Near miss

[Donn Hewes]

A minor event in the life of a horse farmer, but one I thought others might benefit from hearing about. I have an old John Deere rake that I was tedding with today, and a bar broke, also one end of the reel dropped down to the frame. Needless to say this was very exciting for a young horse and mule. With a minimum of control they tried to jump and run. Total distance maybe 100′. It was not easy to stop them however and I was steering them towards the fence. That eventually influenced them to slow and stop.

I am still busy raking and mowing hay today, so I will just list a few of the obvious things that could have been done differently. Anyone with other thoughts will not hurt my feelings. This is an old rake and I have done a lot of work to it over the years. Replaced a drive gear, other bars have broken and been repaired before. Many teeth replaced. In light of all the work I have done this rake still wasn’t in that great a condition. This is all ways a risk of causing a serious accident. On a rake of this type a run away is made worse by the fact the the driver is in a precarious position above the rake on a wobbly seat.

I know I am slightly conservative in this, but this is why I prefer rakes, tedders, manure spreaders, etc, that are pulled by a forecart.

The mule has been working bitted down all spring and today I was trying him out with out being bitted down. That probably made him a little harder to stop.

On the bright side, no one was hurt, the rake was parked, and I finished tedding the hay with a Grimm tedder. I will attach a picture of the rake.

[Does’ Leap]

Donn:

Thanks for sharing that. I am glad you and your animals are safe. We laid down 4 acres of hay today and will hope for good weather (in additon to sound equipment, safe operation…to name a few).

George

George

[karl t pfister]

Hay Donn sounds like good news . I guess the angels were watching after you , I hate those times when stuff happens to things we are dragging , almost seems like the horses are thinking the faster I go, the faster the Devil goes trying to catch me . I recently got an I & J pto cart , the ring and pinion gears do make a hell of a racket and create that chasing syndrome .I had decided to introduce it slowly (not typical ) .2 horses were no big deal ,but the 3/rd thought that contraption was manufactioned in Hell , took her a while to accept it . once again the slow way turns out to be the fast way or , if it were easy everybody’d be still doing it ? none of this really addresses your situation just my thoughts and glad you’re safe . which is the mule in that photo ?

[near horse]

Hi Donn,

I have an old JD clattertrap too! Mine has the heavy duty tractor tongue and I’ve used it behind the cart but was contemplating setting it up w/ the team tongue and seat. I don’t like running it behind the cart so well – tractor tongue is a bit short for cart use. Now I’m a bit worried. My rake has a tendency to snag a tine on the bar where the strippers attach (bar w/ strippers? That seems a strange phrase to write in a farming post). That will lock up everything – not to mention bending the poop out of the tine.

Glad you were able to handle things so well. Don’t tell me it’s warm enough to be raking in shorts! We’re still waiting for summer –

[jac]

Hi Donn.. thats a situation that can so easily lead to a total wreck but it says a lot about the conditioning you clearly spent on your team when they settled in the space of only 100′ . I agree with you regards the hitch cart but wonder about the change of point of draft..a potato spinner for example.. Main thing is you and the team are safe..
John

[Carl Russell]

It’s hard to keep these old pieces in sound condition. Especially these rakes. I also have always used mine behind the forecart, and have found it to work great.

As far as the bolting as a result of the break-down, I’m gad you’re safe and well. I always see these situations as good opportunities to exercise communication in extenuating circumstances. There is no way, and probably not much sense in it anyway, to expose your animals to catastrophic events, but we still need to find the way to reinforce our communication and leadership when it does happen.

Good job, and thanks for sharing.

Carl

[Author]

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