My Great Grandpa farmed with horses

Sorry for the poor quality of the old pics.

Dad still got in on using the horses, but tractors were coming around.

Nice pics.

Nice pictures. Thanks for posting.

Vito

My father and grandfather farmed with horses until after WW2,we had a work horse we used in the garden until the mid 60's.

My father started his farming with a pair of oxen. I think that horses were too expensive for him then.

Great picture. How many horses is he using? Is there 2 in the front and 4 or 5 in the back?

My grandpa remembered making 3 furrows, him with a 2 bottom plow behind a team, uncle Don (dads older brother) with a single.

Thought he was in the big time.

Grandad replaced his horses with a Case SO and VC during the war. Gram said the only thing she did not do on the farm was harness the horses - she was too short at 5' 1 to do it. Also remember dad saying one of the horses stepped on his foot one time, but the ground was soft enough he did not get hurt. All 3 long gone now.

Tim

We plowed tobacco with mules up to the time I was 12 (61 now)

My grandfather was a Percheron guy. Farmed with them, and bred them for sale. There was a separate barn for them, about the same size as the dairy barn, but with all box stalls for the horses.

The market dropped out for draft horses after WWII, and many went to the glue factory. I think the horses were his biggest love- the beef cows, crops and dairy cows were important, but the passion was for horses.

Wow a lot of money there (6) horses in morning and another 6 in afternoon shift .

My father used horses until early 1970.

My maternal grandfather loved draft horses for farming and otherwise. I have an auction flier from his 1948 sale that lists 28 draft horses on the bill. I remember as a child that he kept two others, Nance and Mert, simply for sentimental reasons. He loved horses.

Yup, how far we've come. We've gone from the tractors driving themselves to the tractors driving themselves, but you don't have to feed them.

Another "how far we've come," we've gone from having to call the mechanic to come diagnose a broken down tractor, to having to call the mechanic to come diagnose a broken down tractor, except we don't have to put a bullet in the tractor's head because it can't be fixed.

Great photos.
I remember the last mule on Grandpa's farm.
My Dad would let me ride it when we went to borrow it to plow the garden.

My grandpa did until the 50s.

Done a little myself. Just don't get much done in a hurry..lol! The link is harrowing, but just a 2 section I made up. Bob




Horse Power

(quoted from post at 08:11:49 09/23/22) Great picture. How many horses is he using? Is there 2 in the front and 4 or 5 in the back?

Click to expand...

I count eight in each picture.

At some point after Grandpa got back from WW1, he got on with the county grading the roads with mules. He was there when they transitioned to a CAT 60 and was one of the operators. When Dad was 10 they moved to and operated a small dairy. The farm land they had, supported the dairy cows and I know they used horses. (When I was young, he told stories about them, their breed and their names) After WW2, they moved to a dramatically larger dairy. If they were still using horses before the move, I'm sure they didn't make the move.

My father's memory of horses isn't nearly as fond.

He wasn't even born when it happened but the tale left an impact on him for his entire life. His brothers decided to give the draft horses some apples they had picked - there was 4 boys ranging from a six year old to his oldest bother who was 13. My dad's 6 year old brother was feeding the mean horse - when the horse bared her teeth and instead of going for the apple clamped down on the small boy's shoulder and flipped him into the horse pen. Before any of the brothers could do anything she stomped him to death in just a few seconds. Naturally that sent all the boys screaming at the horses and his oldest brother jumped into the pen to scoop up his already dead brother from beneath the pawing horse. My grandfather who was working not to far away heard the screaming and grabbed a hammer and came running. My uncle said he'd never seen grandpa take a running step in his life but watched him grab the fence with one hand and cleared the top board in a single bound. He ran right up to horse and struck her in the head with the hammer and it sank to the handle and killed the big animal with a single blow.

Grandpa carried his dead son to the house and had to explain to his wife what happened. This was around 1925, in two years all the horses were gone and the farm was 100% mechanical. About 5 years ahead of most of his neighbors.

My father never told me that story - he always had a distrust/dislike of horses and never allowed us kids to have one growing up and told us to stay the **** off them when we were around people that had horses. He always had a mechanical type of mind and wasn't that great working with animals and was always yelling at us kids to be careful around protective mama cows and always beware of the bull to point us boys were like What, you think we are all morons?.

Years after my dad died I was talking to my uncle (the oldest brother who was well into his 80s) and somehow the topic of children dying came up and he mentioned something about one of my uncles dying as a child in an accident. I'd never heard the story and had only known the uncle existed by a headstone (and two others) in the cemetery next to my grandparents. After he told the story he said my dad was told the story when he was about the same age as the brother was when he was killed. My uncle said he regretted telling him the story so young because it really seemed to bother my dad that he had a brother he had never met and would never meet. The story stuck with him and as a child always acted a little afraid livestock and later as an adult always seemed kind of brutal towards them. I had never noticed that because my dad always seemed kind of brutal towards everyone - man or beast. I had always chalked it up to being 18 years old and killing North Koreans as the introduction to adulthood.

