"Farm" work with minis

[susanne]

Calling our place a "farm" makes me feel like a poser, but by any name, our faux-farm provides non-stop work. Every time I haul anything, I wonder why I'm not using the available horsepower. At the very least, they could haul their own manure to the garden!

I know that Shari has done a fair amount of farming with Maggie, and Leia has called on Kody to haul branches, and I'm curious who else has put their minis to work.

What tasks have you tried? Successes...failures? Do you have a forecart (Do they have them for minis?) Implements? What setup have you used for hauling branches and debris? Just traces plus some sort of extension? A travois? Sledboat? Is it possible to use an easy entry cart as a lightweight forecart?

We'll leave logging to the draft horses, but I think they can do a bit more than stand around watching US work!

 

[Sue_C.]

I have seen mini forecarts on-line...I think you should be able to Google and find them.

I have a couple of collars, and have used mine to bring out poplar branches/small logs etc... I have been looking into making some kind of tiller/drag to do my ring with, that wouldn't be beyond them either.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I went to dig potatoes at a neighbor's about 1/2 mile away last week. Dusty wore his pack saddle and toted the digging fork there, then toted the potatoes home. I do need to rig a better way to attach an implement, like a shovel or fork, to the pack saddle.

I have had them haul a cut-down tree--just tied a rope to the terret. We have a small harrow for the Kubota. I am not sure one horse could drag it, but a team wouldn't have any trouble.

 

[wiccanz]

I have used my boy to "harrow" the paddocks. The "harrow" was in the form of a small, light mesh gate with a singletree attached, and the traces hooked up to the singletree. Worked beautifully, and being the lovely boy he is, he didn't bat an eyelide

I have a pic somewhere I will try to find.

 

[Margo_C-T]

Several years ago, my 'largest garden tractor Sears makes'broke down out on the backside of my 5 acres. I got my now-27 yr.old 34" mare out(as I thought she would be the most 'dependable'),put the deep V breast collar on her(it was for my bigger 38" mare, but I wasn't sure then that I could 'trust' her to do this job, so used Melody instead), along w/ the rest of the harness(parts) of the Smuckers leather harness I've used for 'everyday' since 1985), slid a piece of metal rod through holes in the front bracket on the tractor(for my snowblower; it just stays on year-round), and hooked the traces to that bar, and asked the old girl to put her shoulders into it! That sucker is HEAVY, but Melly hunkered down and pulled it back to the barn; I walked beside it, reins in my left hand,turning the steering wheel with my right! What a good girl!

A forecart would probably work, but you might not need it. I think if you could rig a singletree to a sled or similar, you could 'ground drive' to move a load of wood, etc. Just remember that you can't turn sharply w/ any sort of sled w/o risking a 'tip-over'! I have a little harrow that I think one of the minis could pull, rigged w/a singletree. You do also have to remember that w/o shafts, there is really no way to 'brake' such a set-up, so you would have to be careful to prevent the load from 'bearing down on' the horse, as in going downhill, etc.-go slow and steadily, for one thing, w/ only very gradual turns.(This is where a forecart might be helpful!)

I'm with you, and if I didn't have my garden tractor, I might expect the horses to do more to 'earn their keep'!!

Good luck, Susanne!!

Margo

 

[My2Minis]

When our lawn tractor broke down, one of the minis wearing her freedom collar dragged the sand ring. We made a singletree out of an old broom handle with eye bolts and attached clips for the traces with baler twine, then hooked up the drag (which is a chain link fence piece with a 2 x4 for weight) using an old car seat strap.

She was just fine and did a good job. But she gets stiff in her back legs so I don't like to have her do the turns and so have gone back to using the lawn tractor pull the drag.

 

[susanne]

...w/o shafts, there is really no way to 'brake' such a set-up, so you would have to be careful to prevent the load from 'bearing down on' the horse, as in going downhill

Margo, that is probably my biggest concern. We'll definitely avoid any real hills, but the terrain is fairly rough...I wonder if it would work to use PVC pipes and a cross piece to keep the load away from the horse. Perhaps drill holes/eyebolts/? to attach the breeching?

I plan to refurbish our lawn this fall -- level, take out weeds, reseed, roll (no tilling, as there are years of noxious weed seeds I don't wish to unearth). The water-filled roller can easily be pushed by a human, but could be assigned to Mingus providing I can hitch him to it safely.

I'd love to rig up a rake of sorts for gathering manure from the corral and moving to the compost pile. Kind of lazy on my part, but why not have the kids clean their own room?

 

[wiccanz]

Tumble earning his keep

 

[RebelsHope]

I have sued Ike for general yard clean up. I have a sled that I work with Ike. We cleaned up fallen limbs and yard trash.

Here is a goat cultivator that could be used with a mini too.