Regarding finding equipment for single horse

[Thecowboysgirl]

We were talking about using a forecart…

Might I be able to pull something like this behind a forecart rather than an ATV?

http://www.countrymanufacturing.com/manurespreaders.htm

I am looking at the smallest of that list.

There does seem to be an abundance of farm equipment designed to be pulled by ATVs or garden tractors. Can many of those be attached to a forecart instead? If so, it seems like my problems are mostly solved. I would then just need a draft mule or the smallest draft horse I could find who was dead broke enough in harness to tolerate my greenhorn self. 🙂

[Thecowboysgirl]

Also, is there any type of mower attachment that can be used with a forecart? For instance what about something like this?

http://www.reelmowersetc.com/mascot_five_reel_gang_mower.htm

Though I am unclear whether these mowers could handle pasture or not. The pasture mowing I will have to do will just be clipping down what the horses won’t graze.

[Andy Carson]

I am sure that a good sized horse can pull that manure spreader behind a forecart. I have seen the reel mowers you are refering to sold to be pulled behind horses. I have never used this type of mower, but I am under the impression they might not deal with long grass or tough weeds very well. You can find sickle bar mowers for single horses or they make gas powered rough cut mowers meant to be pulled (again) behind lawn tractors and ATVs. These mowers are noisy, spooky things by the way, and can hurt you and your horse easily. It wouldn’t be the first machine I would hitch up to!

[Andy Carson]

In my hands, alot of equipment is adaptable to a single horse. When I am trying to adapting different pieces of equipment from lawn tractors/ATVs (or “normal” tractors), I try to keep several things in mind that are fundamentally different between these modes of traction. Firstly, all these machines produce more horsepower that a single horse. By horsepower, I mean in the classical sense of force times velocity. The machines do this because they exert small forces (exploding gas) really really frequently. The horse does this by producing big forces (hundreds of pounds of contracting muscle) relatively infrequently. When horses produce similar power to engines (which is rare), they do so because the forces of thier legs is just tremendous. Another important thing to think about is that machines produce a certain amount of power pretty regularly, where horses can easily produce 10 times thier “steady pull” power for a short time. Yet another important factor is that horses weigh alot more than a lawn tractor or an ATV, and have nearly prefect “gearing” to apply all thier power to a pull. Lawn tractors and ATVS really aren’t geared for slow hard pulls. Any size of “real” tractors is. All these differences have important consequences when adapting equipment. Long story short, I have found that even a single horses produce less power than a machine, it can be hard on equipment due to strong instantaneous forces that can be applied and the extreme traction that allow these forces to act, which becomes especialy important if the implement gets hung up on something.

Blah, Blah, here’s a flow chart of how I think about (and have gone about) adapting ATV/tractor equipment:

1. Can you pull or push the implement for a few steps?

Yes- Your horse can pull it, go to #5
No- go to #2

2. Was this implement desigend for a “real” tractor (as opposed to a lawn tractor or ATV)

Yes- Your horse won’t break it (unless it’s really old or obviously flawed), go to #3
No- You horse might break it but can almost certainly pull it, go to #5

3. Is this implement sized appropriately for a single horse? (compare to traditional horse implements, draft charts, DAP, etc)

Yes (rare)- You horse can use it and won’t break it (Yeah!)
No- go to #4

4. Can you cut down this implement or just use part of it?

Yes- compare to alternatives (If it still looks good, modify it)
No- walk away

5. What happens if the implement/trailer/etc hits an obstruction that it is likely to meet in normal use and the horse pulls really hard?

