Three Abreast Balanced Evener

by Les Barden of Farmington, NH

When the dairy herd was sold in 1976 the decision had been made to lean heavily on horses for our mixed-power diversification. Equipment drawn by a Farmall C or a Ford 8N could be handled by a pair of horses. The trailing and ground-driven implements which required a forty or fifty horse-power tractor presented a dilemma. We chose to keep these tools and to employ three horses abreast. In our shop we designed and produced a balanced evener, a triple yoke, and double poles for our vehicles.

It is our policy to confine the information we impart to those procedures which have proven successful to us under varying conditions, with several teams, and over many years. We believe that if the WHAT and the WHY are clearly understood, the reader/listener can then use sound judgment in order to develop his own HOW TO. We shall present only what works for us, and refrain from prescribing what our audience should or should not do.

The accompanying diagrams and pictures are intended to be self-explanatory. The only rigid rule for the fabrication of the evener is that the proportions of the levers cannot vary. The draw-pin is midway in the main evener. The secondary eveners have the draw-pin located one third from the outside horses and two thirds from the inside horse. All other dimensions are according to materials available and the strength required.

Standardizing our yokes and eveners on all poled vehicles and implements so that our horses walk on 42 inch centers has given uniformity to our riggings. It also has eliminated the need to readjust brace reins when changing from one piece of equipment to another.

Pictured here is a plug yoke arrangement which we have used exclusively on all poles since we conceived it as a complement to the D-Ring harness. In the video, “THE D-RING HARNESS” there is a close look at our plug yoke and its advantages to us. A yoke with conventional rings that fit over each pole end works equally as well.

When necessary, or as a precaution, kicking straps from the breeching-center ring of the middle horse can be attached to the chains shown here on the poles.

In the course of selecting the horse to place in the middle, it became apparent that this is the location for a horse which needs to be trained, retrained, or restrained. For whatever reason, the middle horse can be hitched longer at the heel chains so that he may take his share of the load or lag and have only to walk and pay attention. In this case the outside horses are checked to take the load as the secondary eveners close on point A. The fractious horse can be checked back with a chain at point A so that if he rams he will take the entire load, or if he walks evenly with the other two he will carry only his share.

To our knowledge, no one has followed suit, but after trying several configurations of reins and rings we found satisfaction in reining the middle horse as a single would be reined. The long reins run directly through the rein-rings on his hames to his bit. The brace reins for the other two come from the long reins. The brace rein to the left side of the off horse and the rein to the right side of the nigh horse cross on the back of the middle horse and run through line spreaders from the hames of the middle horse.

The nature of tight New England farms is such that turning is restricted for large hitches. With barways, winding lanes, rock walls, and limited headland three abreast have served our purposes. Three on a balanced evener pull equally with each other, are more maneuverable on this terrain, and consistently have the power of two pair strung out.