A type of sturdy wooden sledge, used in the winter on snow mainly for pulling wooden logs (or even whole felled spruce trees) home from the forest. The farmer knew how much the horse could carry, so more logs were loaded onto the woolen wagons, always with the thicker end of the chain pulled forward. The thinner ends (the tops of the trees) were dragged across the snow (hence the name Vlọky from the word to drag).
If the wood was thick and heavy, the back part of the wood was still laid out and chained to a small sledge, which was about 80 cm long. The back sledges were connected to the vlọky with a chain so that they would not slide off the tops of the trees. The wagons were also used to carry hay from the bundles (bundles – small log hay bins on a roll, further away from the house). At that time, a couple of hogsheads were attached to the woollens and the thinner end was dragged across the snow, and the hay was loaded onto these.
The wool was made of solid ash. For the legs, a crookedly grown, bent ash tree, the so-called ‘curve’, was selected. These legs were banded from the bottom with iron bands and were connected in the front with an iron bar for reinforcement. The tops of the legs were often carved, decorated with ornaments. The front rung was thinner, while the back rung was massive and strong. On the back rung there was a so-called turntable on which the wood was placed. It allowed the wool to be manoeuvred (turned) under the loaded timber in bends. To secure the timber, there were lateral stirrups (often iron) on both sides of the turntable. On the sides of the legs were iron hoops through which a chain was passed to fasten the timber.
The wolves were pulled by one horse, or even by a pair of horses for heavier loads. A strong chain was used to fasten the horses to the woolen timbers, which was fastened up to the rear of the massive partition on the woolen timbers. The horse was fastened to the chain via a so-called orcik and if there were two horses, scales were still used.
Processed by: Jozef Bachleda