There is a verticle “bump” (IE a wheel going over a rock) -don’t worry
Implement slides over object -don’t worry
Implement catches on a weak spring (IE cultivator or harrow) -don’t worry
Implement catches on a strong spring (IE chisel) -go to #6
Object catches hard and doesn’t move -go to #6

6. Is it important that the horse be able to pull really really hard when using this implement?

No- Incorporate a piece of rope, small chain link, or shear bolt to act as a “fuse” to keep the flimsy thing from breaking
Yes- Reevaluate if you really need this thing (walk away or beef everything up)

[Thecowboysgirl]

You said “No- Incorporate a piece of rope, small chain link, or shear bolt to act as a “fuse” to keep the flimsy thing from breaking”

Would this serve as a breakaway like how you use bailing twine on cross-ties so if the horses go back they can bust loose? So if the equipment got hung up and the horse pulled hard it would just detach? I understood everything else there, I just wanted to see if I got that right. I think I’d way rather have it detach than pull the horse up hard. That sounds painful. (?)

Regarding the mower: I got that impression from their ad as well, that it wasn’t meant to be used on tall grass or heavy weeds. Just curious. Are you familiar with the sickle bar mowers on I& J’s website?

http://www.farmingwithhorses.com/horse-drawn-haying-equipment

I can’t understand from looking at this whether these all require power to run– one place says that it can now be “ground driven”. Does that mean the force of the horse pulling operates the mower and it does not need PTO? These all sound too big and heavy to be pulled by one horse but I guess I don’t even know what one horse can comfortably pull.

Any horse drawn sickle bar mower with only one shaft in front is designed to be pulled by two horses, right? (one on either side?)

Thank you thank you for all your patience in answering all my questions and explaining stuff.

[Thecowboysgirl]

Call me quirky but it kinda defeats the purpose in my mind to pull something gas powered behind a horse…

[Andy Carson]

Yip, that is exactly what I was meaning with the rope. I don’t use it much, mostly on a slip scoop that can catch hard and I can’t always see what it’s catching on… I don’t worry about it on most of my other equipment. I don’t know if this is standard practice really, or just a habit I picked up from running some pieces fo equipment that break from time to time.

You are probably going to spend some time looking for a sickle bar mower. There are smaller 3-4 foot bar mowers designed for a single horse with shafts instead of a pole. These aren’t as common as the larger types but I have seen them advertized from time to time. I keep thinking about getting one and then something else always comes up that I want more. If it was me, I would look for a single horse. It will have shafts like in the link below. You can see in the video that this is hard work. If you are interested in a mule (which i think is a fantastic idea) I would guess you will want a big strong mule for this type of work. Donn if our resident mule expert, and he would know more than me.
http://www.drafthorseaustralia.com/mowerrestoration2004.htm

I have added another link here discussing draft loads for different pieces of equipment. Personally, I think a single animal does a little more than half of what a team does, but I’m not sure if this is a majority opinion. I usually divide a team in half and round up. The link below has draft loads for different implements. If you want to know a specific load, just troll old posts or simply ask.
http://www.ruralheritage.com/equip_shed/draft_loads.htm

[Andy Carson]

Yip, that is exactly what I was meaning with the rope. I don’t use it much, mostly on a slip scoop that can catch hard and I can’t always see what it’s catching on… I don’t worry about it on most of my other equipment. I don;t know if this is standard practice really, or just a habit I picked up from running some pieces fo equpiment that break from time to time.

You are probably going to spend some time looking for a sickle bar mower. There are smaller 3-4 foot bar mowers designed for a single horse with shafts instead of a pole. These aren’t as common as the larger types but I have seen them advertized from time to time. I keep thinking about getting one and then something else always comes up that I want more. If it was me, I would look for a single horse. It will have shafts like this.
http://www.drafthorseaustralia.com/mowerrestoration2004.htm

I have added another link here discussing draft loads for different pieces of equipment. Personally, I think a single animal does a little more than half of what a team does, but I’m not sure if thisis a majority opinion. I usually divide a team in half and round up. Here’s alot of loads for different implements.
http://www.ruralheritage.com/equip_shed/draft_loads.htm

[Thecowboysgirl]

Yeah I have been browsing for a few months now and not seen one for a single horse. I have seen t hat pic of the Australian guy before though. I’ll just keep looking.

I did find this guy who has quite a few mowers (all double) if anybody else is looking:

http://garyshorsedrawnmowersandrakes.com/index.htm

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