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Anybody remember walking

S

SVcummins

Well-known Member
Behind a team of horses harrowing
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Dad got rid of his horses before I came along in 42. I am sure Dad if he were around he would remember walking behind his horses pulling a harrow. Stan
 
Stan I really wish I could have lived in those days . I?ve always wanted to farm with a team of horses
 
We called them scratchers here in Tennessee where I lived. I am 70 but I remember using one at a very young age in tobacco and corn. We used mules to plant and cultivate. Only used a Tractor to break ground. My first job with othe mules was dragging the field after the ground had been broken.
 
I have only one memory of my dad using his team- I was probably about 3, so it would have been spring of 1951, he was working up the garden. He bought the 8N in '52, don't know what happened to the team.
 
Dad always said grandpa never liked working with horses. So as soon as he could afford to, the horses were gone and tractors were the norm.
 
We had one old work horse left over from my dad and grandfather's horse farming days.Prince was a great old horse I could work the garden with him about all I did was to hold up the
plow he knew what to do.After he died I tried a couple but none ever measured up so I moved on to garden tractors.Several of my friends have teams they use some as a hobby and of course
I have some Mennonite and Amish friends that use horses and mules to farm.
 
I can still see the neighbor out there walking behind a team. He farmed with horses right up until he died in the early 70s. I hauled milk from 73-75 and had a guy on the route who still farmed with horses. Of course the Amish around here still do. Luckily,I never had to.
 
I was pretty small when dad had a team. Remember fixing fence and had the team and wagon out there, and about a guarter mile from the house talking to a neighbor. They had meet in the road. I was standing in the high wheel box wagon. Around late forties. Wish I had more memories of them times.
 
We have Amish around our area, but have never seen any of them walking behind the horses/implement, always riding in a little cart attached.
 
Horses left before I came along, my sis remembers them.

Pretty good description. When I got married to mt town wife, guess what I had her drive first for tractor field work learning? The 5 section harrow....

Paul
 
SV when I started farming after dad died in 1979 I used some small horses and sometimes mules to do some tasks. I would use what we called a section harrow on the tobacco ground before setting it out. I also used them to cultivate the tobacco with a 3 footed plow and a gee whiz. If it rained a lot and the weeds got ahead of you it made for some hateful work. I later got a couple of draft mares that I used some to cut and rake hay. I had tractors I also did this with but when I wasn't pushed I found it somewhat satisfying to use something that could grow its own fuel. I don't talk on here too much about this because it seems to bring arguments from those that don't like horses but to each his own. I will end by saying I grew up around a lot of old timers that had farmed full time with horses. Many were glad to leave them and go to tractors. One told me using horses was just a slow way to starve to death. A lot of them made enough money by farming with horses to buy a tractor. I don't remember one telling me he used money made farming with a tractor to buy a workhorse. Lee
 
Grandad died before I was born, and dad never talked about the horses. They were replaced with a Case VC and SO during the war. But Grandma did. She said the only thing she didn't do on the farm was harness the horses - she was too short. Maybe 5'. She ran the farm while Grandad worked in the shoe factory and drank. Tough old gal - made it to 96 and buried both the men.

Tim
 
Spring tooth harrow! We had a 4 section 16ft on a cart. Boy that was fun! Best way I know to get ground ready to plant hay. Double kidder couple times also helps set back weeds.
 
My Grandfather had a small Dairy farm in the 40s to mid 50s i came along in 60 by then the cows were gone but still plowed with the Mules. I use to ride the mules while they were plowing hanging on to the knobs on top of the collars. they would set me on the mule and i would stay right there. GEEEE ,HAAAAA They would be hollering, Man those were GREAT DAYS.
 
My Dad had a team of horses that could do anything he wanted. He went to WWII and later they were lent to my one uncle 4 miles away. They came running home one day and were never the same. My uncle beat them (they suspected he also beat my Dad's sister). Dad was so mad he wanted to go kill my uncle. Dad farmed one year with horses when he came home from the war and that was enough for him He purchased a brand new 1946 JD A. I still have it.
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Dad continued to live at home after he graduated high school in 49. He had bought a couple used tractors to use on his parents farm. They had virtually quit using the horses, but grandpa and grandma rufused to sell them. Then dad did a 3 year stint in the service. Never came back home during that time. Maybe once early on. But when he got out of the service, and did come back home, grandpa was back to using the horses to do everything. He had rolled one tractor over, and was to scared to drive it again. And the other tractor, he didn't know how to maintain it enough to keep it running. So dad got em back going again on the tractors. And that was the end of using horses.

I didn't come along untill years later.
 
I drove horses when we threshed and hayed. I drove , my brother pitched on and Dad built the loads. When we hayed Dad threw the bales up off the ground , brother built and I drove. I hated it , the horses would try to grab a mouthful of sheave and when they reached for it the reins would pull tight and darn near pull me off the wagon through the front ladder. Dad finally got mesh muzzles so they couldn't grab hay or sheaves , made my life better .
 
I never did walk. Harrowed a small pasture with a horse while I rode him. I now have a horse that I drive and wanted to feed with him but all I have is a wagon and the snow is a little deep for a wagon so will have to wait till spring. I like driving him on the wagon that I built just for that purpose. Bud
 
When I was young all farms had a tractor. A.C. Model M, Cat D2, TD 6, bigger farms had TD9's D4's or HD5's or 7's. They all still had a team. The team would be used for seeding or harrowing. One farm one brother would not drive a tractor, only used a team to work the super steep spots that would be left behind by tractors.
 
