Jason sent this photo from southwest Virginia, where they are pretty well snowed in. They’re hauling hay up the hill to the horses on this “pony” grader, as well as plowing snow with it, obviously.
Those aren’t ponies, though; those are Jason’s Suffolk geldings, Tong and Wedge. So why’s this thing called a pony grader? I had to google that… and the one pertinent result was from the History Trust of South Australia’s website:
Very light and small graders were used in areas that bigger machinery could not access. They were made entirely of steel and could be pulled by a ‘light’ horse – hence the nickname ‘pony grader’. The graders were considered particularly useful on steep narrow tracks, where turning was difficult. For this purpose it could be used with two ‘light’ horses. These graders had only two axles and four wheels, the front wheels are much smaller than the rear wheels. They had a work capacity of 2-3 kms an hour. Unfortunately because of their light frame, the small graders could not work in rocky terrain, and they only operated effectively if the soil was moist. This limited use of the graders to two or three months of the year.
I would have a great deal of use for one of these on my farm, with my long, steep road up to the hilltop pastures that requires regular grading, and plans to build access roads around and across my pastures as time and energy permits.
Won’t have so much use for moving snow with it, though. Was just telling Jason that my area there in south-central Kentucky only gets a few snowfalls each winter, of the several inches variety, and the snow melts quickly. That’s a blessing in many ways, as getting chores and work done with snow on the ground is always more difficult, and sometimes impossible.
I will have to find a different excuse for hunkering down by the woodstove in the middle of the winter, then.
Thistledog's Farm 