# Driving Harnessing Help



## PerchiesKisses (Dec 6, 2010)

I've been driving horses for about 3 years now, and I can drive a 2-horse team of percherons between two cones 6 feet apart. I can harness, untangle and adjust just about anything on those said percherons' collar-style harnesses, so when I bought my first driving, breatplate-style harness I figured it would be easy enough as I had seen enough pictures of driving harnesses before.

And while my lovely TB stood oh so patiently with me, letting me arrange and then rearrange everything on his back so that it looked like the pictures I'd seen I came across a part of the harness that baffles me.

The surcingle goes around his belly, and the crupper is attached to the surcingle. the breeching strap goes nicely around his butt, with a forked piece of nylon that goes up and over his hindquarters to attach to the breeching strap on the other side. I assume it's made this way to hold the breeching strap up, but what I don't understand is that it just sits there, and when I go to drive my horse (I haven't yet tried hitching him to anything) the whole piece slips and starts dangling, caught on the crupper. On all the other harnesses I've worked with the nylon strap holding the breeching strap up is attached to the strap going to the crupper, but this one seems to have no way of attaching to that strap... does anyone else have a harness like this? Will this piece "fix itself" when the horse is in the shafts? Or did I get a ill-made harness?

I've got an image of the place I'm talking about not being connected here, unfortunately though I have no pictures of the actual harness yet.


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

Mine have a slot that it slides into so it doesn't flop around. Do you have a real photo?
I have never seen one that was free moving.


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## PerchiesKisses (Dec 6, 2010)

I'm gonna try to take a photo wednesday of it.


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## Adenfire (Dec 2, 2010)

we ran into this issue with my harness for 4-H, I have a show pleasure type harness which comes without breeching in the mini world so when they made it mandatory i had to finagle my breeching into place. I used black zip-ties to hold the strap on the backstrap. Not that i'm saying it's a good idea, but it worked for me...


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## SpiritedLittleCopperSpots (Mar 4, 2010)

(Excuse me if I misread your post)

Are you saying there is no strap that runs, basically up your horses spine, from the breeching that attaches to a water-hook in the middle of your saddle (surcingle)?

If that is missing, I would contact the place you purchased it from, there most certainly should be a strap there..... :wink:

Here is a pretty decent picture of my little Me Jo all hooked up, I think you can see the strap I am talking about pretty good.
Hope that helps some?

,


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

SpiritedLittleCopperSpots said:


> (Excuse me if I misread your post)
> 
> Are you saying there is no strap that runs, basically up your horses spine, from the breeching that attaches to a water-hook in the middle of your saddle (surcingle)?
> 
> ...


Why do you have your strap for the breast collar up where the overcheck goes? And your noseband looks abnormally high.
Also your breeching is not properly hooked up. How do you stop the cart from hitting the pony? I hope this is not a flinstones type braking system.


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## PerchiesKisses (Dec 6, 2010)

The strap going back to the crupper from the saddle is there, as is the strap going up and over the horse's hindquarters (the one with the fork ends)... it just doesn't attach were the two straps cross over the horse's hindquarters, and thus it slips down and lets the breeching fall out of place... 

I like the zip-tie idea... I've held more than one piece of horse-equiptment together with them! Why not add one more to the list XD


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## Adenfire (Dec 2, 2010)

yup  I use them for lots on the harness, like on the picture of the mini that SLCS posted i use them to hold back the neck strap on the breast collar and as trace loops on the cart...LOVE Zipties and they are way easier/leave less nasty damage then electrical tape. also used one in and emergency to hook my overcheck when the loop broke in a class


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## SpiritedLittleCopperSpots (Mar 4, 2010)

Oh, hmmm, I see now, I was mis-understanding.....
When I read your last post, and went back and looked at your attached image, made sense finally. :wink:
Strange for it to have come like that?
Anyway, yes zip ties sound like a good inexpensive fix.

.


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

SpiritedLittleCopperSpots said:


> Oh, hmmm, I see now, I was mis-understanding.....
> When I read your last post, and went back and looked at your attached image, made sense finally. :wink:
> Strange for it to have come like that?
> Anyway, yes zip ties sound like a good inexpensive fix.
> ...


Spirited I was hoping you would answer my post on why you do not ahve your pony properly harnessed


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## SpiritedLittleCopperSpots (Mar 4, 2010)

churumbeque said:


> Spirited I was hoping you would answer my post on why you do not ahve your pony properly harnessed


Oh, sorry, missed that post! 
This is just a snap I took of him the first time we had this harness on him. It still needed some adjustments, holes punched etc. to fit properly.
My impatient/over excited hubby wanted to hook him up real quick to the training chariot (just ground driving from behind) to see how he was coming along, so no, the breeching is not hooked up as it would have been other wise....
This is definitely not a pic displaying proper set-up, just the easiest one I could find to ask my strap question with. :wink:


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## HelenRebecca (Jan 20, 2012)

Hi 
i am not of any help 
but im looking to buy another harness and cart for my pony my friend hooked my pony up a couple of years ago with there harness and i really want to get back in to it. however the harness we used couple year back i cant seem to find one similar.... can someone tell me the type of harness it is or even if it is a suitable harness at all any help will be appreciated


