unicorn oxen hitch

[ricenmor]

My grandson is just getting started with oxen. He has one he works single and two that he works together. He thinks he should be able to use them in a unicorn hitch like horses! I told him I didn’t think so, but what do I know about oxen, I am a mule man.

Anyone ever done a unicorn hitch with oxen?

[Howie]

We used to work them in unicorn or tandem a lot. Every ox should be trained as a single. That ox in the front learns what to do in a hurry if he has a good pair behind him and a decent trainer. When you tell them to go he has no choice and the same for stop.

[Crabapple Farm]

Howie, did you use anything as an evener when working unicorn or tandem hitches?

I have seen pictures of, but have never used, a vertical evener designed for hitching tandem teams of oxen together. Basically a triangular piece of 1/2″ plate steel with holes in the three corners for attatchments – wheel team’s yoke hitched to top hole, lead team hitched to bottom hole with a chain, and the load chain hitched to the hole in the rear. I think Tiller’s International designed and made the one I’ve seen pictures of.
For a unicorn hitch, it would be nice to make the evener offset, so that the single gets a proportional load. Think of the proportions of the rear part of a three horse evener, scale it down, and hang it vertically from the yoke of the wheel team.
I hope that is coherent and you can picture it.
You can of course just hitch chain to chain with no evener, but the pull will be much nicer with some sort of evener in there (I think, but again, I’ve never done it).
-Tevis

[Howie]

I have used the vertical evener some but most of the time I used the unicorn as a training thing and it would work better without the evener.
Would use the evener for two teams. My evener has three holes in the center to adjust the load.
Single tandem, the rope eveners work the best.

[bendube]

We used a unicorn this past week, because our off ox aggravated his hock while haying. We put the nigh up front, with a team of yearlings in back, to pull the hay wagon to the barn.

Next time we rig them up like this, I’ll take pictures and post them.

Overall, it worked well enough, but it led to a few questions.

1.) The yearlings wanted to keep a faster pace than the single in front, and almost got tangled in the chain running back from the lead steer. Is there a way to avoid this problem? (Other than teaching the boys to “easy” better! Which we are doing anyways.)

2.) What is the best way to use a vertical evener on a piece of equipment with a tongue so that the evener hangs vertically, but the tongue can’t slip off?

Thanks,
Ben

[Vicki]

I made a unicorn hitch with my three Dexters a few times, just for fun and training. Howie: remember Heather? She and I did this. She drove the single and her brother drove the team behind, hitched to a stoneboat. We simply chained the single’s whiffletree to the team’s yoke ring; not ideal line of draft , but we were not really working very hard.

I have used a vertical evener with tandem ox hitches, but not with a unicorn. Works great. You can use a drop chain if you don’t have an evener.

I suppose that if you had poles or shafts instead of chains on the single, a faster rear team could not overtake the single in a unicorn.

That grandson of yours, ricenmor, sounds like a great kid! Help him try his ideas if you can.

[Vicki]

Here’s a photo

[bendube]

thanks vicki, that is definitely helpful. We had a 5ish foot section of chain between the lead steer’s swingletree and the team behind. Attaching the swingletree directly to the evener seems to be a better idea, and the length of the evener should keep the angle of draft appropriate. That should prevent the heel team from running over any chain as well. We’ll try it that way next time.

Did you use the evener with equipment with a pole? If so, how did you set it up? As I can see it, the pull chain can’t be used to hold the tongue in the ring, because if the pull chain is tight enough to do this, the vertical evener cannot do its job. Is this right?

Thanks again.

[Vicki]

I’ve used vertical eveners only with sleds and plows using chains, not with a tongue. Your final question is out of my league to answer; though, yes, I cannot see how the evener could attach to the pull chain used to hold the tongue. My guess is that the tongue could be held to the heel team’s ring by T-pin, then put the evener on the pull chain just like you would without a tongue.

I wonder how they did it historically with the big freight hitches out west. Howie probably knows. . .

[bendube]

Hi Vicki,
See these two pictures of the hitch.
We used 3 different configurations to keep the pole from dropping while still using the evener.

1.) A second chain attached to the heel team’s calabash.
2.) a “safety chain” that made a loop through the hardware on the end of the tongue (this worked the best except for a HORRIBLE tangle when I tried to unhitch that I almost had to use a hacksaw on!)
3.) (Pictured) the tongue hanging from a chain.

I feel like the T-pin would have worked the best, but we didn’t have one.

The single-tree is attached almost directly to the evener by a very short piece of chain. This works a lot better than a longer piece of chain, which has severe risks of tangles and doesn’t seem to promote even pulling.

The single-tree hanging down right in front of the heel team was a great way of keeping them from trying to overrun the lead steer, and teaching them the meaning of “easy,” though adjusting the hitch such that the singletree doesn’t hit their faces was a tad tricky.

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks,
Ben

[Droverone]

I would have mounted the vertical evener on the end of that tongue, solid, and eliminated that chain going back between the wheel team, they are going to carry the weight of the pole anyway, and the leaders line of draft would remain the same. Also, since your hitched so far out you could use a narrower singltree, lengthen the chain distnce from the vertical evener to the single tree and shorten the leaders trace chains to keep the singltree way from the wheelers.

[Vicki]

Good ideas, Droverone. Bendube: those are nice looking oxen.

[CharlyBonifaz]

a great way of keeping them from trying to overrun the lead steer,

wouldn’t a heavy load meant for 3 slow them down enough when they try to pull it all by themselves (being 2 only); or turn the argument around: if they indeed can pull it by themselves there is no need for the 3rd ox up front

something else to consider:
the heavier the load, the faster will mine stride out in the beginning

[Author]

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