Memory from my teen years, and a question.

[DIM TIM]

I do know some things, because a lot of my family were farmers,or raised in farm families when they were young. I also learned things in school, and by my own studies because of interest in something.
Back in my teen years, I remember a farm, just a few miles from my home, and the gentleman had some draft horses at one time.

I remember seeing a heavy farm sled sitting in one of his fields, and it usually sat empty. However, sometimes when I passed his farm, I would sometimes see it moved to another section of the field, and sometimes it would be stacked with a pile of stones. Over the course of a couple years there were one or two others, and usually they were either full or empty.

This farm had been there for as long as I could remember, and it seemed to me that any stones that would do damage to any of the plows, cultivators, etc, would have long since been removed.

So my question is this, I know that these sleds are used often to move materials around the farms like firewood, building materials, etc, but do they also get used for training new animals, and would they be loaded with weights like field stones to get the animals used to more and more heavy loads just like someone who goes to a gym and lifts heavier and heavier weights as they progress in their training?

I just was struck by the thought of that gentleman’s farm a bit ago, and that is something I have always wondered ever since o say the sleds for the first time, loaded with rocks.

[dominiquer60]

Where there are some rocks, there will always be more to follow. Freezing and thawing, and tillage bring new stones the the surface every year if the ground has any stones in it at all.

Yes some people do use weighted sleds or stoneboats to train and or condition. Many people into pulling contest will spend hours towing loads behind their teams to get them fit.

[Billy Foster]

I just sold a few trailer loads of aged field stones out of one of the rougher grazing pastures we have. problem is they do not grow very fast so i figure it is not too sustainable.

[karl t pfister]

mr Foster , it may not be sustainable but it is a product or byproduct , what do your pallets weigh and what do you get paid for them? .It looks like whole sale
very impressive , I’ve sold stone before but it has been flat ones good for building ,have run out of them but got plenty of the cobbly types

[Author]

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