My grandfather always had a horse. Never saw him ride and never saw a saddle. Dad plowed with mules we heard it all the time. we could just picture him walking behind those mules although he never said that. I know Grandfather bought an F12 new I think. Later in life I asked my father if they bought equipment with the tractor. He said no they just used the same ones they used with the mules. So I asked, you walked behind the tractor with the mule equipment? No I rode like I always did. Ah-hah.
But we had horses as many as 5 at one time. When we tried to ride them they didn't appreciate it cause we didn't spend time with them. Dad got a horse for our sister when she was big enough to handle one. She had him in the front yard one day so I decided to hop on him. He didn't appreciate anyone else but her. He started bucking rearing up and spinning around till he tripped and I rode him to the ground. He fell on my leg and I was sure it was broken. It wasn't and that was the last time I was ever on a horse.
Ron

My dad told the story that they had a horse that would step over and pin you in the stall. He would punch the horse and yell at it and it would step away. Grandpa was afraid of it and the horse knew it so grandpa would not go in the stall. Dad never liked the farming so went into the sawmill business after WWII.

Wow! Thank you for story. my Grandfather always had a horse but was always a harsh person. His father had been kicked in the chest by a horse and killed when he was eleven. His mother put all of the five kids in an orphanage. He and his next younger brother wouldn't stay and lived with family whoever would take them in.
Ron

My Dad born 19111 helpd his dad farm until he went off to college and then drafted into USA for the war.
He told me how he almost always worked a team of five. There was usually a colt on the outside, gate side of the teams, that was in training.

I hated the horses. I remember cultivating corn with a riding one row cultivator and two old plug horses out there in the hot sun. Doze off a little and the stupid clop footed horses couldn't walk straight and would hook out about half a row. we had to put it back in with a stab planter. I so well remember being out there and a neighbor kid went down the road on a M tractor with a 4 row hanging on it. Can't tell you on here what I was thinking. , One other thing Do any of you remember trying to cultivate 3 rows every time around ? And with a one row riding cultivator ? We did it all the time until the old man came along. This was all back in the 40's. I still have no use for a horse. Shovel it too them and shovel it away. The M tractor sets in the shed waiting to go and will set there till I am ready to go. , Thr Old Scovy.

Ron, I was trampled by a horse when I was about 5 and my brothers thought I was dead.
It messed my neck up for a long time.

Wow Rich, that was scary. Do you remember it? When i was about that age I remember a bull getting after me and dad grabbing me and setting me over the fence. Only to find out years later it was my older brother. I guess i heard the story so many times i thought it was me.
Do you still have trouble with your neck? The reason i asked is i have a lot of trouble with mine. I fell out of a tree in grammer school and landed on my head. It hurt but I wouldn't tell anybody for fear of getting in trouble. A In my old age a Dr was looking at my x ray and asked how old I was when i fractured a vertebrae in my neck.

Ron, my neck bothered me for many years.
Don't seem to notice it now at 70 years old.

This post made me go back to a book I like to read written 1915 called traditional American farming techniques. Chapter 64 page 808 ,it says average cost per horse per year was 10 dollars a month.
I looked at the eight horse team in photo . No wonder A farmer bought a tractors. Looking at cost it was an easy decision to buy tractor .
Thats not included in the cost of the labor of teamsters.

I really like those old pictures, thanks for taking the time to put them up. A few of my Grandparents and Great Grandparents farming with horses:

My father was born in 1899. I am the baby of 10 kids, I was born in 1944.
My farmed with mules & horses until 1937 when he bought a F12. He kept he mules until they died. I remember him plowing potatoes with a mule.
The f12 he drove until he died & my brother & I farmed with in until 1962. F12 sat in an open shed for 35 years. My brother restored it to honor my dad.
We took to tractor shows about 5 states here in the Midwest. When my brother passed away,F12 came to me. I passed F12 to his daughter who now displays it at their ranch in co.

My Dad farmed with horses and stopped using houses around the same time. Still have his F 12. Stan

My grandfather farmed with horses, as well as being a teamster, hauling freight. My dad and his older brothers all drove teams in their younger years. Granddad refused to drive anything but horses and mules. His uncle gave him an old Star automobile, which he refused to drive, so at eleven years of age, my dad learned to drive(his older brothers had all left home)and did all the driving for my grandparents.