(quoted from post at 08:27:59 02/23/19) We called them scratchers here in Tennessee where I lived. I am 70 but I remember using one at a very young age in tobacco and corn. We used mules to plant and cultivate. Only used a Tractor to break ground. My first job with othe mules was dragging the field after the ground had been broken.
Click to expand...

I remember that my first job with the mule was harrowing behind a single mule. I was behind an old mule because it was easier to work. After I got some experience I was put behind a young mule and hated it, a young one was full of p & vinegar and the mule had to wear blinders because it would see too many booger’s and shy!
Elmo
 
No tractors up in the mountains where the family and relatives lived. Mom or Dad would put on a strap over their shoulder and back and walk behind the mules. No one could afford a tractor or fuel.
 
I was never around work horses. Born in 1964 so horses where long gone by then. This topic generally makes me think of certain points in a farm boys life that designated a coming of age mile stone. I think for me the one event I remember more than anything was trying on leather work gloves at the farm store. That meant I was old enough to start helping bale hay. I think I was about 7 years old when my brother and I got the job of unloading hay wagons. I got my own leather work gloves. I treasured those gloves. To this day I can't walk by the glove isle in Menards or Fleet Farm without thinking about that.
 
Only way we could get to town winter 48-49 & 49-50 was Team and bob sled car was buried somewhere,
I loved that team I got to ride the mare to and from field.
when I was older fed 500 head range cows with team and bobsled loved it, wish I was still there.
Demossed coulee riding big Roan workhorse pulling one section harrow, felt good hot summer day!
 
Dad sold the horses about 1952- I was 8yo. Last couple years they just stayed in the pasture on the other farm, 4 miles from the home place. Remember seeing them on a mower once. They"s run to the end of the pasture if we needed them for work...just like they knew what was coming. Names were King and Queen. Earlier memory of mine- Grandpa Peters, Mom"s Dad, let me hold the reigns while crossing the highway and rr tracks with the hay rack. Still remember the bobsled that Dad used to haul manure to the field when snow was too deep for the WC and manure spreader....around 1950- we had more snow in those years than we do lately.
 
SVC;
I was born in 1950. My only and earliest recollection on my Gradmas' and Uncle's farm was standing near the only team that was kept. They had a Farmall H that was used for most work....plowing, disking, cultivating. I can barely remember being on the hay rack while loose hay was being loaded from the rear by a loader.
We had a Farmall 20 that they used to pull the slings up into the barn where the loose hay and straw was stored. I was "helping" my dad drive the tractor when the tractor reversed and I didn't. I busted my lip and ran off to the house to find my mom.
I am thankful that I had those memories. My uncle kept the harness hanging in the barn until one summer we loaded them up along with anything else we could gather to take to a field that had washed out really bad where the Indiana Toll Road had been cut through. We dumped all of the stuff into the gullies created by the construction equipment in hopes of stopping the washouts.
Great Post Thanks for Starting. Dsmythe
 
My grandfather bought fire deptment horses. They were "retired" at a young age. When great grandpa had dropsey spells the teams would stop and stand because of the slack reins.This saved him because he would fall off the seat. A team scared them once, on the way to help at a barn fire the team broke into a run. Grandpa thought the team wouldn't make the driveway. They made the driveway and ran to the fire and stopped.
 
The horses left in 1938 when my grandfather joined in partnership. Grandfather didn't like the way his partner treated horses. All the horse equipment and obsolete tractors were sold at auction. They continued with a McCormick 15-30,a Farmall M and WC Allis. There also was a truck starting with a Model T Ford followed by a Model A Ford and a 1935 Ford that did the hauling to town.
 
My dad would stay up all night repairing the Fordson so he wouldn't have to use the horses. His dad would tell him to forget the tractor, use the horses and get the work done.
 
I was too young for the "fun" of farming with horses. My dad used to talk about it though. I think it was partly why he was inspired to join the army in 1941. Post war was all tractor farming for him but the horses stayed on the farm for a few more years. He used them for winter chores like hauling manure, firewood, water, etc. They were easier to start in the cold than a tractor with no electricity for block heaters. This pic is my dad about 1950 with a big load of firewood.

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My Dad would say how it would hurt when the horse drawn plow would cut a root and it would slap back into his shin bone. That would have been before WWII in eastern WVa.
 
Rrlund Guys still feed cows with a team when the snow gets deep but nobody farms with them anymore. To much work and to slow I guess . I always begged grandpa to let me have a team because he always told me stores of farming with a team but I guess he couldn?t see the fun in it because i never got a team
 
My Grandpa has been gone for nearly 20 years now, but he always had horses, and farmed with them! Dad became a preacher, so when ever we would go to visit, Grandpa had to line them up for a picture! Candid, unplanned pictures were not thought worth while I guess!
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This picture is special to me! I never felt that Grandpa really cared for me, or appreciated my skills! I played basketball, not football, for example! I remember this wagon on skids. Later, as an adult, he needed a runner repaired. Since I am a carpenter he asked me to do that for him. It turned out well, and I finally felt appreciated!
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