Useful gadgets

I live and work in a place where, at the time of writing, it is cheaper to employ people than to mechanize. Plus, interest rates are high (and I have borrowed more than enough to modernize the riding centre). However, there is still a place for useful gadgets that help my staff to work more efficiently. If a horse can pull the gadget, all the better.

Moving muck is everyone’s least favourite job, and moving sawdust bedding is one of the awkwardest. To begin with, we built a tip-cart for one horse to pull. It began with a timber body, but that rotted, so we built a steel body. Luckily, that was before the Chinese started to buy so much steel that prices rocketed. However, the tip cart started to be used for hauling soil and rock during our building project, and I decided that the weight transferred by the shafts onto the horse’s back was excessive with such a load. Plus, shoveling muck in from the back tended to result in weight accumulating at the front, where the horse carried it via the shafts.

Fortunately, we had an old two-wheeled forecart lying in the barn. It was soon modified to pull the tip-cart, which we converted into a trailer. The whole unit was patterned on the typical Transylvanian farm cart, which has a central tubular steel spine. This spine not only holds the front and rear sections in formation, it also stops the front section tipping up. (Just how is easier to understand from photos. I'll try to post some.)

So now we have a tip-cart that is easy on the horse, has a convenient working platform for the horseman, and still carries a cubic metre of material. It’s great for mucking out the stalls (which we can drive into), and for collecting sawdust bedding (which the local sawmills in the village give away for free). It tips up easily, making unloading simple and quick. One big horse pulls the cart. It’s so much quieter and cheaper than a tractor. It employs someone, and it’s environmentally sound. It’s perfect for a riding centre.

Comments

[Deny Fady]

Hello,

I am the webmaster of a french horsedrawn association (HIPPOTESE).
I discover your blog today, and i translate in french one of your post about tip-cart for our blog.
Very interesting !
I espect there is no problem for that...
Thanks for your work...
Deny