Three horsepower tractor with trailer

[red750]

https://fb.watch/jru20TWJ4a/

[facthunter]

Clydesdales. Also used as pit ponies and hauling baker's carts, Lovely temperament...  Nev

[old man emu]

It is a crying shame that these gentle giants, evolved to make Mankind's work easier, have nearly reached extinction because Mankind found other sources of power. Clydesdales, Suffolk Punch, Shire, Percheron - 31 recognised breeds, are now kept in existence by dedicated lovers of horses.

 

It is interesting that the word we use for the speed at which work can be done, "horsepower", which was  established by Watt as the power needed to lift 33,000 pounds one foot in one minute, "horsepower" was the thing that led to the demise of animal power in transport and farming. Internal and external combustion engines, and later electric motors can produce more horsepower per unit of time than Dobbin.

[spacesailor]

Pit ponies are a separate breed of small hores. Then there's the ' Big arese'ed canal barge horse ' , another separate breed , thats only just been rediscovered .

Horse' s for course 's  ' Clydesdale horses ' are big footed to walk on plowed fields .

Barge horses are huge in the rear quarters,  but not big footed , as the canal towpath is hard surfaced .

And they out perform Clydesdale's at pulling power .

spacesailor

[Old Koreelah]

I remember one uncle on Comboyne had a working Clydesdale until the mid 60s. With hooves like big frying pans, it had a good grip on that steep country. When it died, it fell and took out a panel of a stout two-rail fence.

[facthunter]

I come from a long line of coal miners who used clydesdales. Some never got to see the sun it was said once they started working. What use would a small horse be lugging coal?.  Nev

[old man emu]

Larger horses, such as varieties of Cleveland Bay which generally stands between 16 and 16.2 hands (64 and 66 inches, 163 and 168 cm), could be used on higher underground roadways, but on many duties small ponies no more than 12 hands (48 inches, 122 cm) high were needed. Shetlands were a breed commonly used because of their small size, but Welsh Russian, Devonshire and Cornish ponies also saw extensive use in England.

 

The hand is a non-SI unit of measurement of length standardized to 4 in (101.6 mm).  Although measurements between whole hands are usually expressed in what appears to be decimal format, the subdivision of the hand is not decimal but is in base 4.

[facthunter]

Some of those small horses have a very cranky disposition. . Nev

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

Some of those small horses have a very cranky disposition. . Nev

Small horse syndrome

[facthunter]

Might have been ambitious or a cripple also.  Nev

[Litespeed]

If I had been shoved in a mine to slave away and never run green grass fields- I would be pissed off as well.

[facthunter]

Most "Pit Ponies" I know of were Clydesdales and they have a lovely temperament . BIG with Hairy feet.   They also used to pull Baker's carts.   Nev

[pmccarthy]

The horses were difficult to lower down the shaft slung under the cage. Then they grew fat under ground, and couldn't be pulled out again until they were put on a diet.

[onetrack]

What did they do with all the horseshit from pit ponies?? It must have half-filled the mine after a while? Did they shovel it all up regularly?

[Marty_d]

36 minutes ago, onetrack said:

What did they do with all the horseshit from pit ponies?? It must have half-filled the mine after a while? Did they shovel it all up regularly?

Maybe they just made the mine 50% deeper than it needed to be...

[spacesailor]

Good for growing ' mushrooms ' .

AND , they did in at least one coalminers. I the UK .

spacesailor

[facthunter]

Working hard and only being fed the minimum doesn't make fat horses. Many of them stayed underground for extended Periods and couldn't see when they first re-emerged. Maybe they had a poo  bag under their tails. Nev

[onetrack]

I was surprised to see that pit ponies were only introduced after the employment of children and females underground was banned in the 1840's. They were largely well looked after, although some of the miners treated them badly, obviously having little compassion for animals. They had stables for the horses and the horseshit was collected and taken out of the mine.

I always thought being an underground coal miner in that era was the worst type of job, now I know there was one worse job - being the horseshit collector in underground coal mines in the 1800's.

 

https://www.horsejournals.com/popular/history-heritage/pit-ponies-ghosts-coal-mines#:~:text=“Working in the dark did,dust%2C as did the miners.

[pmccarthy]

Horses were used underground in Victoria from about 1863 and were used in Broken Hill from early days. We had a bad rat problem in the 1960s-70s caused by rats that had come in with the horse feed decades earlier and now survived on rotting hessian, timber and food scraps. We had all sorts of rat traps and metal lunch boxes (crib tins) to keep the cribs safe.

[Mr.Vegemite]

As a child I used to feed the local bakery Clydesdales sugar cubes (yes we had sugar in cube form back then, circa 1950's). 

Toongabbie NSW.