Three Point Turn

[Ed Kennell 38,178]

      Watched this 14yo make a perfect  3 pt turn ....all day with his 5Horse hitch.

       

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,299]

He drives better than @squonk !!!!!!!

[ebinmaine 67,506]

That is just excellent Ed.  Thanks for sharing.  

[JoeM 7,874]

@Pullstart

hey Kev there is the left hand right hand plow thing we talked about

[WHX?? 48,815]

1 hour ago, JoeM said:

@Pullstart

hey Kev there is the left hand right hand plow thing we talked about

 

Second look ....yep...

[mrc 812]

that looked remarkable. 

and only 5 HP too!

 

[8ntruck 7,004]

38 minutes ago, mrc said:

that looked remarkable. 

and only 5 HP too!

 

  A lot of weight & traction are also in play.

[rmaynard 15,461]

One of those horses in that team is referred to as a "wheel horse".

[Ed Kennell 38,178]

18 minutes ago, rmaynard said:

One of those horses in that team is referred to as a "wheel horse".

In a 6 or 8 horse tandem (stagecoach)  hitch, the two horses nearest the stagecoach are the wheel horses.

In the typical Amish side by side hitch,  the two horses on each side of the machine tongue would be the wheel horses.

[953 nut 55,232]

10 minutes ago, rmaynard said:

One of those horses in that team is referred to as a "wheel horse".

That is sort'a true of a hitch where two or more teams are pulling a wagon. The team nearest the wagon is the wheel team, the next team or teams forward of the wheel team are the swing teams and the front team is the lead team. The Wheel team are generally the largest horses. When the hitch has horses abreast of one another the horse in the ferrow has the lead.

[Ed Kennell 38,178]

You can see the drivers reins are only attached to the two wheel horses on either side of the plow tongue.  The other three horses heads  are attached to the two wheel horses and are forced to follow their movements.    

With this flip plow rig the furrow horse changes with the turn.     

When they are coming toward you, the black is in the furrow and the two wheel horses are on the sod.

When going away from you, the right wheel horse is in the furrow and the black is on the sod.

[Ed Kennell 38,178]

We all see and hear about the tragic accidents that happen on these Amish farms.    As well trained as these animals are to voice and rein, accidents occur too often.

In the past five years, I have witnessed three runaways.        Several years ago, I looked out my kitchen and saw the young Amish lady desperately holding the reins of a six wide team attached to a 12' wide grain drill.

The team had bolted and crashed into a large mound of top soil burying the drill tongue into the dirt causing some of the horses to fall and become tangled in the harness.

At first I could not see the farmer and assumed he was under the grain drill.   I told Mrs. K to call 911 as I grabbed my binoculars.    Then, with the binos, I could see the farmer under the horses trying to free them from the harness.

I ran the 200yds to the farm and helped free the floundering horses.   We had to cut some of the harness as it was too tight to unhook.

No one was hurt, but it could have been bad.       The lady was holding the reins of the six horses while the farmer started the engine that runs the hydraulics on the grain drill .

The horses bolted when the engine backfired.  Luckily the farmer was thrown up on the drill rather than under it.

Just a few weeks ago, she was in the buggy with her 2 and 3 year old boys.   As she passed my house, an approaching school bus turned on his flashing lights.

The horse reared and spun away from the flashing lights causing the buggy to overturn.   They all fell out onto the pavement.   Bumped a bit but no bad injuries.

They are a tough people that live on the edge.

 

 

[c-series don 8,707]

@Ed Kennell Thanks for posting that, I’m pretty sure I speak for a lot of us here when I say that I’d love to have that happening in my backyard. I’m a little jealous!!!