One of the most important parts of driving is to have a WELL adjusted and fitted harness.
Do you like to go for a 10 mile hike with ill fitting shoes? Well your horse has no desire to
pull your weight and the cart in an ill fitted harness.
Harness comes in two basic styles. Breast Collars and Working Collars.
We are going to focus on a breast collar harness for this blog.
First of all please realize all the weight of the cart, people and stuff is placed on the breast
collar. So all those harness with a SMALL narrow breast collar should be thrown out.
The breast collar should be wide, padded and fit between the horse's points of shoulder and below
the wind pipe/esophagus. There are many materials a harness can be made out of.... leather,
biothane, nylon to name a few. The type of material is not as important as the thickness and fit.
If the breast collar rides up too high it will restrict the horses ability to breath. If it rides down
too low then the movement of the shoulders as the horse strides forward will be impared.
Now the collar is held up by a single or double strap that crosses their neck. Again this should
not be too narrow or it could cause discomfort to the horse's neck. The single strap is meant for
pleasure harness and generally the double straps are for driving with more speed or cross country.
Each are good but the double helps keep the breast collar from rubbing or moving too much when
pulling over uneven ground or changing gaits quickly.
Lastly the breast collar is attached to the cart with the traces or tugs. This should be a
well cared for attachment with no tears or nitches. This is the ONLY item truly pulling you and
your cart. It is the main attachment point between horse and cart. TAKE CARE OF IT.
The trace should be long enough that when the horse strides out the cart is not too close to
the horse's rear legs. If your horse has a LONG stride and clips the cart when its legs move
you will probably have an interesting first trot. Hopefully it does not end in a bolting horse.
Traces should also attach in a safe manner not too low to the ground and certainly not flopping
sloppily when the cart is in motion. Trace holders are a nice addition if your cart's attachment
point is low.
Ok, watch for more!
