Open Freestyle Driving - Docking Maneuver for Draft Horses

Draft horses and their hitch wagons, before the 20th century, were the means for delivery of goods and freight.  Teamsters were the persons driving horse teams with their wagons. In modern American English, truck drivers have been referred to as "teamsters" for years.

Maneuvering horses and wagons in close, heavily-traveled streets required that teamsters were skilled in loading and unloading the wagon in a timely fashion and with ease.  Not impeding traffic flow in the cities was of paramount importance.  The teamsters made sure their horses took up the least amount of space in the roadway, by "parking" more curbside while the load/unload occurred.

This photo above from the 1910's does not depict a large hitch, however you can see the slight

swing of the single horses, opening more room on the roadway, as well as the
swing to the right of the four at the bottom.

Modern day docking

The Lloydminster Colonial Days Fair Draft Horse Show in July offered a six-horse hitch class called the Open Freestyle Driving Competition.  Brian and Colleen Coleman competed the Thiel Percheron geldings in this class, and performed the docking maneuver in their repertoire.  We appreciate J Ann Brodland's photos to help describe this maneuver in detail.

The hitch arrives at its location curbside for delivery:

The horses and their positions:  leader team, swing team, 

and the wheelers which are the larger, stronger horses 

nearest to the wagon.

The horses work together with the teamster, backing and maneuvering the hitch wagon to the foot of the loading dock. The wheelers lean into their britchen, the strap you see that runs under their tail across their lower rump, allowing support to power the movement of the heavy wagon backward.  The swing and lead teams follow the backward movement, adding little horsepower to the effort.

The wagon would be loaded/unloaded while the 

horses waited patiently curbside.

The delivery is over, it's time to go, and the teamster wants to return in the direction they came from.  The leaders now have the job in pointing the hitch in the direction they need to go.  They swing out as the swing team and wheel team fall into place behind them.

This photo below captures the job of each hitch horse.  The leaders work together redirecting the hitch and have the most ground to cover.  The horse in the right swing position (teamster's right) has slightly more ground to cover in the maneuver than the left swing horse who simply steps to the side, following the leaders. The job of the wheelers is two-fold:  the right wheeler side steps in the new direction, but is somewhat anchored (as in no movement forward) keeping the wagon still, while the left wheeler is busy moving sideways with the team, turning the wheel of the wagon.

The wheelers are last to fall into position curbside to 
move the wagon away in the new direction from 
the loading dock and onward to their next destination.

We are so proud of these horses working so well together this year, and are very pleased they won at Lloydminster in 2014.

Photo Credits:  J. Ann Brodland, in color

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