Horse Working Qualities

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 12:33

The horse is a living organism, not a machine. But when in the production activity of a person a horse is used to perform various jobs, and not for any other purposes, then it is quite natural to compare it with the engine and consider its working qualities and properties in this aspect. This circumstance will receive a more complete justification if we recall that any apparatus is called an engine in general, with the help of which any type of energy is converted into mechanical work. The definition implies two main properties of any engine: 1) the ability to transform energy and 2) the ability to perform mechanical work.

The horse, as you know, is capable of transforming the energy of the feed and performing mechanical work, for the sake of which it is usually kept on the farm. Of course, the process of transforming energy in a horse is completely different from what happens in a mechanical engine. But the processes taking place in various mechanical engines, for example, in steam and nuclear, are also fundamentally different, but this does not prevent them from remaining as engines.

Engines of various kinds have numerous and varied qualities and properties. However, they have some common performance characteristics that are of paramount importance in production applications. These characteristics are: 1) the effort that a given engine can exert; 2) speed; 3) work performed; 4) power and 5) efficiency. All of these concepts are quite applicable to a working horse; they can well characterize both the working properties of the horse itself and the conditions of its work. The concepts of strength, speed, work, power are often used in practice when they want to assess the qualities of a horse. However, the content invested in each of them is not strictly defined and constant, not only in practice, but also in special literature. Therefore, it is necessary first of all to establish the exact terminology and the specific content of those concepts,which should be used to characterize the properties of a horse as a working animal. At the same time, it is not enough to establish the definition of any working quality of a horse; you still need to be able to measure its value with objective measures. This or that factor, this or that phenomenon only lends itself to rapid and productive study and cognition when ways of measuring it are found; measurement provides material for comparison and comparison and, consequently, conclusions and conclusions.measurement provides material for comparison and comparison and, consequently, conclusions and conclusions.measurement provides material for comparison and comparison and, consequently, conclusions and conclusions.

In addition to the characteristics of a horse listed above, such qualities as endurance, goodness, flexibility in work, the ability to keep the body well and some others should be taken into account.

Pulling force (pulling force)

Thanks to the good development of musculature and skeletal leverage, the horse can develop very significant physical strength. The horse's manifestations of the physical strength of the muscles are quite diverse. She can hold a load on her back, can deliver very heavy blows when kicking, can raise herself to a certain height when jumping. But of exceptional importance for practice is the manifestation of a horse's muscular strength in the case when it pulls an object with it with the help of a harness. This particular case of a horse's manifestation of its muscular strength is of particular interest, and the strength itself is specifically called traction force, or tractive effort. The force that a horse, being harnessed to a cart or any agricultural implement (machine), exerts to overcome the resistances arising from the movement of the cart or tool,called horse pulling.

The total strength of the muscles and the action of the horse's weight is perceived by a yoke or a shorts, as well as shafts or strings, and through them is applied to a cart or agricultural implement. Thus, the horse's traction has a fairly definite direction in relation to the horse and the object it moves and is usually located at an acute angle to the horizon and rarely horizontally. Traction ability varies from horse to horse and can vary widely depending on general health, fitness, body condition, and other factors. A horse under normal conditions can vary within a fairly wide range the magnitude of the tractive effort shown by it, self-adapting to the size of the resistance to be overcome. This is a very valuable property of the horse for practice.

When talking about the horse's traction force, about its tractive effort, it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts: "actual tractive effort", "normal horse traction", or "normal traction force", and "maximum tractive effort", or "maximum traction force".

The actual tractive effort, or traction force, is the effort actually exerted by the horse while working in a cart or agricultural implements (machines), corresponding to the amount of resistance to overcome. The actual pulling force can be measured directly with a dynamometer or calculated based on calculations.

Normal is the horse's greatest pulling power, with which it is able to work full time every day for months, provided it is properly maintained, fed and resting. Maximum pulling power is the highest actual pulling power that a horse has shown at least once without harm to its health (for example, during trials).

