Got to work with a team this weekend!

Our neighbor stopped by on Saturday to trade some eggs for straw and told me that he would be working with a team of percherons that he had. Told me I was welcome to come by, so my dad and I did just that.

I had a blast, I've never worked with horses before (just ridden them a few times) and I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it. We used a little sled to bring round bales into a paddock from field storage. We were able to fit 2 at a time (small rounds, about 500lbs a piece). After the first 30 minutes he let me take - over. I'm told the team was very well matched (they sure seemed like it) and made-up for my rookie lack of experience.

I was amazed by how quiet it was to be doing heavy labor and to not hear an engine roaring. Just the wind, the horses, and their trace lines jingling and snorting, and the sound of the hooves and sled runners on the ground. I forgot my phone so I wasn't able to get any pictures this time. He plows his garden in the spring with them, so he told me I was welcome to come out then as well. I'll take my camera for that trip!

Anybody on here ever do any field work with horses? Anyone have any pictures?

-Jameson

Hi Thank you for sharing this, it sure brought back some memories from my past.My dad was a real "teamster" He forgot more about horses than I will ever know. I was raised on a farm where we used the horses most everyday even after we got the tractor. The last team we had we used too sugar with. A nice pair of belgians,Molly an Dolly. I have a pic somewhere of my dad plowing with them with a walking plow. That was in the late 70's. My dad passed in 91. Its so quiet when youre using a team of horses. Thanks again for sharing.
God Bless
Les

My dad used horses up until 1948 when he retired the old guys . They gradually all died. It was a hard time for us kids to view our old friends being buried. Dad had farmed with horses since 1932 when he rented our cousins 50 acres and found out real quick that those Kentucky hill sides would no support his small family so he thru Aunts and Uncles in southern ILL found a farm which was large enough for a small dairy herd,hogs,chickens and crops to support the teams and all the livestock and leave some grain to sell for cash money. He kept after it until in 1981 when he died he left a sizable estate. The tax man thought it was sizable any way. The picture shows him getting corn ground ready on our farm in northern Ill. Now bear in mind that he had 3 Olivers in the shed at the house in the back ground. One old Hart Parr on steel ,a Hart Parr 70 and a Oliver 80.The other picture is of him bringing milk from the daily milking to the house for us kids to drink and a small can of grain and milk for his chicken flock.. I don't remember him ever drinking milk,only black coffee and Mogen David Wine.Jh

My Dad used horses for farming up until the early 40's. When he got his first tractor. A farmall F 12,and stopped using horses. He took them to the San Diego Zoo about 30 mi away. He told me he cried all the way back home. I guess he sure missed his horses.We have had to put down riding horses in the past it's hard to do. Stan

My grandpa worked a team of draft horses up until he died in 1966.He did about everything except plow with them. That's really hard work, he had a ferguson To-20 or 30 for that. He tried to teach me to cultivate corn with them. It was a two row cultivator with "pedals" to move the cultivators back and forth to compensate for the horses not going perfectly straight. After I pulled up almost two whole rows he gave up. I did pull 12-15 foot sections of downed trees (downed with a two man crosscut saw) out of the woods to be cut up firewood length by the buzzsaw on the Ferguson. Grandpa's house was completely heated from a wood furnace in the basement.

Oh yeah, their names were Buck and Belle. Real gentle giants. Miss them and Grandpa still

My grandpa always had Belgians-as long as I remember. He farmed with them, but I never got to drive them.

I was fortunate to be around family, which still kept a working team, and got to use them occasionaly. I was around 16 to 18 in that 3 yr period. My uncle put me behind a single disc, walking in plowed ground, pulled by the team.It was about 2 acres of fresh dozed willow ground, that had been wetland. Uncle Pete forbid me to ride on the seat, said it was too dangerous, that I might hit a stump and get throwed off. Yep! you really fly backwards, and too high to suit me, when that happens. Had to learn the hard way. We used them to pull a wagon with , hauling water barrels up from the creek, to water the sows and pigs, and only one time did I try to plow up a squash patch, with a walking plow. I had to have an experienced old man , straighten up the mess that I made! I heard quite a bit about that! Thanks for bringing back the memories!

Irrigation channel cira 1936.My Father far right, his team in foreground.

You would have enjoyed the 48 horse hook up at Rantoul, Il. a few years back.

I grew up using mules to plow tobacco and corn. Also spent many hours on a mule drawn mower. started riding a drag behind a team when I was about 7 years old. Did my first tobacco plowing when I was about 11 years old.

great pictures. Thanks for the responses and stories. I plan on making myself "available to help out" whenever my neighbor runs his team out from now on. (I'll get some pictures too) Who knows, maybe one day I'll have enough money and time that I can get my own to play around with. For now I'll just enjoy what's already come my way.

Thanks,
Jameson

I have a pair of Belgians that don't get used enough! They're good boys, Dan and Jess, and have been with me 12 years or so. Getting up there to late-middle aged.
I've cut some hay, raked some hay, pulled some logs, and spread manure with them - but now I use the tractors for these jobs.
I do give wagon rides a few times a year - like at our local county fair. People, especially kids, just love it! And I love meeting people, talking about the horses, answering their questions, etc. And it's easy work for the horses!

I tell people that I'm a "failed horse farmer", and now I do what most failed horse farmers do - give wagon rides! When everything is going well, and you "get in the groove" with the horses, there's no feeling like it in the world.

My neighbor just sent me a picture he took while I was driving...low res, but a picture none the less. Bonnie is the white/gray percheron, and Duke is behind her.

Good thing the horse didn't backfire.

Seventy years later, I can still recall the time I trotted alongside and talked to my dad while he was plowing with a, I think, three horse hitch on a two bottom sulky? plow. Can hear the snicking of the moldboards ripping the earth and the vibration of those horses hoofs being planted firmly to pull the load. And the smell of freshly turned earth! Leo

I cried my eyes out the day I sold my team. They were good girls and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss them. Daisy and Dolly were almost like members of the family. Beautiful mares. Bought me a farmall H. Its been a good tractor, but the horses never gave me grief about working in cold weather and the farmall has never given me a baby tractor.