Plowing with horses and mules

My father never owned a tractor but he did owned horses and mules. As a boy I had learned how to catch the horses, harnessed them, and hook them to the plow. One plow I had to work with a lot was called a double shovel. This plow had two metal prongs that went down into the ground. One prong was in front and one prong was in back. The prong in back was set over about 8 inches. Attached to these prongs were the plow blades. These plow blades were triangular in form and had a bolt that fasten them to the prongs. The sharp end of the triangle blade went down into the dirt and the two sides of the triangle push the dirt to the side. 

You could burst your ribs plowing with a double shovel in new ground. New ground is ground that has trees cut off of it and has been cleared for planning crops. It is easy enough to cut trees down. But the roots of the tree go everywhere across the ground. Some of the roots are deep enough that you don't have to deal with them. It is roots close to the surface that give you the problems. When you walk behind a double shovel you walk in between the handles. These handle strike you about the middle of your waist or just about where your ribs are. The horse is a powerful animal and when he is moving along at a good clip and one of your plow blades hits a big root causes the plow to go sideways the axis being the blade of the plow and the handle pops into your site at a terrific force. I've had this happened to me several times. Sometimes I would have to stop for a while to regroup.