[Stephen Leslie]

I think I follow you and that it’s making sense—next question: on the Pioneer cart I can’t move the tongue—but you’ll see in the picture that the hitch point can pivot to either side by just pulling a pin, shifting the hitch, and re-setting the pin. So it seems like I should follow your directions about swapping out the double and single trees, except shift my hitch point rather than move the tongue? Thanks a whole lot!

[Stephen Leslie]

Three-abreast hitch update: On Friday afternoon we finally got around to trying three. Since I could not find any Pioneer cart tongues locally, and cost of shipping one from Ohio was exorbitant—went ahead and spliced six inches of wood back into the tongue (at base end–ship-lapped, lag bolts, and wood pegs), to make up for the extra length of the three-abreast evener. In earlier posts I was confused about how this would all set up. We got an off-set three abreast evener from E-Z Trail, so we did not have to use the off-set hitch capacity that is standard equipment on the Pioneer draft cart. We put our most forward horse in the middle, her regular teammate to her left, and a younger mare to her right. We used the team lines plus two 36″ snub lines from middle horse hames to inside bits of two outside horses. We hitched up to a disc–because we had a bunch of discing to do and figured the best way to get them to settle into the new circumstance was to have some good work in front of them. everything went Okay–but my old mare is still such a hothead—that even after 45 minutes of discing, she never really settled down to an acceptable work pace and I had to hold them back pretty hard the whole time (this is not typical of how we go in teams these days—reminded me of what it used to be like when I was working young green-broke animals). I think the two outside horses would have settled down to a nice walk if the old gal in the middle had been willing. On a plus side, everybody stopped and stood well on request. Steering-wise, I had a sense they were responding more to voice command then line pressure—it felt kind of like steering an outboard motor boat–slow and not as precise as I want. Younger mare on right was visibly nervous and tended to wing her butt out—compounding her nervousness by having an uncomfortable relationship to outside tug. Thinking about maybe putting my gelding in the middle, this younger mare to his rightt, and her daughter to his left—in this configuration I don’t have as clear a leader, but the gelding has plenty of experience, and all three are much more naturally mellow than Old Hickory Cassima—who is a hell of a horse but hard-headed. Also, think maybe we should shorten snub lines a couple of inches for Fjords to gain a little more contact? Any thoughts appreciated!

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[Stephen Leslie]

Erika—-is this the Slack Hollow Farm cart? Is it pulled by two horses spread wide?
Kevin—I would hugely appreciate a report and pictures from you down the road—once you’ve had a chance to try out the All-In-One with the oxen!

[Stephen Leslie]

A couple of other thoughts. I do modify my hitches slightly when working with this very forward mare. All four horses have Pelham bits with curb chains—but I set put her partners’ bit either direct off the ring or at the lowest setting for leverage—while she gets the maximum. I sometimes let out a link or two on the trace chains of the youngest and slowest mare so she meets the load sooner.

[Stephen Leslie]

We are planning on having the All-In-One in action at the Cultivation workshop—remains to be seen what we’ll be able to accomplish with it this year, as it is new to us—but since you are so close, you’d be welcome to stop in and take a look at it anytime you are over this way.

[Stephen Leslie]

I concur with Erika on the excellence of the Mc-D new 4 cultivator but 36″ is the narrowest setting for the wheel base—and with Jelmer on the scarcity of multi-row bed systems cultivators as presenting an obstacle to organic produce growers who are attracted to horse power but want something comparable to a garden tractor with belly-mount hydraulic tool bar.
With a walk-behind cultivator (in not too rocky soil) you can cultivate as narrow as 28″ with a single horse.
At this point we use the McCormick riding cultivator for a 4 acre garden—one acre annually in Nordell-style cover crop/bare fallow, a 1/2 acre on mulch and drip, and the balance on 36″ (or wider for some crops) row spacing. Of course, with wider row spacing you can also experiment with inter-cropping short season with long season crops—like greens in winter squash beds.
Several years ago, we managed a three acre garden–1/3 was on mulch and drip, 1/3 was on 32″ spacing cultivated with a walk-behind, and 1/3 was on beds with 1′ spacing—on these 5′ beds the horses did primary tillage and end of season clean-up but cultivation was done with wheel hoes and colineal hoes. At this scale the handwork felt pretty manageable.
This year we are going to experiment using the All-In-One multi-tool carrier to see if we can grow greens on a narrower row-spacing but will still be a row crop rather than bed set up.
I am working on a book on implements and systems for the horse-powered market garden—please keep me posted if you invent or discover an HD cultivator for intensive bed systems.
Good Luck!

