Raking hay with horses

Yes,  at long last I have a blog update.  Actually, I did quite a few at once, so be sure to read back through April too.  :)

I got a call from my friend Pat a few weeks back letting me know that he was nearly ready to cut the hay in his fields.  He layed out gameplan for using the horses to help.  First, he would cut the hay with his tractor and also condition it.  Then, when it was dry enough, we'd use the horses to rake all the hay into windrows.  (a windrow is just basically a single line of a pile of hay).  After the fields were raked, Pat would run a square baler on his tractor to bale it.  He recently set his baler up so that he can pull hay wagons directly behind the baler.  This allows for the hay to be stacked directly on the wagon and then transported to the hay barn (the old way would drop the bales on the ground).  The idea was to use the horses to haul the hay wagons to and from the hay barn and field.

Pat was excited to use his team, and asked if I would be interested in bringing mine over as well.  As you can imagine, I was thrilled!  Haying with my team is something that I want to work towards and I was very excited about the idea of raking hay for the first time.

It turned out that the hay dried faster then anticipated, and Pat found himself needing to bale on thursday night.  I went out and helped, but since it was after work, and daylight was burning, we opted to do the majority of it with the tractor.  However, Pat saved a 2 acre field that was planted with oats and had some thick rye grass come up for using the horses on saturday May 5.

Saturday I had a class, and I got out of it at noon.  I rushed home, harnessed the horses, loaded them up, and then chained my forecart to the back of the trailer.  Then off me and my son went to Pat's house.

We got to Pat's house and got the girls unloaded.  Pat was just finishing harnessing his horses.  We had some others there that I met for the first time.  There was a young man named Nathan who is a pretty decent teamster there.  His father and sister were also there.  I'm not sure how Pat knows them, but it's awesome to see our network of teamsters grow.  We determined that I'd be the first to rake hay.  I hitched my pioneer forecart up to the girls and off we went to get hitched up to the hay rake.

I am using Pam and Rachael in the team.  Nellie is so close to being worked into the rotation, but since I was going to be learning how to run a rake, I decided to just keep it simple for now and use the proven team.

Pat has a ground driven side delivery rake that has wheels on the front of it.  I backed the girls up to it, and we connected up with no problems.  I have to say, when you are in public, and others are watching, it feels so great to have your team act perfect.  Getting them to back the cart exactly where I wanted it put a smile on my face.

Making the first windrow down the center of the hay field

This is the rear view.  The rake moves the hay into a pile on the right side (left of the picture)

With my son and I sitting on the forecart, off we went to the field.  I stopped right inside it, and Pat gave me some instructions on how to rake.  He told me to do a circle around the outside of the pasture, raking the hay towards the inside.  He said to then flip around, and do another circle around the pasture in the opposite direction, raking the the hay on the other side of the newly created windrow into the same winrow.  After this, I was to begin going up and down the pasture longways, creating windrows.  I made a few pictures to show kind of what I'm talking about.  After the 4th pass, you just continue going up and down the field, making windrows.

 
 

My horses did me proud on this day.  Pam and Rachael worked perfectly, just like they usually do.  I was concerned that maybe they would get annoyed walking through all the cut hay that was laying on the ground, but they didn't seem to mind it a bit.  After I was halfway done raking the field, I unhooked from the rake and tied the girls up for a break.  I was going to leave the rest for Pat to rake with his team (I didn't want to be the only one having all the fun).  The girls happily stood for a break.

break time

Pat was having some troubles with getting his team ready to go, and he ended up telling me to just go ahead and finish raking the hay.  This time, instead of having my son by my side, Nathan sat with me.  I showed him what I was doing for a row or two, and then I turned the lines over to him.  He did real good, and Rachael and Pam picked up on his queues pretty easily.  There was a few times where I'd have to get vocal to remind them what they were being asked to do, but for his part, Nathan did awesome.

Nathan with the lines.  This shot shows the entire rig.  Pioneer forecart pulling a side delivery rake

By the time we finished raking hay, Rachael was lathered up like I've never seen.  Both she and Pam were ready for a break.  Before I let them have a break, I took Nathan's sister Abigail for a ride on the cart.  She was very happy about the opportunity.  I even let her drive for a bit, and like her brother, she knew her stuff.  She even got the girls up into a trot, which impressed me.  I look forward to seeing them at Pat's place for playdays when we do them.

Hard to see, but this is the finished field.

Windrows are ready for the baler.

After that,  I tied the horses, took off their bridles, and had Abigail  help me lead them over to the water trough.  Pam refused to drink, and Rachael took a few sips.  That saying about leading a horse to water sure holds true sometimes.  :)  I tied my horses back to the trailer, and put the hay bags out for them and they sat there happily munching away.

At this point,  Pat had the baler in the field ready to go, and we went to work baling the field.  My son was in heaven (as was I).  I'm not sure what it is about that heavy machinery working, but it is captivating.  We all worked hard, and filled the big hay wagon up in no time.  We were having technical difficulties in getting the other hay wagon to use, so we just unhooked the big hay wagon, and dropped bales on the ground for the rest of it.  After we loaded and unloaded that hay the conventional way, Pat hitched up his horses, and headed down into the field.  First he pulled an empty hay wagon, and we loaded it from the field.  Pat's horses did great with all the starting and stopping this entailed.  After we filled that trailer up, it was hauled up to the hay barn, and then Pat went back down and picked up the other hay wagon that was full, and hauled it back to the hay barn.  It was very impressive to see Pat's beautiful horses pulling that giant hay wagon out of the field.

Pat's team pulling the hay wagon out fo the field

What a great day!

This was a great day!  For all my efforts, Pat was awesome and gave us some of the hay we had just baled.  Win Win!  Can't wait to do more of this stuff.