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

HelenRebecca said:


> Hi
> i am not of any help
> but im looking to buy another harness and cart for my pony my friend hooked my pony up a couple of years ago with there harness and i really want to get back in to it. however the harness we used couple year back i cant seem to find one similar.... can someone tell me the type of harness it is or even if it is a suitable harness at all any help will be appreciated


 Some [pieces look to be missing. The saddle is very narrow for a 2 wheel cart, that is why they have the pad. It also should have the rear breeching


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

The setup ouround the base of the pony's neck is also incorrect and could cause problems. He needs a wide padded strap that goes around the point of his shoulders for pulling. If it was heavier than a card he'd need a collar setup.
Google driving harness and lots of info should show up. They are made of nylon webbing, leather and biothane-a leather look material.. Also the shafts should be lower on the pony with the ends close to the point of his shoulder. This will move him back a little and put the cart in better balance. Breeching, a strap which encircles the hindquarers stops the cart from crawling forward on a hill. Every piece on a harness plays an important roll. If a strap is holding something up, then another will hold it down. If one pulls forward, another counters that. Althogether they keep everything in balance.


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## ButtInTheDirt (Jan 16, 2011)

I think I understand what you are talking about. The harness I have does not have anything for the reins to connect there, either. When I am driving it works just fine, but ground driving the reins get caught underneath some of the things on the side. 

If you cannot tell from my lack of terminology, I am not very experienced. I will attach a picture of my harness, but keep in mind this was our first time hooking up a horse to drive and driving. Plus she hadn't been driven in years and we were cold and just wanted to get her going. Next time we will take more care in hooking it up correctly.


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## Clayton Taffy (May 24, 2011)

Butt in the dirt, your harness is also hooked up incorrectly. It is hard to see but I think I am correct in saying you breeching straps are attached to the saddle, belly band, shaft loop area. The breeching straps should be attached to the shafts at the foolman's loops,( the hardware under the shafts between the crossbar and shaft tips). It looks like you have attached your girth wrap straps (the outer girth that comes up wraps around the shafts and buckles back to itself) to the footmans loops, I wrap the wrap straps around the shafts once infront of the shaft loops (where the shafts go through the harness to hold them up) and once behind the shaft loops. That holds them together. I had noticed in your other thread that they had separated in a few photos, that area (wrap staps & shaft loops) should not move back and forth on the shafts at all. Yours look like they should be placed about 6-7" in front of the footman's loops.
When I harness I like my horse very snug in the harness there is only about 3-4" of movement when you move the cart forwards and backwards. That way the vehicle does not BANG into them. When the horse is troting its rump comes in full contact with the breeching, not tight but touching. Also when your horse first walks off there is not a lot of daylight between horse and breeching, when horse is standing can put a fist between horse and breeching not more.
I hope you can understand my explanations. Your horse is great.


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## Clayton Taffy (May 24, 2011)

perchies kisses I would mark the spot you want your hip strap to cross the back stap and take it to a shoe repair place and have them attach a piece of leather on to hold the hip strap in place. Some fine harness doesn't come with breeching so your breeching could have been an after purchase.


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## HelenRebecca (Jan 20, 2012)

*Thanks*

Thanks for all the advice


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## ButtInTheDirt (Jan 16, 2011)

Taffy Clayton said:


> Butt in the dirt, your harness is also hooked up incorrectly. It is hard to see but I think I am correct in saying you breeching straps are attached to the saddle, belly band, shaft loop area. The breeching straps should be attached to the shafts at the foolman's loops,( the hardware under the shafts between the crossbar and shaft tips). It looks like you have attached your girth wrap straps (the outer girth that comes up wraps around the shafts and buckles back to itself) to the footmans loops, I wrap the wrap straps around the shafts once infront of the shaft loops (where the shafts go through the harness to hold them up) and once behind the shaft loops. That holds them together. I had noticed in your other thread that they had separated in a few photos, that area (wrap staps & shaft loops) should not move back and forth on the shafts at all. Yours look like they should be placed about 6-7" in front of the footman's loops.
> When I harness I like my horse very snug in the harness there is only about 3-4" of movement when you move the cart forwards and backwards. That way the vehicle does not BANG into them. When the horse is troting its rump comes in full contact with the breeching, not tight but touching. Also when your horse first walks off there is not a lot of daylight between horse and breeching, when horse is standing can put a fist between horse and breeching not more.
> I hope you can understand my explanations. Your horse is great.


I will take any advice that I can get. But can I ask you to really dumb this down for me? I understand each of the parts somewhat but in a fluent sentence I loose all grasp of what I know. Dx Looking at the pictures I can tell the harness is fairly loose, but all in all it was a fairly good run. Nothing went catostrophically wrong so their is always room for improvement.


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

ButtInTheDirt said:


> I will take any advice that I can get. But can I ask you to really dumb this down for me? I understand each of the parts somewhat but in a fluent sentence I loose all grasp of what I know. Dx Looking at the pictures I can tell the harness is fairly loose, but all in all it was a fairly good run. Nothing went catostrophically wrong so their is always room for improvement.[/QUOTE
> ]http://www.discover-horse-carriage-driving.com/driving-video.htm
> 
> Here are some instructional video's that should get you going in the right direction.


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