[Stephen Leslie]

Channing Family Farm— Brothers Teague and Kosma Channing in Twisp, Washington have built a bed-lifter using part of an old dozer blade for a 3-pnt-hitch cart pulled by draft mules. They dig/lift root crops and garlic with this tool.

[Stephen Leslie]

Fine looking gelding, Ed. I have been dealing with this issue for a lot of years and might be I am too ignorant and hard-headed, but I just have learned to work with it rather than change it. My oldest mare (19) is a dream horse working single—perfect even for training novices—but no matter who she is hitched with out of our other three she must be in charge and ramps up in a team. Same thing out riding—even if someone else is riding a long-legged thoroughbred/Hanovarian—this scrappy little Fjord wants to be out front. I have tried using a short snub line from her halter ring to the other horses’ hame ring—also tried a jockey stick years ago—she resisted them and just made the driving more messy. I have not tried a buck-back rope–but I am sure this horse would just rub it’s nose raw if I did. So on anything heavy, like disc or spreader—she always goes a little faster than I would wish and even with a Pelham bit I have to hold her back some. My older two horses who work with her but are naturally more laid back, step up to her pace (and settle right back down when I work them as a team), but my youngest just goes a long for the ride and lets her do the work. Oddly, she slows down pretty well for plowing and perfectly well for cultivating—a very smart horse. Now that I have trained in some younger horses that are slower I have come to appreciate the work ethic of this mare–even if I get sick and tired some days of having to hold her back. Also,market garden jobs tend to shorter duration of one hour or less—on longer jags of raking or tedding she can get into what the Muleman calls no-pressure driving. Not much help here–but commiseration.

[Stephen Leslie]

Planning on it. I was invited by the steering committee to co-present something on organic market gardening with horses—co-presenting with Jelmer Albada. I was totally daunted by the notion of having anything to say to an audience of (mostly) plain farmers about farming with horses—but the organic approach is one angle where Jelmer and I may be able to present something useful to produce farmers who are considering a transition from conventional production methods.

[Stephen Leslie]

Thanks Bob, We also use a HD disc that came with a modified stub tongue for tractor and without a tongue truck. It is a six-foot single action. I put a tongue on it and found the ride way too bumpy so have ended up pulling it behind the cart. Not the most efficient use of horse power, but works OK on our small acreage.

[Stephen Leslie]

Oh, and when I put a doubletree on top of the 3-abreast evener, the differential was about 7″.

[Stephen Leslie]

Thanks everyone for great feedback and suggestions.
Donn, I took a team out on the cart today and as best I could estimate we have 20″ from hock to singletree when they are in motion (about 24″ when standing). The other factor I just thought about, is that when the hitch on the Pioneer cart is put into off-set position, it draws the hitch back about 2″-3″, thus gaining a little bit of tongue length.
Stephen

[Stephen Leslie]

If you have stony soil—picking rock with him on a stone boat might just be a good way to ease him back into shape—as you can put as many or few stones on a load as he is able/willing to handle. Sounds like with his itchy feet problem though, you best should have a helper so one can mind the horse while the other loads and unloads the stone.

[Stephen Leslie]

Haven’t got any bites on this one yet—probably most everyone is too busy plowing snow! I am wondering which plows you all use and prefer? How many horses are you typically hitching to plow? Anyone plow with a single?
How much acreage do you expect to turn over in a day? Any special considerations for adjustments to hitch or plow depending on what you’re working—for instance, cover crop vs.sod? Any thoughts on the difference of performance of walking vs. sulky in terms of effectiveness of the tool, but also impact on teamster and horses?

[Stephen Leslie]

Great info from everyone here. Good also to have a clear simple description of the Barden cart. Jeroen—nice to have a description of use of the Pioneer cart with a single. We bought a second seat for our cart for having novice teamsters do ride-alongs and it was angled differently from the original so that a person ends up riding a lot lower, too low for me at 6′ tall—I wonder if that’s the same seat they sent you.
Also, I wasn’t quite clear what you meant in the following: “Furthermore if you work long hours be sure your seat is in the middle, on bumpy roads you will hurt your back by sitting off balance between the wheels.” Do you mean that it is best to keep the seat always in the middle pipe bracket or that the seat wasn’t staying in position and angling off to one side or another while you were working on bumpy roads?

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