The farm we are moving to has a roughy 1/4 mile driveway. It usually gets a good solid snow 2-3 times a year, which requires actual plowing to clear the roads. If I'm gonna have a team, I want to use them as much as possible! Are there any designs out there for horse-drawn snow plows. Hubby is an engineer, and at this point, is considering rigging an ATV blade (54") to do the job, mainly because we can't find any designs for one. One pass up and another back would clear the entire lane wide enough for a standard vehicle. Anyone use their horses for this, or have a clue where to find something like that? Also, we are considering purchasing the Pioneer Homesteader, so he is trying to figure out if there is a way to rig the plow blade to the homesteader cart.

Here is a youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn-3pWJ0s4s Pretty simple and seems to work.

So you plow off a foot of snow and that makes a 2 foot high bank along your road. Next snow has to be thrown over that bank or just an inch or two will drift you in. Just pack the snow down is the best way to handle this problem. When the packed snow gets rotten, you either stay home a few days or take your plow out to break it up.
When I had a bunch of sheep, they would pack it down just following the feed wagon or sled.

Pioneer has a plow for there forecart very easy to take on and off.

Best snow plow for horses that I have ever seen is a "V" plow. The wooden "V" is built around a cultipacker. The cultipacker holds the "V" in place. The "V" is as wide as the drive. Here, they just add extensions to the "V" for more height when needed. They also can add a "wing" to knock the piled snow on the sides, down a bit when needed.

If you only need to plow a couple of times per year. This may be a great option for you. Biggest thing is to have a place to turn it around. In the field or a circlr drive perhaps.

Tim is right, Pioneer makes some real well made equipment, the blade for their forecarts does work well. Many of my Amish friends have them. I don't know it one will fit on the "Homesteader", but give them a call, they are very helpful.888.857.6340

Didn't watch the whole thing, but wonder what his left line looked like when he got done. (Looked to me like it was under the plow the whole time I watched). I built a plow like that, used it for a couple of years, have it still, did two things different with my plow, made it adjustable on width also made it so I could pull it backwards and gather snow to clear off the barnyard. Was great if no tire tracks in the snow, otherwise the point would grab a track and you were off center down the whole drive. It got replaced by my blade behind my forecart.

Winter issue 2011 Small Farmer's Journal page's 42 & 43 has a great set of plans for a horse powered snow scoop i have two of them they work real good for opening the drive way they also work good for leveling dirt & gravel.

Have used the Pioneer blade to scrape a few inches of snow. Works ok but if you get a lot of snow or heavy drifting, you either better have some good neighbors or a snowblower. Dale is right, every time you make a pass with a blade or a plow, Whether it's horse drawn, on a pickup or using a loader bucket, you throw a ridge which just makes things worse next time the wind comes up. Even the Amish call the english neighbors when they get a lot of snow.

Those few times we have enough snow here in Missouri to even snowplow I am using a V-plow , too. Sometimes like the gentleman in the video, sometimes behind a forecart when I need two horses, like when I made trail of almost two miles. It works well, but Dale is right about the shortcomings of this method when there is a lot of snow or a lot of wind(snowdrifts). Well, there is a reason then to have more fun and use the horses more often.Inevitably there will be a build-up and one could use the sleigh( wishful thinking on my part).The wider you make the road the first time the longer you can use this methd, while it is slowly getting more narrow.

They made slatted rollers they could push to pack the snow in some areas.

The 'V' method shown in the video is, as Ralph said, very popular among the Amish in our area. It works great on light snows but does indeed have the challenge of building a snow bank after the first pass. I guess the answer to your question would be, as a professor once told me 'situationally dependent'!!!

None-the-less it was a neat video to watch. Not sure how he was tolerating that seat. If I sit on an implement seat for more than 5 minutes in the winter.....well lets just say I learned the value of a thick cushion on the seat in winter!

Here is a snowroller packer. http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2012/01/snow-roller-1937.html

I was using my V-plow yesterday; after finishing the driveways and lanes, went ahead and plowed 1/2 mile of road and the neighbor's drive.
After the bank is made, it takes some finesse to keep the point of the V just inside of it, thereby pushing the bank further out. Off-setting the plow makes it easier. The seat is positioned in the middle, just a little to the rear, using my body weight to keep it from fish-tailing too much.

Twenty yrs. ago, I converted a 3pt scraper blade to form a grader attachment for my team forecart to snowplow our laneway and parking lot-- often asked to do the neighbours as well. Until recent yrs 3-4 ft of snow on the ground would be normal. You learn how keep banks plowed back and create a snow dump. Still using the same system.

Larry, can you offer tips for keeping the banks plowed and creating a snow dump? Don't think it will be needed for most of our snows, but on the rare bad, long lasting storm, it may come in handy!

Larry I wouldlove to hear more about your methods as well. I have been thinking about putting a scraper blade on my forecart. any chance you have any pictures of it?

Always plow wider than your driveway to allow room for additional plowing.

Also - V-plows (and most others) work best if you keep up with the plowing. Three foot deep 5 day old crusty snow is a booger for both the horses and the plow.

A friend in NY state built his V plow with 2 2x12x12' runners with the V mounted on the front. That helped it track better rather than ping-ponging back and forth when one side gets more pushback than the other.

Larry that is quite the rig.

You can mount a blade on the forecart (look at Pioneer Equip.) but depending on the blade angle and weight of snow, forecart can kick sideways with your feet standing on air. The grader , I plow the area wide and also square the blade to pull snow to a dumping area. The blade angle can be reversed to cut back a snowbank and then move it to the dump area.Summertime it is used for leveling and spreading dirt or gravel. The black manual winch presets the minimum clearance to the ground with 12v hydraulic to raise and lower.

Does anyone have or know where I could obtain plans for building a horse-drawn snow roller----one similar to the one shown in the link above would work fine for packing our sleigh-ride trails. Thanks.

Here is our plow, Love it!

I guess some of that video is the breaking/wood hauling sled. My wife made that to send to our CSA customers.

George, where did you purchase your plow/snow mover? If you fabricated it yourself where did you find the plans? Thanks.

This is our homemade fore cart with a JD blade.