Do you know how much longer 20 minutes of walking behind a harrow is than 20 minutes of riding on a sled? :o) I do! Poor horses! I've been trying to figure out how to scratch the pasture up so I could toss out some seed. The dilapidated old spike tooth harrow would do the job but that's a heap of walking! So I hatched an idea today. My little bitty sled is about 2 ft wide and 4 ft long. It has a butt bar to lean against and a foot board to brace the feets against. Hubby is going to build me a plate of some sort that will have stubby "teeth" about an inch long, that will bolt to the bottom, or maybe the back of the sled. The horses can get some good exercise, I can ride, and we'll leave a swath of shallow grooves that I can come back and toss seed into. I'll get some pics if the idea works!

Barb

Why wouldn't you just drag a disc harrow over it then apply seed? Time it just prior to a good rain and you'll be set.

Barb, I hope you have smooth pastures or a soft pillow!

I believe that, unless the ground is bare, the teeth will fill up with grass and not dig in. Why don't you just adjust a disk to cut with 'no angle'. It'll be alot easier to pull and will have cut alittle bit into the ground. You could run a packer behind that and would have done it all in one pass.
I want to the the same with summer and winter grass.

It is getting about time to frost seed. Just get the seed out ahead of a good snow and the melt will take it into the grounds, as will the freezing a thawing.

If you're spreading on this pasture one of the more effective "easy" ways to over seed in to add some seed to each load of manure. Works really good with Red Clover, for me at least.

I agree that a harrow of some sort would be a better idea. Have hubby add a hitch point to the sled and tow the spike tooth, or use a spring tooth or small disc.

Must be warmer where you are, still 6-8 weeks of froze ground to look forward to here.

The best is to do nothing and when somewhat soft spread seed and run animals over it to push it into contact with the soil. If you must do it mechanically I agree with Gary about a disk with zero angle.

But if you really want to harrow, why not hook the harrows behind the forecart? I normally walk and do a little at a time with a single horse, but large areas I hook the team to the forecart and the harrow to its hitch. Wheels roll easier than any sled?

Just drag a board like a piece of 2X12 behind the harrow and you can stand on it.
I used to just stand on the back bar of the harrow but I have been bucked off it many times. A couple of times the teams even got away from me.

You're all right, of course...I have been trying to figure out some form of meaningful exercise for the horses, as much as scratch up the ground. I have a small disk, but it's not complete and not something I'd want to hitch up to the horses the way it is. We tried it unsuccessfully behind the small tractor once, but perhaps the ground was too hard, and I'm certain the disks need sharpening. There's a truck with it, but they don't match. Back to the drawing board I guess, and harrowing the arena...

Barb

Just pull the harrow behind the sled.

Be very careful pulling anything behind your sled, if you fall backwards, you fall onto/into the implement being pulled. Hence the need for a secure seat on a forecart. Otherwise, I would prefer Dale's method of riding behind the harrow.

Well, I discovered what "meaningful exercise" for my small horses is. I put the mare on the sled in the sand arena yesterday, and she worked up a hard breathing sweat in 20 minutes, even with breaks. She DID put more effort into the job than she needed to. Maybe today she won't be such an over-achiever. But the steady, dead weight was a lot of work to pull for a soft horse. The wiry old gelding though...he just cracks me up! He hasn't done any meaningful work in a few years. I put him on the sled (ratcheted back on the work a little) and he didn't crack a sweat, much less breathe hard. Bob was ribbing me about using the sled to "try to tire him out." We both know better. Anyway, I think the thing to do is probably try to figure out how to attach the little disk to the little tractor and scuff up the surface that way. No frost this year to try frost seeding and the ground is nice and soft, but will hold the tractor up just fine.

Thanks for all the input, as usual, my horse-farming notions are foiled again!

Barb

On our disc we have a ratio.....harder the ground the more rocks on top of it. Some come off at the rock pile. Then pick more up going back across. It works best w/ a wooden pallet upside down (holds more rocks).