Cutting the field for the first time with my IH #9 Mower!

I need to get the horses ready for the event in Terrell this next Saturday; my field is long; I have an IH #9 mower that I restored and still haven't used; and I had some spare time on Sunday afternoon.  Combine those together and you get a good time!!!  It's high time I do something with these lazy horses, and try out my mower.  Yesterday it was a cool 80 degrees with a nice breeze.  Couldn't ask for much more.

I pulled the horses out of the pasture, and got them all prettied up.  Then I hitched up the sickle mower for the first time.  As usual, I was working alone, so it took me a little time to adjust the breast straps and hitch to fit properly.

Getting all hooked up.

A nice shiny mower behind some nice clean horses.  We're about to change that.

Just to ensure I had hitched up right, I started driving while walking behind the mower.  I figured it would be safer that way just in case there was a problem.  I got into the field, and decided to try it out.  This is when I learned a few lessons:

1. When draft horses walk slow, it doesn't take much to jam a sickle blade.  5 feet after turning the blades on I got my first jam.  I instantly saw why the #9 high gear would be a desirable thing to have.  As long as I kept the girls walking at a more brisk pace, we were usually fine and could push through thick grass without the bar getting stuck.
2. Driving a straight line is harder than you think.  With a mower leaving an actual trail of cut grass, it's very obvious how straight (or crooked) you're driving is.  I found that the first cut down the edge was the hardest to do straight, but after that, it was much easier due to being able to follow the cut line.
3. Sickle jams are easy to fix when your horses are awesome!  As I started getting snags, I learned I had to lift the blade up, and get off of the seat and walk behind the bar to clean out the teeth.  Most of the time there was really long grass that had been pulled between the top of the sickle blade and the top of the sickle guide.  I'd rip as much of that out as I could then start again.  While ripping out the clogged up grass, the horses were perfect.  They stood perfectly still, and never moved a muscle.  Makes a teamster beam with pride to have horses like that.
4. Restarting after a jam is tricky.  I found that after a jam if I just dropped the blade and started forward again that it would bind up instantly.  It takes a good few steps before the horses have the mower moving at a good speed. I tried stepping back a few steps, then starting again, but doing that, you have to get the bar underneath all the grass that you just cut.  That led to some instant jams too.  What I eventually resorted to, was pulling a circle, and dropping the blade a ways back and slowly cutting back into the original position.  That seemed to work OK.
5. If you're gonna cut hay with a #9 mower ... you need to have a fence row mower for parts!  As we were finishing parts of the pasture with a few more rows to go, I suddenly hit a BIG snag.  The girls were really pulling well, and it ended up pulling the mower 2 feet with the wheels locked.  When I backed the mower up a bit, I saw something by Rachael's rear foot.  When I looked closer, I found my right hub, cracked in half.  That last snag was so harsh that it broke the hub in half where the hairline fracture was when I installed it (Link Here).  It also broke some pieces off of the wheel itself.  I couldn't believe it broke like that.  So that instantly put a stop to the mowing.  I'm stuck now till I find a replacement part.

All in all it was a pretty good time.  I got much better at driving the girls while mowing the more I did it.  They were being a little lazy which meant I had to be pretty vocal to keep them walking.  They did great though.  I'll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves.  If anyone has any tips on mowing, or knows a place to get mower parts besides Macknairs, I'm all ears.  :)

Just cleaned out the sickle bar  while the girls stood perfectly.

The teamster's view

Stopping for a Jam.  See all that grass on the blade?

Front view.

What a jam!  LOTS of grass stuck on that one.

A look behind.  3 or 4 rows done.

DISASTER!  Broken Hub!  You can even see where it broke part of the wheel.  BOO!

Two halves of the hub, with springs and pawls in the toolbox.

The stopping point.  Lots of the mowing was done, just a strip down the center to go.

North End of the pasture was done

Another view of the North end of the pasture.  You can see a few spots I missed.  I'm definitely a work in progress.

And here's how it was accomplished.  Pam, happy to have her bridle off after a long day of work.

A tired Rachael, ready for some hay and oats.