Haha- what do you call the thing you use to pick stalls with?

[Ready2Ride]

gah- So at the last barn I worked at they called it a pick, this barn an apple picker...and for the life of me I can't remember what I always called it my whole life. this is so simple, but eludes me. So what do you call the wonder fork or whatever pitch fork that everyone uses at every barn? And what other names have you heard it called?

[MistyBlue]

Just a fork. I call the stall picking/paddock picking ones "forks." Out of the forks there's a nsket fork and a flat fork. The only thing I call a pitchfork is the big heavy duty metal pitchfork, nothing you'd clean a stall with. It's more for turning ground. Since I don't use straw bedding I don't have a stalll cleaning pitchfork...which are lighter built.

[S1969]

Manure fork.

[Quin]

My husband.




------ sorry; couldn't resist a straight line like that! :winkgrin: And since he was the one who fed tonight, he did use the manure fork to pick the poo out of the barn and the dry lot.

[Touchstone Farm]

In the barn, I call it a fork. But if I'm describing what I'm looking for to purchase, it's an apple picker because I don't want to be directed to a pitch fork!

[Acertainsmile]

I call the close prong forks "shaving forks", and regular forks are pitch forks...I try hard not to touch them though...:winkgrin:

[Paint Hunter/Jumper]

I just call all the 'forks' that pick up the poop 'pitch forks' :D

[theoldgreymare]

My husband.




:lol:


We call it a pitchfork. The fine tine fork is the sifting fork (or sifter).

[county]

Skidloader or Bobcat

[webmistress32]

picker.

[lindasp62]

I called it an Apple Picker once at a barn...and a very experienced TB farm worker laughed in my face! Now it's just pitch-fork But, one is still picking up apples, arent' they?....just "horse apples" !!!:lol:

[Milocalwinnings]

I have always called it a pitch fork... whether it's the metal ones or the plastic fine tined ones.

[Evalee Hunter]

Future Fork? (Trademarked name for a particular plastic tined stall picker.)

[Crooked Horse]

Manure fork here, too.

[MunchkinsMom]

I just call it a pitchfork also, even though I am old enough to remember the 3-4 tined metal forks, never could figure out how anyone could clean a stall with one of those. I know we used them on the dairy farm to toss hay.

The "my husband" comment made me laugh out loud. The day my husband even touches my pitchfork (other than to move it out of the way), is the day someone on the farm better be performing CPR and dialing 911 because I will be in cardiac arrest! :D

[Janet]

I call it a pitchfork, but I distinguish between a "real pitchfork" (non-spring steel, with extra tines welded in) fo rstripping stalls, a "plastic pitchfork" (aka "shavings fork") for ddaily picking, and a "piece of $&!+ pitchfork" (a useless modern metal one made out of spring steel that bends as soon as you try to use it for anything serious) of no use for anything.

I use a deep litter system, so I need a serious pitchfork when I strip the stalls, and neither the modern metal ones nor the plastic ones are up to the task. But I have two old styrl metal ones that my father wekede estra tines into in 1965 that still work perfectly.

MY husband is mucking the stalls this week, while I am out of town on business.

[Seven-up]

My husband.

Snort! :lol: I need to find me one of those. I can see the personal ad now: MUST CLEAN STALLS...

[sublimequine]

Pick, fork, pitchfork. Usually the first two, as others mentioned, calling it a 'pitchfork' can get it confused with the big metal pitchforks.

[Slewdledo]

Fork. We also have rakes, pitchforks, and sweeper-thingys. All different tools. :lol:

[glitterless]

I call it a bedding fork (the one for shavings with the tines close together). Then there's manure forks and pitch/hay forks.

I once had a co-worker at a barn who asked her non-horsey friend if she wouldn't mind stopping in at the tack store and picking up an extra apple picker for us at the barn. The tack store people had no idea what this non-horsey woman was talking about and sent her off with a hoof pick. Kind of reminds me when the boyfriend asks me to pick up some kind of automotive or tool thingy.

[sk_pacer]

Sh*t fork as opposed to pitch fork.....if I ask for a pitch fork, I expect a 3 tined hay fork, not a 5+ tined manure fork, or even a 4 tined straw fork.

MistyBlue - those heavy tined digging forks are called spading or garden forks here. Must be regional

[f4leggin]

I call it a manure fork too - and I use my pitch fork to clean stalls everytime - it works much better in freezing tempatures and picks up the piles of hay that my horses turn into bedding...

[Tasker]

Pitch fork (plastic or metal close set tines)

Hay or straw fork (wide spaced tines)

[Over the Hill]

I call it MY FORK, and if anybody else uses it, they're toast !

[avezan]

I call it a manure fork. A pitch fork is 3 or 4 tines to pitch hay or straw. But what I like to have to pick outside manure is a heavy metal fork. It has almost as many tines as the plastic manure forks, but they are welded and solid. Its the only thing I can use to pick up piles out of the grass. The plastic isn't strong enough to pull it free from the grass. I've never liked the metal version of the plastic manure fork. I think those are called "apple pickers", at least that's what I've seen them marketed as. Personally, for stalls I like the plastic fork with the basket. I think it might be called a wonder fork.

So, now, you have to let us know. What do you call it? Did you remember?

[Sing Mia Song]

Pitchfork. I only use the metal ones (5 tines). I find the plastic ones to be about as useful as tits on a boarhog. Those I refer to as piece of $h!# forks or, in polite company, as a "plastic fork." Similar to--and yet not to be confused with--the plastic cutlery one uses on a picnic. ;)

The 3-tines forks I call hay forks.

[Tornado Run Farm]

In my vernacular, I've always called mine a "muck rake."

The pitch fork is a "fork."

[CatOnLap]

Manure fork or shavings fork. Can be metal or plastic, but generally has 8-10 tines spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart. Can have sides like a basket.
The ones with flat blades for turning soil in the garden are called "potato forks" or "turning forks".
The ones with 3 long tines, spaced wide, are "hayforks" and are a relic from when hay used to be dried in stooks before piling it loose on a wagon and storing it- I haven't see one in 30 years- and I remember when hay was still dried in stooks in some places (early 1960's)
The ones with 5 tines are properly called pitch forks and are used for cleaning stalls that are bedded with straw- they lift the straw away from the manure and pitch it into a corner to dry, and you then scoop the poop with a shovel. This was the way we always did it when we used straw, but around here straw is as expensive as hay, so we don't bed twith it. Nowadays I use my (20 year old) pitch fork for turning the compost pile or the burnpile as it burns.

[Tornado Run Farm]

From the deep recesses of my brain, I remember a lady I used to work for when I was young called the everyday rake we're all talking about a "future fork." I didn't know at the time how prophetic that was.... :D

[erinwillow]

the poop thing, lol!!! :lol:

[WindRiver27]

a muck rake....
but since I moved barns, I seem to be the only one. :-)

[kookicat]

Shavings fork.

[Touchstone Farm]

Snort! :lol: I need to find me one of those. I can see the personal ad now: MUST CLEAN STALLS...

But you need to precede those words with "For a roll in the hay..."

[Seven-up]

But you need to precede those words with "For a roll in the hay..."

You mean it's not implied? :lol:


And slightly off topic, I think whoever came up with that expression never rolled in hay themselves, or they'd know how itchy and scratchy it is! It's one of the last places I'd want to get down to business. Although, if it got the stalls cleaned...:winkgrin: