#TBT: 7 Draft-Powered Implements You Never Knew You Needed

Draft horses: Is there anything they can’t do? Especially when armed with these unusual yet ingenious pieces of equipment.

fishhawk/Flickr/CC

Yeah, so you could use a tractor to do most of this stuff too, but what’s the fun in that? In reality, using draft horses on the farm is becoming more and more popular for small-scale and hobby farming. As sustainable farming gains more traction in the agricultural world, draft horses are being viewed as an attractive alternative to diesel-consuming tractors and heavy machinery. There’s the added bonus that working with draft horses is richly rewarding and just plain fun.

Manure Spreader

There is not a barn in the world that does NOT need one of these.

Horse-Drawn Harrow

You don’t have to be harrowing your garden or crop field to appreciate this one–take it for a spin around your arena and you’ll be in love! This is far superior to trying to drag the ring around jumps with an ATV.

Horse-Drawn Loose Hay

Well, if you’re not feeding hundreds of cattle at a time this may be less useful, but it’s still pretty darn impressive if you look at what these horses are doing–the collecting horses are actually walking behind their load with the loose hay in front of them.

The Round Bale Roller

How cool is this? The hookup actually looks like the same piece of equipment necessary for a snow roller but jammed through a round bale. Now you can get a big bale out to the back pasture while simultaneously clearing the way for the sleigh or wagon on the next trip–two birds, one stone.

The Horse-Drawn Transplanter

I kid you not when I saw my mind blew over this one. No more crawling up and down rows planting seedlings–just hop aboard this thing and let the horses do the work for you (mostly). The inventive farmer who custom-built this thing does a really good job describing how everything works.

The Root Lifter

Another genius trinket employed by the good folks at the CSA who made the above-mentioned transplanter, the horse-drawn root lifter makes what would have been several hours of digging just a matter of seconds with one pass. (Too bad they don’t have another horse-drawn tool to save them all the work of cutting up and peeling the leeks once they’re out of the ground.)

Horse-Powered Dump Wagon

For all of your potato-picking needs. This thing is amazing, and in typical Belgian style this horse is being driven with a single line, which is really impressive to see. (I don’t think anyone’s actually holding this horse while they’re loading the wagon.)

Do you have a unique horse-powered piece of equipment in your barn? Share your own photos, videos and stories!

Go draft horses!