Furrow pressers are chiefly used on light land, especially on light chalk soil, where it is difficult to get a firm seed bed ithout them.On ordinary soils they are mainly used for compressing the land for wheat, which especially requires a firm seedbed; but on light chalk soils it is common practice to use them to consolidate land to be sown with oats and barley. They are particularly valuable after grass and clover leys as they form a firm seed track at an even depth and prevent the seed from falling too deeply, as often occurs when the furrows are not well packed. The furrow press is made with two or three, and sometimes four, heavy ring sections strung on a spindle, the landside of the frame having a balancing light travelling wheel. The sections can be adjusted to the width of the furrows.

Hi-Speed Cross Country Sledge made by Ewan and Susan McPherson driven by Daniel Brown

The furrow press follows the plough and the horse in the shafts walks up the open furrow last turned, thus pressing as many furrows as there are rings; consequently the number of ploughs a presser will work to is decided by the number of rings.

David Baker put his Percherons to a cultivator and spent the morning breaking down the earth for Steve Barnes to drive Andy Musgrove's 10 year old grey Percheron, Dolly, to a veteran artificial fertiliser spreader. Daniel Brown had a busy day driving his Suffolk to a Bergan timber forwarder with logs from the local wood and later in the day tried a Hi-Speed cross country sledge made by Ewan and Susan McPherson. This sledge is not one for the traditionalists but great fun all the same! Although simple in design a lot of thought went into the making of this equipment with its unique built in whipple tree that alleviates chain whip for the horse while still giving freedom of movement and may be the way forward as a means of attracting a wider audience to the heavy horse world. I think I would have liked to have seen a crash helmet and perhaps a safety belt but - hey! - Daniel and his horse seemed to be having great fun.

Close-up of tongue truck

I was interested to see a tongue truck being used; I haven't seen one before and after reading a recent article in the Spring edition of The Heavy Horse World it was interesting to see one in action. On this occasion it was being used between a tractor roller and a pair of black Shires owned by the Weald and Downland Museum; this arrangement worked rather well, although a hitch cart, of which there were a number on display, would have been more convenient. I could see the practical use of the truck as it took the weight of the implement rather than the horses shouldering the burden. A young lady learning new skills was driving the horses under the watchful eye of Chris Zeuner, who is keen to encourage new handlers.

Talking of young ladies, John Wilson brought his horses from Basingstoke along with a bevy of lady helpers (don't ask me how he does it!). John spent the day harrowing and instructing his grooms in the finer points of horsemanship.

Continues........

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