I saw a work horse calendar last weekend and it showed a picture of a man pulling a manure spreader with 3 abreast. Instead of a tongue it had more like metal shaves and the middle horse was in the shaves with the outer two on each side and the front of the shaves had a bar clear across in front of all horses and hooked for the neck yoke.... looked interesting. Anyone ever do this?

I was in north eastern Iowa and brought home 2 new collars and a brand new nylon harness for the missus for our anniversary so she can get these two young horses going. Dang woman wasn't even happy with them. Heck, I've never had a brand new harness.... had to go with her to trade her car in on a newer on for her, some people are just never satisfied... ;-)

That was a shot of Ron Kath by Ronnie Hartman on the December page of our draft horse calendar. Here is the photo:

I know what you mean, I got the girlfriend a forwarding trailer for her birthday, still haven't lived that one down!!

Jo Long in tennessee "going to town for feed" had some hooked like that never got a good look at the evenours.

Man that is a great photo. Love those chunky horses! Can someone explain to me how they don't break the shafts when one of the outside horses has to step in a furrow or the conditions are not table top flat? That is a trio of horses to be proud of for sure!

You can also do that set up with two regular neck yokes, which is probably easier on the center horse..
I like best the three abreast evener style that sets one up on one side of a single, center fire, tounge. The single horse pulls against a short lever which is in turn attached by a chain to the tounge forward of the kingpin. This gives the single horse leverage to mach the other two. Works real nice and there is no crowding like the one with the two evener levers.

Wally b

The horses are Percheron/Belgian crosses, Jan, Jack and Jill.

Joe

I originally went with a one piece neck yoke but converted to two neck yokes to allow more movement on uneven ground. I am not sure if I have gotten the hang of posting images... hope so.

Love the three-abreast wagon photo. Where was that taken?

Rdennis, or anyone else who is interested, if you will send me your e-mail address I'll be more than glad to send you a bunch of photos of a three-up that I built and that was featured in Rural Heritage a few years ago. The photos show in detail how it was arranged. I feel this is far superior to a single tongue that has two horses on one side. In such a hitch as that, the one horse is outside the longitudinal axis of the wagon whereas with mine, all three are in front and centered.

Yup, that is the photo I saw... not real sure how to use the double neck yokes... on a single tongue i don't see the need.. I hadn't thought about the uneven ground part of it... I intend to hook a green one up with a solid broke team and didn't want the hassle of hooking the three horse evener to the tongue and thought this looked like a better deal. I'd still use a three horse evener...I usually feed bales with a bale wagon every day and just thought to take a green one along. I have driven them three abreast to my little chariot I use for a breaking/training cart, but never hooked the outside horse to the cart...I really don't need the pulling strength of the extra horse but thought would be a good way to introduce one to the pull, by using the 3 horse evener...never done much like this but have plans to have 4 head abreast and also strung out when i am done, thus the need for the new harness and collars... now, if I can just sweet talk the missus.....mostly just need an extra person for a week to open gates and be on hand if something gets tangled up...thanks for posting the pictures, that sure a purty one on the bottom!

The issue Carl is talking about was the Winter 2008 issue. Here are three photos from that story.

Joe

Another option is to offset the tounge 1/2 your double tree width. About 17 inches or so depending on your 3 horse evener. Bolt your 3 horse evener onto the stub part of the pole where it normaly would be with a team. Center horse would be centered in front of the load You would need to use metal to gusset for strenght on the offset pole. You should be able to drive 3 horses with 1 neck yoke Changing back to a team would require pulling out the stub pole and replacing it with a team pole and evener.

We cut some ash poles for a guy a few years ago who was building a 3 horse setup similar to this one. Another neighbor built one out of steel tube for his trolley wagon. It was the heaviest piece of equipment I've seen. It took 3 men and a boy to hook the horses up the first time. Come to think of it, that may have been the last time. The other fella built a nice receiver for the wooden poles. I think I like that idea better.

Terry, great picture, and I like the idea of the 2 neck yokes.

Those bays sure are nice, also.

wow what a nice trio of horses up in the top pic ...does anyone know if the picture is current or an older pic ...I would love to own a team or three abreast of those ....very very nice looking horses ...does anyone know who that man is and where he is from ?????

The top photo is of Ron Kath and his Percheron/Belgian cross horses, taken in 2010 or 2011. He is in Washington County, Minnesota.

Joe

Cori... The photo was taken west of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta in the Canadian Rockies. One of the great benefits to having the two pole setup is that all three horses are able to hold back when going down hill and also all three contribute when backing the load up. My poles are made of steel tubing and are quite heavy so I have a coil spring that takes a lot of the weight off the horses. The spring isn't real visible but if you look straight below my left hand you will see the back end of the spring where it connects to the axle tube. The front of the spring connects to a riser coming up off the hitch just behind where the evener pins in. As an afterthought I bolted a cross member across the front of the two poles. The cross member adds a lot of strength to the system. So much so that I could have gotten away with lighter tubing for the poles. Carl...Sure wish I could have seen the photos of your setup when I was building mine. It would have saved a lot of head scratching on my part. One more picture for practice. The grandson was checking the water depth. I really enjoy the Front Porch. A lot of good information to be gleaned.

When using the two yoke setup, has anyone had issues fitting both rings in the snap on the center horse or with the two yokes bumping each other?

What great pictures. The landscape as well as the horses.

Thanks for the added pictures and explanations. makes it much clearer and easier to see. As to added weight on the yokes, I wouldn't worry too much with these as they wouldn't be driven like this for a very long stretch at a time...I would build from metal as that is what i have at hand to build with and I could easily adapt it for my bale wagon and witch back to the regular tongue for just two..Terry, tell us ,more about your team please.. what breeding and age and size...it's real cold and windy here this morning so I am waiting for a bit better weather to go feed...

Really good information and wonderful pictures to boot. The porch is a great resource. Thanks to Joe for, among many things, keeping this board updated and running smoothly.

Thanks Doug. I appreciate it.

Joe

rdennis... The horses are 16 year old belgian/quarter horse crosses. They aren't real big and I suppose they weigh 1300 to 1500 hundred pounds. That is a guess only. My twin pole setup is designed to enable me to take one pole off and store it under the wagon and then move the the other pole to the center for use with two horses. I am working on the replacements for the day when the belgian crosses get too old. These are big boys. Six years old, 18 hands and probably weighing a ton. We have had a couple of "lets see how fast we can go" incidents. They have been on good behaviour of late. Hope it remains that way.

Terry, I went thru' that big horse deal for a few years trying to replace my old style chunk Belgians. Bought full brothers, blonde Belgians that got way too big. sold them, bought a bay and prayed the mare would have another bay... she had a dun filly. sold them and bought these Halflingers. I wish I could find a real naturally good natured black horse to cross one with and hope to get a mid sized team of bays. I just love bays if you can't tell. Thought about crossing with a Belgian on these Halfies but i really don't need anything that big. Wish I could afford a set of Suffolks from the pictures I've seen but I am too cheap and there are none close. I have a friend on Facebook who is always posting pictures of their Clydes and I just may have to go that route someday. Man I love them bay's. I've thought about crossing with a real small black Percheron, but am afraid of the hotness factor with the hybred and then too, these Halfies act more like a buggy team than a work horse team. We trot a lot, but then, I get the cows fed pretty darn quick also! :-)

Yes, thanks you Uncle Joe. I hate making a reply on one of these boards and having to wait a day or so to see the replies....

rdennis. Under different circumstances I probably wouldn't have such big horses but... I was at an auction sale where three percheron breeders had all consigned some horses (breeding stock and green broke teams). When the auctioneer was looking for an opening bid he started high and kept dropping the price. When the price got ridiculously low I opened the bidding. Long story short, my bid was the one and only bid.

Belgianguy,I use this also. I use two yokes, middle I use two snaps, works great.

I want to thank the folks here. I used the information here to modify a two horse bobsled to a three horse. Wish I could show you a picture...