✅ SOLVED Among todays finds...A Horse Picket??? Please help Identify this thing.

[Cycluran]

I found a few canister, a couple case-shot and musket balls, weird chain thingy, little iron buckle, and this 14" long iron ?picket pin? with chains attached. I couldn't find a pic to match on google. Anyone seen one of these?

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

I wonder if that might be something that attached to a buggy and then to the horse or possibly to a cart to pull supplies.very interesting can't wait to find out what it is.

 

[Cycluran]

Hmmm. Yeah. I can see now, looking at the pic, that there may have been a piece of wood running through to the handle, which would have then been pulled by something. Welp...I guess it's gonna' hang on the wall in the shed for a while.

 

[BosnMate]

It goes on the end of a wagon tongue, and just holds the pole up, there is no pulling or strain involved.
I've got a photo of it, but TN won't let me upload it.Everything I try is an invalid image file.

 

[BosnMate]

For some reason the photo uploaded this time. Anyhow this photo looks exactly like your find. It's just holding the pole between the horses up. On a lot of wagons they also had a wooden spreader bar that kept the horses a certain distance apart, and did the same job, held the pole up. It's easy to see why a bar that looks like a single tree is called a spreader bar, but I'm not sure about the chains, I call them spreader chains, but other people that know more than me might call them something else. I have limited experience driving horses, and that was a long time ago.

 

[Cycluran]

Awesome! Thank you very much!

 

[taz42o]

There is strain on those chains thats how the animals hold the load back.

 

[BosnMate]

There is strain on those chains thats how the animals hold the load back.

Sorry, you are wrong, the hold backs are off the britchin', the butt of the horse hold the wagon from rolling up on the animals, not the spreader, although the way it hooks up might look like that's whats doing it, it's not.
In this picture, number 13 is the strap I'm talking about. I call it a hold back, but the diagram calls number 13 a pole strap. Note how it comes off the britchin'.
In this case the spreader is holding up the pole, note how the spreader is attached to the collars. Now see where the pole strap or hold back is hooked in strap at the collar. The straps running between the legs and to the britchin' are adjusted so that they hold the wagon back, so there is no strain on the spreader or pulling the collar forward. If the wagon is rolling up on the horse, and the pole is only hooked to the collar, it would move forward and not hold anything back.

 

[taz42o]

Those chains are the only thing that hook the animal to the load other than the traces, the traces only pull so the only thing that can hold back are those chains. Or the spreader bar if its used in place of chains.

 

[creskol]

Here is a good link with a good discussion about the topic at hand: Rural Heritage - Front Porch