Using a pole with swiss-type harness and team

[bivol]

@CharlyBonifaz 11273 wrote:

@Anne
run it all around the animal and hook it to the ring on the pole (you can still run the circle through the neckband).
I do like the sturdy look of that britchen on the right! been thinking of making a broad one from a horses breastcollar…..

@Bivol
do you speak any Bulgarian? The university from Sofia keeps up its forest holding in Jundola, were they work with oxen. The type of forest and terrain make them superior to horses. About 10 years ago they must have worked 16 oxenteams. I#d love to search the net for them……
elke

hi Elke!

i had no idea they used oxen, let alone study their use in a university! i thought they, as a part of soviet block, had an almost fanatical dedication to machinery… or so i thought looking at socialism and mechanization…
worth googling for sure!:cool:

i don’t speak bulgarian, and it’s even more trouble looking in bulgarian cause they write cyrillic instead of latin, and i don’t know to read cyrillic very well… not to mention having no clue of the language!
bit i’ll try to look it up with dictionaries.

Fabian, glad you enjoyed it!

i forgot to mention all languages.

so other would be:

Turkey:

Öküz kagni (ox wagon) – note the primitive yoke and cart design. this cart design is very similar to some spanish and portugese designs. i think they are all remainder of ancient cart designs found around the mediterranean, but who survived in most remote regions.

Hungary:

Ökrös szekér (oxen wagon)

Szántás ökörrel (plowing)

on flickr, type bull cart moldova.

i saw a video clip of a steer working in a forehead yoke (Elke was that you?), and it struck me how easy the animal moved compared to the head yoke. i red the head yoke is bad for stomack metabolism, and the 3-pad harness is not. but what about the forehead yoke?

[CharlyBonifaz]

i saw a video clip of a steer working in a forehead yoke (Elke was that you?),

can’t say if you don’t let me in on the video 😀
thanks for trying to catch on the Bulgarian lead

[Nat(wasIxy)]

Struggling to post the picture, for some reason the link won’t work properly – I’ve saved to my computer but it takes aaaaaages for my connection to do pictures – If I get near broadband, I’ll do it 😀

[Tim Harrigan]

Anyone aware of any ox teamsters in northern Europe? I will be in the Essen Oldenburg/Hamburg region in the first couple of weeks in November and would like to learn more about your hitching and driving methods. Looks interesting.

[bivol]

@CharlyBonifaz 11278 wrote:

can’t say if you don’t let me in on the video 😀
thanks for trying to catch on the Bulgarian lead

hi elke!

here’s the link!
http://www.myvideo.de/watch/5850122/Mit_Stirnjoch_Holz_ziehen

i saw CharlyBonifaz on one of the other vids so i fugured… good videos btw.

that’s it for now, i got to go, so i’ll come by later.

bye!

[Nat(wasIxy)]

here we go:

[bivol]

i think the harnesses on the picture are called full harness (vollkumt), and are not 3-pad harnesses. i’m curious how they are made …

can someone tell me why the plowman uses that leather apron? i’ve never seen plowmen using that kind of aprons for plowing, except in germany.

[CharlyBonifaz]

bivol,
that’s Charly for sure……

the harnesses on the picture are called full harness (vollkumt), and are not 3-pad harnesses. i’m curious how they are made …

http://img14.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=vollpolsterkumtspitzea.jpg
does that help?
for Sundays only 😎
http://img4.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=vollpolsterkumtprachtb.jpg

[bivol]

niiice!

are they more comfortable than 3-pad harnesses?
they are sure more complicated to make, and i imagine more expensive, too…

do you know some footage, films or clips of oxen working in forehead yoke?
i’d like to study it a little more.

[CharlyBonifaz]

are they more comfortable than 3-pad harnesses?

he hasn’t told me yet…… and I#m not sure; it has less three-dimensional movement, but the pad area is bigger; I suppose it needs closer adjusting to one animal than 3-pad harnesses, that can be used on a lot of animals…..

i imagine more expensive, too

well….. about 5 dollars on ebay…… anyone of them…….:cool:

do you know some footage, films or clips of oxen working in forehead yoke?

maybe Fabian can chime in, he’s the expert on that

[bivol]

@CharlyBonifaz 11305 wrote:

well….. about 5 dollars on ebay…… anyone of them…….:cool:

😮 are they in working order?

well, the vollkummt looks prettier cause it has that bigger touching surface which is (supp. to be) more comfortable.

my guess about the forehead yoke is, that, for lighter loads it’s not bad for stomack metabolism. i guess, cause i know how the oxen “crouch” (head down, back bent up, muscles on ribs) when they’re pulling in head yoke, AND neck yoke, if less. from the little footage i saw (thanks for uploading:)) the steer didn’t look like he “crouched”. but that’s why i’d like to see more footage. but i’ll see it, if nothing next summer, if i don’t come to some gathering before kommern…

[CharlyBonifaz]

are they in working order?

oh yes, they are; the first one lacks its leather connection at the lower end of the hames; any stout leather belt should do; connections to traces seem to have been standardized, so the iron pins usually fit. Some of these connections were made with simple leatherstrings, wrapped around a couple of times and knotted

the steer didn’t look like he “crouched”

charly was just practising, he didn’t really have to dig in 😉

[Author]

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