After spreading 6 loads an hour, 3 Abreast Walking Home

This morning I was helping a couple on the next road spread some mushroom compost. They had a tractor trailer load delivered. It was a team effort, as the other neighbour was doing the loading with his backhoe loader and another had his tractor on a spreader and I had Dottie, Leia, and Vega on my spreader. I spread for 3 hours getting on 18 loads at the rate of 6 loads an hour. If you want to calculate the total manhours here it is: I was watering and feeding the horses breakfast at 5:30 am, then I had my own breakfast. At 7 am I started grooming and harnessing, and was hitched onto the forecart by 8 am. I drove half a mile to the other farm I rent to hook on the spreader, then drove a full mile to the farm we were spreading on and arrived at 8:45. I began spreading immdeiately and worked steadily until 11:45 am when the pile was gone. I drove a full mile back to unhook the sppreader and then drove half mile back to the barn to unhitch unharness, water, and feed the horses, Time was now 12:45 and I then went for lunch.
The reality of working horses is not as glamourous as some people think. Part of the time spreading it was sprinkling rain and flurrying, with a few peeks of sun. I had put in over 7 hours of labour by lunch time. I do it because I love the horses, and I believe that for the scale of my operation they are feasible. There's nothing I'd sooner do than work with my Gentle Giants.

[@klauskarbaumer6302]

Now that's a lot of loads per hour, I never can do that much done, I load by hand. My two heavy Percherons ( both over 2200 lbs.) probably would be able to handle the work. Good team that you have!

[@gentlegiants1974]

I put 3 on the cart to make sure I had lots of horsepower! Loading manure by hand, not bad for small bits but I love my front end loader as I am almost 50 now. The compost spread very easily and the field was fairly level with only a slight hill in the middle. My spreader is JD model R

[@klauskarbaumer6302]

@@gentlegiants1974 I am 76! Have been working with horses for 60 years and still love it.

[@uteschneider3349]

​@@klauskarbaumer6302 Hallo Klaus Karbaumer, schön dich mal wieder zu "treffen". Ich hoffe, Dir und Deinen Pferden geht's gut!
Hab einen schönen Tag!
Viele Grüße aus Deutschland 🙋‍♀️

[@klauskarbaumer6302]

Danke. Gruesse aus Missouri zurueck. Ja, es geht uns gut, leider wegen der grossen Trockenheit wenig Arbeit auf dem Feld. Aber wenigstens wardie zweite Heuernte gut.@@uteschneider3349