Hey there FarmGal,
the fellow that went out east said the draft rigs for Oxen and Mules were priced way too high. Consequently he did not pick up an of the rigging so maybe next time.

Back when we were still using the house as a country home, our pitbull used to pull us up the stairs when we were loaded with luggage and groceries as we arrived on Friday nights...does that count?

Hey there FarmGal,
the fellow that went out east said the draft rigs for Oxen and Mules were priced way too high. Consequently he did not pick up an of the rigging so maybe next time.

Hi Wilderness,

thanks for letting me know, I was able to get some harness gear this year at a farm sale, a pair of brichen, at the time , I figured one for the cow, and one for back replacement parts, but now I have one for each.. If he finds something for a good price, I would be interested depending on what it was 🙂

Back when we were still using the house as a country home, our pitbull used to pull us up the stairs when we were loaded with luggage and groceries as we arrived on Friday nights...does that count?

As a draft critter, the answer is YES, of course dogs count, they have been used world over for thousands of years as pack critters, I have a photo of a big dog loaded down from the gold rush days in the yukon..

Dogs were also used to pull carts.

I keep telling my Husky that but she just looks at me as if I need psychiatric help!

Mine too...must be something about Huskies!

Believe it or not, Miniature horses and a lot of ponies can, in terms of ratio, out pull drafts. They can't always pull as much, but unless you really need the big draft, minis, ponies, or even donkeys and llamas work very well. Also, goats make good pack animals if you've got a load you can't haul yourself. A nice big Boer buck could probably pull 150lbs. Just make sure he's got a good temperament.

I've seen some of the Amish/Mennonites and their carts and horses, and usually its a wooden box on wheels, and a pony.

FarmGal,
the fellow said all the Draft equipment went at record high prices. There were noobs and antique dealers in the crowds. So you will have to keep looking in your area for now, sorry no help from me on this one this time.

Hi Wilderness,

I have been able to pick up one more peice of equipment at the local sale, I got one of these, its not as nice as this one but it just needs to be cleaned up and I can't wait to give it a go in the garden next year.. A friend of mine has a harrow peice that I can have for free, so that will be added soon as well, and we will be making a V-plow for snow removal/gravel grading, we had one of these when i was a child and between my folks memory and me tracking down some plans on the net, I am greatly looking forward to being able to do all my snow plowing with the horse.

Wagon prices are higher then I expected and finding a farm wagon is proving to be difficult, as most seem to be buggies, which is not what I am personally looking for. Thanks for letting me know..

Believe it or not, Miniature horses and a lot of ponies can, in terms of ratio, out pull drafts. They can't always pull as much, but unless you really need the big draft, minis, ponies, or even donkeys and llamas work very well. Also, goats make good pack animals if you've got a load you can't haul yourself. A nice big Boer buck could probably pull 150lbs. Just make sure he's got a good temperament.

I've seen some of the Amish/Mennonites and their carts and horses, and usually its a wooden box on wheels, and a pony.

I have used a goat and also my big male sheep as pack animals, and they do well enough at it, and I agree that for carts, ponies and or smaller horses will do well if they are being asked to pull things on wheels or small amounts on a stone boat, but I can't agree that for overall farm work that any of the above keep up with a draft cow/oxen or a draft/draft cross horse.

The amount of basic weight in log pulling, hauling, stump pulling and even the size of equipment you can use changes with the size of the animal, I think it depends very much on if you want to do driving vs overall small farm work.