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Pity party
Posted by Geoff at 2014-04-14 11:31:24
I just need to say my boo hoo after a minor mishap yesterday.

I was spreading fertilizer (yes - conventional granular stuff) on my hay/pasture ground using a 12 ft drop spreader that I used to pull behind a 4-wheeler (less risk of getting stuck when you hit a wet spot). Anyway, I decided to use my team and pull the spreader behind my forecart BUT I need to back the spreader in along side the dry fertilizer box sitting on the truck and auger out the fertilizer - by myself. To run the auger, I need to start the truck and engage the PTO then hop down and run the feeder tube .... no way to hold the horses at the same time. So I called my dear wife to come and hold them while I filled ..... well the team started getting antsy "happy feet" and my wife was holding them back (maybe too much) so they started backing up .... and put the spreader wheels into the ditch once or twice. When I realized that maybe my wife should fill the box while I minded the animals, it was too late ---- they'd snapped the neck yoke like a twig (not an old dry rotted one either). They were pretty jumpy but never ran off etc ..... I, on the other hand, was disappointed and .....

Today's a new day so we'll start fresh today ---- if I can find a neck yoke in the barn.
Response by Jonathan Shively at 2014-04-14 21:33:56
Piece of pipe and weld rings on ends, threaded eyelet on a ring, drilled through the pipe and solid then. I broke a wooden neckyoke once, never use another wooden neckyoke or eveners since.
Response by Jerry Hicks at 2014-04-15 06:30:25
I have to agree with Jonathan Shively. I broke a neckyoke logging a few years back and have never used a wooden one since. I'm also buying more bolt on ones.
Response by Klaus Karbaumer at 2014-04-15 08:06:26
I do not use wooden neckyokes either. Geoff, congratulate yourself on your team, because- as you know- they could have reacted differently once the neckyoke was broken!
Response by KC FOX at 2014-04-15 21:40:29
I make all my neck yokes,singletrees & evener out of heavy tubing some of my first that I made were out of 1x1-14 gage I'm using heaver because some neck yokes bent a little. evener's are made out of 1x2 tubing haven't bent them. I'm making neckyokes so they bolt on the tongue.
Response by grey at 2014-04-16 15:13:06
If you're going to make a neck yoke, evener or tongue out of tubing, don't get lazy and neglect to cap the ends. Things get a little over-exciting when you clip the neck yoke on and flying, stinging things come pouring out.
Response by M. Burley at 2014-04-18 20:51:27
Grey, apparently you've experienced this first hand? I know we've had to go around to every piece of equipment and cap or plug holes. Just as a precaution, of course.
Response by SD-WestRiver at 2014-04-19 17:59:39
Had some of the flying stinging things come out of a metal pipe gate I was opening off my saddle horse last summer. Also had some making nests in our horse trailers. I did a round or two with a wasp/hornet spray bomb and seemed to put them out of business. Also put up traps for them.
One horse must have gotten nailed in the trailer without my knowledge-she was hard to load after that.
Response by grey at 2014-04-21 10:16:03
No, that was one that I was fortunate enough to learn vicariously. One of those rare don't-need-to-try-that-myself sort of lessons learned.
Response by grey at 2014-04-21 10:19:12
Also, I went to buy a guy's wagon and he offered to throw in his home-built evener and neck yoke. I picked them up off the ground and gave them a toss into the wagon bed for the trip home and when they hit the wagon deck, a bunch of stow-aways came flying out. No wonder he wanted me to take em!
Response by Geoff at 2014-04-23 11:47:52
Last year the yellow-jackets were abundant in biblical numbers! Fall plowing we hit an underground nest, horses started to dance and when I realized what was happening I found that the plow and me were sitting right over the hole. Sulky plows aren't the best vehicle for hurrying away either.

Not an issue today since we're getting SNOW!
Response by Geoff at 2014-04-23 11:51:30
Forgot to add - the day after our little event with the fertilizer, we hooked up to my big earthmover tire and drug it up the road and back. Probably a mile each way. They were fine. Plowed last weekend at Colfax - same thing. Good working horses. Can't be too unhappy.

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