Horses for farm work?

[PotterWatch]

Anyone here use horses (or mules) for their farm work? I am interested in hearing about working with a single horse or a team to plow and till several acres a couple times a year as well as do basic daily farm chores like pulling a flat trailer with feed, bedding bales, or hay. We aren't growing crops, so the plowing and tilling would only be when we want to prepare an area for seeding for pasture. I'm wondering what feed costs might be potentially. We have 7 acres of year-round pasture here with bermuda growing in the summer and we seed with winter rye in the fall. Our pasture is mainly supporting meat chickens and we will sometimes have a few beef steers out there as well.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

Are you talking about getting draft horses are you going to try to go with a Morgan or something that has dual purpose?

I don't use my horses for field work, however, I do have 2 draft horses, so I can talk to you about care and feeding.

We have a percheron and a spotted draft. We have pasture during the summer months and then provide hay and grain through the winter. We budget $200 a month which covers hay, feed and vet services. You will need to consider farrier care. When I was paying a farrier, it was $90 per horse to trim. If you wanted shoes on them, it was $180 per horse. I know someone who works his horses and he trims and shoes every 6 weeks, he does his own. Because i don't work my horses, I learned to trim their feet myself which saves a lot.

If you want to get horses to work and if you don't have any experience with it, I would suggest you find someone near you who has working horses and learn from them. Training horses to work is not easy. Having a lead horse that knows what they are doing would be ideal.

Good luck!

 

[Ms. Research]

77Hereford has in his journal about working with his two draft horses. Maybe PM him and ask how he's doing with this team. Seems, by reading his journal, that he has been successful with this team.

Love those big draft horses.

K