in some of your pictures the new style hames which i believe are cast alloy. I saw an ad in SFJ for them.. Any thoughts on advantages, disadvantages, ect
John

Not new by a long shot. Those are Wallingford Hames. Mitch knows the story better than I.

Cast aluminum. Un-breakable, lightweight. No different than any other for the purpose, but definitely built to take heavy draft for pulling, or logging.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

hey guys, the only thing i’d add was they were invented for the pulling ring by dick wallingford. they had a double hame strap at the throat, and probably were unbreakable. i always wanted a set but they were pretty pricey. richard (wallingford) was always looking for a horse to match his “rock” horse and his guarantee was “if your horse breaks this hame, i’ll buy the horse!”

[grey]

@mitchmaine 17503 wrote:

hey guys, the only thing i’d add was they were invented for the pulling ring by dick wallingford. they had a double hame strap at the throat, and probably were unbreakable. i always wanted a set but they were pretty pricey. richard (wallingford) was always looking for a horse to match his “rock” horse and his guarantee was “if your horse breaks this hame, i’ll buy the horse!”

I hadn’t heard that. Love it!

[jac]

What a great selling slogan and gaurantee rolled into one.. We have nothing like that over here, but then the do gooders would never allow pulling contests… They cartainly look neat..I take it the ones in SFJ are made by someone under licence.. Andrus Custom is th name on the advert ??..
John

[mitchmaine]

hey john, you must be right. dick died back in 2006, and his shop on rt. 201 up in the forks looks kinda empty now. the hames in the ad look just the same, and must be just as good. the originals had a wh(wallingford hame) in raised letters on the face of the hame. thats the set i’m looking for.

[Carl Russell]

Mine also have the size number on them. Wallingford hames were measured by the distance between buckles, instead of the collar size. Mine are 14’s and 16’s. He also made some with varying degrees of bow for different shaped necks.

I should also say that they really aren’t that light. Certainly not as light as steel tubular hames, but they are virtually indestructable. I bought mine about 20 years ago as part of a set of harnesses, so I have no idea what the prices would be like, or whether they would be worth it. They are well designed, and well built.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

if a photo attachment comes up here it’s a photo of dick wallingford and his horse rock. many people from all over this country said he was the greatest pulling horse ever. you’d only have to step into his barn to know you were in the presence of royalty. he just had this way. he knew he was good, and he was.

[ATTACH]1148.jpg” />

[mitchmaine]

me again, if i didn’t say so, that picture was taken the night rock retired, late 70’s maybe, and the horse blanket was made for him out of the blue ribbons he won.

[Gabe Ayers]

I have one side of those mag. hames with a WH on them. I had a set but some so and so borrowed them in my absence once and never brought them back. One side was straighter than the other. I think I still have the straighter set of two.

I remember hearing that they were made in a homemade forge out of melted down chain saw cylinders. That’s about all this old man can remember about them.

I wouldn’t sell the side I do have now that I have heard this story. They were a little funny on the top adjustment and it will come off when harnessing if one is not careful. Maybe that is just my pair. They are still on one of the original pulling harness we have from Arthur Miller in Illinois. They were one of the first pair of mag. hames and nylon tugs in this part of the country.

Awesome forearm and cannon on that horse in the photo. Looks like a Belgian Shire/Clyde cross with the big wide blaze and white stocking in the rear. Just guessing or saying, I know nothing of the horse or man.
Bet they were a great team though…

We retired our old Wedge horse from pulling two years ago. He was legendary down here in the small circle we run. Nothing like the pulling that goes on in the North and Northeast.

[mitchmaine]

interesting horse, jason. hard to tell under that blanket, but he really wasn’t as big as you might expect. no butt. massive chest and neck (almost one). wide front end. notice how his collar lays? head always up. he must have had a basketball for a heart. i think he was pure western belgian.

[Traveling Woodsman]

I bought a pair of Andrus hames a few summers ago, I was getting my colt set up and my two other harnesses already had hames. They were kind of expensive (~$200), but I really like them and I think I will get another pair if I can to match cause they’d pretty much last forever. They are lighter then tubular steel pulling hames, but heavier than regular farm hames. They only make one size hame, and it can fit 4 different collar sizes. I believe they make 2 shapes.

I like ’em cause they’re light for their strength, they don’t rust or require any care, double hame strap loops, and the top hame strap stays in place and can’t move on you like my steel pulling hames and farm hames do. Jason mentioned something about his being funny up there, I must have a different design.

[Carl Russell]

Traveling Woodsman;17567 wrote:

I bought a pair of Andrus hames a few summers ago, ….. the top hame strap stays in place and can’t move on you like my steel pulling hames and farm hames do. Jason mentioned something about his being funny up there, I must have a different design.

I think that the Andrus design must have improved something, because mine are old WH’s and the square brass ring can slide up or down a notch without removing the strap. It can be a little bothersome, but I have learned to watch out for it when harnessing. In fact it is nice sometimes to be able to adjust that without having to undo the strap.

Carl

[Traveling Woodsman]

@Carl Russell 17568 wrote:

In fact it is nice sometimes to be able to adjust that without having to undo the strap.

Carl

Yeah I guess if you find you need to adjust your hames regularly then it would be nice not to have to undo them. My situation is such that I use the same collar and harness for a particular horse continually so I do not need to make that adjustment hardly ever. It’s far more pain for me to constantly be sliding the hame loop to the proper spot than to un-do the strap every few years or more. But whatever floats your boat, it’s not gonna make or break you. 🙂

Do you guys have balls on your WH hames?

[Author]

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