Is fjord enough horse?

[sickle hocks]

Looking at a fjord team and wondering if they are enough horse for the jobs on my farm, I don’t want to ask too much and sour them..

I’m sure they would be fine with haywagon, dump rake, and driving single with walking cultivator…

I wonder about mowing, hauling hay on a bob sled (i’ve got a pretty heavy bob sled right now), a four foot seed drill, four or five foot field cultivator (sweeps)??…i also have a disc, i could remove the outer discs and make it smaller…

Most people I’ve talked to just use their fjords on a wagon, so it’s hard to get a good sense of what they can do and what is too much…

thanks for any thoughts

[HeeHawHaven]

Don’t know the specifics of your equipment and I’m not an expert by any means, but I can tell yu that the right team is quite strong and can do a lot if they are used to work. I have a Fjord gelding and he’s quite the beast. Also my fjord mule team has disced 5 acres in a day and didn’t even sweat. I figure if I need more horsepower, I’ll hitch all 3 together. See pics in this thread: http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?4997-First-3-abreast!

That is the disc they pulled as a team as well.

Dave

[Jonathan Shively]

My Fjord team of 4 year old mares are quite the pulling machines. Have not had them on a day long work day but they are ready and willing workers. Your soil type, your work methods, your ingenuity to accommodate them all play into your success with them also. No they are not 1800 pound belgians or percherons, but they are working fools for the person that puts them in the right scenarios. Are they only wagon pullers, nope, not by a long shot. Remember, dynamite comes in small packages.

[Anonymous]

Sickle Hocks,

Personnally I think You should buy them and then before you become attatched and learn just how hard they pull and work, ship them up to me to go with mine!

As has been said they pull and work hard. Remember to work them up to things and not to over work them, and they will do right by you.

Dan

[sickle hocks]

thanks all, i am going to have a look at them, hopefully this weekend….i’m definitely interested in the idea, I liked the photos of the three abreast fjules and fjord, makes me think of how much flexibility you would have if you could find a third to add for heavy work, or to rotate in the team..

I’m wondering if i will get in difficulties trying to get an appropriate pole height on a mower…and whether my draft sized yokes and singletrees etc will cause trouble or if they will just be spaced a bit further apart.

[Jonathan Shively]

If you have not personally been up to a Fjord in person, you will be surprised at their size. They are stout, wide based, heavy boned, clean limbed and willing. They are not finer boned like the haflinger (I have had and farmed with haflingers and haflinger crosses) not knocking the haflinger, just more my type of animal. The Fjord team I have is the same size as my horse whose mother was a Begian/QH cross and sire was a Percheron/Haflinger cross. So he is my true 1/4 horse, he is 1/4 Haflinger/1/4 QH/1/4 Percheron/1/4 Belgian! Seriously, they will work and work hard.

[Donn Hewes]

Fjords and Haflinger’s pull mowers just fine. Perhaps, not the seven foot bar, or not for as many hours. In a western style harness you will want your breast strap short to keep your pole up as high as you can. I think the tongues, neck yokes, and eveners, work just fine with out modification. I prefer to be able to hitch with any horse so I would use standard draft lengths and sizes.

These smaller drafts (fjords and haflingers) do a ton of work, no doubt about it. If you want to get down to the nitty gritty of will it be enough; you need more specifics. How many acres? how many days? how many people? How many bales? Then you can start to determine what exact draft power you need.

[J-L]

think you’d run out of horse flesh if you are doing a lot of mowing or if you are sledding your hay very far. My teams of Perch or Belgian horses get worked down pretty hard by spring.

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