A Horse Tale

I ask a lot of questions of my Amish clients. Every day. Can't help it--I'm curious! Today, we were cruising through the Morrow County fairgrounds looking at farm equipment in advance of the upcoming farm auction. The conversation went something like this:

Moe: There's a nice manure spreader.
Hank: Um, hum. But it's PTO.
Moe: Oh, okay.
Me: What's PTO?
Hank: PTO means the spreader is powered by a horse's tail.
Me: Really?
Moe: Yes. You just put the tail in the [?] and as the tail moves around, it operates the spreader.
Me: No way.
Hank: Yeah it is. But I don't want that kind because it wears the horse out.
Me: You mean, the horse's tail going around operates the spreader?
Moe: Yes.
Me: How do you know the spreader is PTO?
Moe: It says it right on the equipment.
(I am quietly looking at all the equipment for the letters PTO.)
Me: I don't see PTO on any of them. And how do you keep the horse wagging his tail? Hit him with something?
Hank: (..begins to make up something else, then says...) I have to tell the truth. It doesn't run by the horse's tail.
Me: What!?! You guys had me believing that!
Hank and Moe are now laughing.

Bottom line: PTO means Power Take Off. You hook-up the spreader to a tractor, and the power of the tractor powers the spreader. They were looking for a "ground driven" spreader--operation of the spreader occurs with every step of the horse that's pulling it. Or so they tell me.