Teaming Donks with Horses

[JaredWoodcock]

I sold My haflinger to a friend who farms for a small religious community. He has a 5 acre market garden, and about 20 acres of hay ground, pretty much all tractor work but they would like to transition more work to animal traction. They were working a pair of standard donkeys. Now that they have the haflinger he is doing most of the cultivation work. I stopped by yesterday and they were getting ready to log off some firewood and it got me thinking. How could we team up the donkeys with the haflinger? If they were going to cut hay or do wagon work should they hook up all three animals or try to team the horse and one donkey. He is a big haflinger at about 1100-1200 lbs (22 inch collar when in working shape). I dont know how to guess donkey weights but they stand a little over 12 hands.

What would the tree setup look like with the three animals and a pole?

Thanks
Jared

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Jared, I have always been a fan of working different animals together. While the Haflinger is most likely bigger and stronger than the donkeys that doesn’t mean they can’t work together. When you lift a table with someone that is way bigger and stronger than you, you both still lift half (one on each end). The easiest way to work these animals together is to have them all do the same amount of work. That way a standard tripletree or three horse evener will work fine.

If you wanted to fine tune the system slightly because the donkeys were consistently tiring before the Haflinger you would shorten the haflinger’s end of the evener by an inch or two. That would increase his work load from 1/3 slightly.

For tongue set up I prefer a tongue that moves over left or right to fall between two animals. Usually 18″ will do it, but it depends on the evener. This hitch keeps your animals centered right in front of you and the evener is also centered right in front of you. Often in the same hole a two horse evener came out of. Then you can use a standard two horse neck yoke on the two closest to the pole (with a d ring harness this is slightly different). This is one time where you want the neck yoke to be secure to the tongue as there is nothing preventing it from coming off if your third animal steps forward.

Driving these animals as a team of three should be fun. Don’t hesitate to ask if something I said doesn’t make sense. Good Luck, Donn

[JaredWoodcock]

Thanks Don, If I get some time to go over we will try a normal 3 abreast setup. Any opinions on what order to put the animals in? Haflinger in the middle? From my experience with these animals they will do whatever we ask as long as we are patient. I have never worked with Donks but I am really starting to like them, they are more like dogs than horses….

Jared

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Jared, Sounds like fun. I always think mules and donkeys are more like cats and horses are more like dogs! Must be the individuals involved. Haflinger in the middle looks nice and symmetrical, but it isn’t necessary. I would go based on how comfortable the donks will be seperated by the horse. If there is any timidness on the part of the donks I would put the bolder on in the middle. Just a thought, it is always trail and error with a thing like that. Talk to you soon, Donn

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