Editing Plough (section)

===Riding and multiple-furrow ploughs===
[[File:OldPlow2006-05-21.JPG|thumb|Early tractor-drawn two-furrow plough]]
Early steel ploughs were walking ploughs, directed by a ploughman holding handles on either side of the plough. Steel ploughs were so much easier to draw through the soil that constant adjustment of the blade to deal with roots or clods was no longer necessary, as the plough could easily cut through them. Not long after that the first riding ploughs appeared, whose wheels kept the plough at an adjustable level above the ground, while the ploughman sat on a seat instead of walking. Direction was now controlled mostly through the draught team, with levers allowing fine adjustments. This led quickly to riding ploughs with multiple mould boards, which dramatically increased ploughing performance.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

A single draught horse can normally pull a single-furrow plough in clean light soil, but in heavier soils two horses are needed, one walking on the land and one in the furrow. Ploughs with two or more furrows call for more than two horses, and usually one or more have to walk on the ploughed sod, which is hard going for them and means they tread newly ploughed land down. It is usual to rest such horses every half-hour for about ten minutes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Draft Horse Plowing Match |url=https://rbogash.com/Horses/plowing-2.html |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=rbogash.com}}</ref>