I was buying some huge WO from a Amish guy 20 miles up the road. Got loaded with around 10000# of logs and due to about 1" of fresh snow and black greasy soil I couldn't get out of his woods. Got pulled by 2HP, 2 big horses, they sure can pull a lot, I think it would have taken a fair sized tractor to get me through one spot. I had my skidloader there but they couldn't drive the truck or the skidloader. Steve
DanG Steve,winter comes early in your neighborhood.Spent summers on my uncles farms in New Brunswick all they had were horses I have alot of respect for what they can do,especially in the woods.Frank C.
Steve;
Years ago we had just the opposite experience with "horse power"!
We were delivering a load of logs to the Amish on a trailer behind the pickup and didn't quite get to the "roll-way" and the trailer went down, then the truck went down!
We had chains on the truck (2-wheel drive) but the bottom just seemed to fall out of the roadway!
The truck and the trailer were sitting on the frames!
The mill owner came around with a team of horses (not all that big) and hooked onto the front of the truck and before my brother could get into the truck, the team was going! They skidded that truck "in PARK mind-you" right up to the roll-way!
Never underestimate the power of a horse!
I saw two elephants pull a tractor trailer that was loaded out of a mud hole once. It was a circus getting ready to set up. They had no trouble pulling it up the hill.
QuoteNever underestimate the power of a horse!
I sure agree with that. They've pulled me out a time or two.
A draft horse can muster enough energy to get 10 times its weight rolling. A team of 2000lb horses could get a 40000 lb truck moving if they're well conditioned. I sure wished you had pictures but it sounds like you had a good time.
My 90 year old friend tells of his father being so mad. He bought his first tractor and on cold mornings had to pull it with the horses to get it started..Ironic huh ?
It's truth, horses can pull a lot. But as mentioned above about elephants... When I was a youngun, I worked for awhile for a circus. We used to use elephants to pull loaded tractor-trailers all the time. A loaded rig will have trouble on a field of wet grass. But not with an elephant hooked to the front, it won't!