Help with sled

[happy appy]

I bought a homemade sled for my minis. My question is, it didn't come with shafts or a pole, do I just hook the traces to the runners or what? I will be using a collar for Sugar to pull the sled with, not sure if that makes a difference.

 

[disneyhorse]

Most horsedrawn sleds I've seen have chains attached to the runners and then hooked to a draft type single tree.

 

[happy appy]

Most horsedrawn sleds I've seen have chains attached to the runners and then hooked to a draft type single tree.

You wouldn't have a picture of that would you?

 

[disneyhorse]

http://www.mydrafthorse.com/cfwebstore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=548

The ring hooks to the chains on the sled and the traces hook onto the hooks on the ends of the singletree. Your horse can drag a tire or a tree or whatever with this type of tree as it will keep the traces even on the collar. I'd always recommend a full draft collar for dragging stuff, breast collars won't distribute the weight as well.

 

[happy appy]

The single tree I have and the collar and hames is what I am going to be using. How would you hook the single tree to the sled?

 

[disneyhorse]

You need to connect chains to it somehow... Maybe weld something??? Photos of your sled would of course help immensely...

 

[disneyhorse]

You need to connect chains to it somehow... Maybe weld something??? Photos of your sled would of course help immensely...

 

[happy appy]

I will take photos this morning while I am doing chores.

 

[paintponylvr]

Here is a pic of our "home made rig" - starting to pull tires & pipe. This was before we had collars w/ hames...

We used a rope around the tire, then the braided section around the middle of the singletree (very similar to the metal/wood one shown above - just using what we had). I don't really think you want to attach directly to the runners though - maybe attach something to the frame between them?

 

[paintponylvr]

Here is another pic showing the same singletree using a chain attached to a tree. Using "proper" harness - but since only had pair driving lines, used the single braided haystring lines I'd made...

*added* - I thought I had some closeups of how I attached to a drag w/ a chain allowing the singletree to move back and forth so that horse stayed centered on pull. I will have to go thru other pics at home...then load them to the online album...

 

[happy appy]

 

[Minimor]

Get two equal lengths of chain, attach them to the ring on the single tree and then attach one to each side of the sled; it should be very easy to attach those.

However--it would also be very easy to attach shafts to that sled, and that is what I would do. The shafts would have to have to angle up and forward from the bolts on the runners--just typical cutter shafts is what it needs.

On this page: http://www.summitview.on.ca/cutters.htm the original Portland cutter partway down the page shows shafts that would work very well for you.

I personally would not use a little sled like yours without shafts or a pole.

 

[disneyhorse]

Oh it's a sleigh!!! To me, we use a sled with draft horses and it's just a platform you stand on with runners... But because the centre of gravity is higher on this, I would most definitely want shafts for the horses comfort and the riders safety.