To correctly calculate the workload of horses, it is important to know in advance the value of the normal tractive force of a particular workhorse, to be able to determine in advance what normal traction force it is capable of and what maximum force it can develop in work.

Neither zootechnical science nor animal physiology have any methods of direct determination of the magnitude of the normal or maximum tractive effort that a particular horse is capable of displaying. However, on the basis of observations of the work of horses in economic conditions and as a result of special tests, it turned out that an accessible factor associated with the magnitude of the normal tractive effort of a horse is its live weight. This dependence of the horse's traction force on its weight was discovered by a number of authors and some of them expressed in the form of mathematical formulas. In order for the horse's body (mass - m) to start moving, it must be subjected to the action of a certain force (P) for some time (L /), that is, the action of an impulse, a push (RD /). If the horse moves with speed and, and its body mass is m,then the product mv expresses the "momentum". Mechanically, the horse's traction is the result of the "momentum" of the horse's mass, ie mv.

As the horse's live weight increases, there is a slight decrease in the relative value of normal pulling force: for a 300 kg horse, normal pulling force corresponds to 15% of the horse's weight, and for 700 kg horses only 12.7%. Consequently, small horses, relative to their live weight, can develop a higher normal pulling force than large horses. It is generally accepted that in conditions of daily use when a horse is fully occupied, its tractive effort will be within the normal range if it is 13-15% of its weight.

For the manifestation of traction by a horse, not only the magnitude of its weight is essential, but also the distribution of weight on the front and hind legs, and, consequently, the position and movement of the center of gravity during work relative to the support points of the horse's legs, especially the hind legs.

Related article Training and testing horses

The dependence of the horse's pulling force on the length of its body and the position of the center of gravity. It is generally accepted that in a draft workhorse the oblique body length should be greater than the height at the withers. This requirement is one of the mandatory requirements for a horse of the desired draft type (for a saddle horse, on the contrary, a “square format” is required). However, no explanation has been given as to why the draft horse should be longer and in what relation the length of the body is to the pulling force. Meanwhile, this absolutely correct position can be firmly grounded in the laws of mechanics.

The position that for a harness horse it is highly desirable to make the front of the body heavier and lengthen it in comparison with growth is substantiated by the laws of the mechanics of the horse's movement in harness. One should not, of course, think that the longer the horse, the better, since it is not this factor alone that determines the horse's working qualities and its adaptability to certain working conditions. It is indisputable, however, that certain body shapes and weight distribution of the horse's body weight are associated with certain functions of movement and traction work.

Speaking about the importance of the value of the live weight of a horse for the manifestation of traction force, it must be borne in mind that physiological factors are of decisive importance here: the development and strength of the muscles, the activity of the respiratory, cardiovascular and especially the nervous systems. Features of the physiological structure and activity determine the very large role of individuality, at the same time, they still do not lend themselves to clear accounting and objective measurements. Therefore, in practice, these factors are used more to control the state of the horse's body in work under certain loads, and not for preliminary rationing of the load and work. Of course, everything that is said about the relationship and the significance of the horse's weight for the possible manifestation of traction force by it is true only for a normally functioning horse.

In a number of specific cases, physiological factors, such as: the development of the muscles, the state of the nervous system, etc., will, as it were, overlap the influence of the horse's weight and linear dimensions on the amount of traction force developed by it. A smaller or lighter horse may have more pulling power than a larger, heavier horse. However, these cases will not be the general rule, but the exception to it, although it may not be so rare. Therefore, when calculating the average traction force expected from horses of different weight groups, the orientation to live weight will be quite reliable, provided that factors such as nutritional status, health, involvement in work, etc., are taken into account. a horse's a priori judgment about its pulling power by one live weight may be wrong. Nevertheless, when evaluating a horse both in economic work and in special tests, it is necessary to compare the traction force shown by the horse with its live weight.