OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum The Old Soap Box RESPONSE to SULKY MOWER - Botanic Gardens,

THIS COMMENT BLOCK relates to the PICTURE HERE.

While I'm certainly no expert on horses, it wouldn't be because the horse was flighty.
That horse is quite obviously one of the draught or semi-draught 'heavy horse' breeds.
The large hooves and long hair 'feathering' of the hocks are very distinctive characteristics here.

These breeds are also of very calm, 'plodding' temperament - just what you want in a plough horse, which was what most of them were used for. They also often saw use in powering stationary machinery, either in a treadmill, or via a rotary 'capstan' gear/shaft driven setup, where the horse walked in endless circles.

Horse powered ploughing, using mouldboard type ploughs, was usually carried out with the ploughman walking behind, steering the plough through the dirt. Much as is being done in this picture.

Harrowing [to break up the large clods of dirt formed by the plough] would be even more like this; with the horse controlled by long reins as it pulled the flat harrow assembly [think of a steel grid, with down-pointing vertical ~6" long spikes] along.

Hello Mod Gadge,

Thank you for those thoughts.
I guess you're saying that the longer reigns suited the horse's work history.
That sounds like a good explanation to me.

The rest is history.
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JACK.

Yep, those are my thoughts. It might well have suited the training of the driver, too!

A little research into the draught horse breeds that came to Australia, brought up these four as the original imports: Clydesdale, Percheron, Shire, Suffolk Punch. So there's a connection to a mower name!

Oh yes!

I love those Clydesdale and Shire mowers.
And the Percheron mower was my all-time favourite!

Suffolk Punch? Haven't heard of those ... [punch line ]

Gadge, what you say is so interesting!
We forget that, before 1902, the engines of large lawnmowers were horses and
donkeys and ponies, and children and ...

We forget that, even after 1902, the horse reigned supreme as the large lawnmower engine
for decades, before finally succumbing to the mechanical tractor.

Shanks is attributed as introducing the concept of the large lawnmower.
They moved from the smaller Budding's Patent to machines requiring animal power.

I hope to present, in these forums, some of the lost history of animal-powered mowers.
Their story, the 50 Shades of Hay, is one well worth remembering.



The rest is haystory.
----------------------------
JACK.

Righto then, this is about the only item I possess with a 'horse connection':



It's the anvil; passed down to me from our Cobram next door neighbour, Arthur Tilley. He was an ANZAC Gallipoli vet, who became a Soldier Settler on a fruit-growing block at Red Cliffs, Vic after WWI.

This was his shoeing anvil; he was the last Red Cliffs district 'blockie' to use working horses, his family told me.

Hi Gadge, any idea why the hardened top plate of the anvil has been cut back a couple of inches at the end? It seems to have either been done deliberately, or tidied up after an accidental fracture. Or perhaps you could buy them like that, though I can't think why.

It certainly looks like it's been a working anvil. What, 100-pound class? Made in Australia? If so, by whom?

Nope, it hasn't been cut back at all.

This is what's known as a traditional 'London pattern' anvil, and that small flat just behind the horn is known as the 'table'.

Its purpose is to provide a soft, flat area for chisel cutting, so that the chisel [such as the 'hot chisel' head which is the second tool lying on top, from the horn end] doesn't put cut marks in the working face, or get blunted against hard metal. 'Hot chisel' because it's shaped for cutting metal which is 'hot', i.e. at red heat or above.

The first tool head is a 'top fuller' by the way, used for flattening out and spreading the hot workpiece. Like the chisel, this is a struck tool, used fitted to a light handle, and struck with a heavy hammer.

There's no maker's , or even weight, marks on this anvil. Haven't weighed it, but I'd say around the 50-70lb mark.

It's set at the traditional blacksmith's personal working height. That is, so that the knuckles of my closed hand will just rest on the face, with that arm held straight down.