# Rigging up, need help please!



## FoxRidgeRanch

I finally got my cart yesterday and harness but really do not have anyone to show me the right way to hook it up. I know she is too close to the back so I'm thinking I got the side suspension goofy. She was only in it for the pictures. Do anyone have any close up pictures of this kind of harness that could help me better see where to hook them up and how. Really want to get practicing short trip but want to have her set up right.


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## Cincinnati

Just like my setup but it looks like your tugs are to short.


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## CaliforniaDreaming

It's a bit fuzzy and hard to see, but it looks to me like your shafts are low. Granted, it's an EE cart with low/standard wheels so those shafts are going to tip no matter what. 

I'm trying to look at your picture and see if the tugs are actually being pulled towards the back end of your horse (it looks like there's two straps that make a sort of a triangle on your horse's barrel but it's hard to tell due to picture quality) What kind of girth rigging have you got? Overgirth or wrap strap?

I'd also try moving your hip strap forward. What brand of harness do you have?


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## Zexious

That's a pretty, snowy picture. Subbing, as I want to hear what all the smart harnessy people have to say.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

I will hitch her up again today but not move and take a bunch of pictures for you guys, I may very well have it really really really wrong but thats what I need to know. Really wish I had some one I knew locally to show me what to do with this  I tried finding some videos of it but youtube keeps crashing our computer -.-


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## FoxRidgeRanch

I got a cob size: Tough 1 Basic Nylon Driving Harness - Statelinetack.com

I was told it would probably be the best bet for a starter for her since she is only 14.1 at most.


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## Clayton Taffy

Fox Ridge ranch The one thing I can say is you have a great horse! :lol::lol:

You have adjustment issues with your cart.
I can help you to a point hooking up your horse and adjusting you harness. You are in the middle of midwest driving USA. It would be best to join a club or find a mentor to help you with the finer points of harnessing and driving.

Every adjustment on a harness affects other adjustments so it is a bit of a complicated process.

SO THAT SAID: This will probably be several posts with you adjusting then taking photos. posting, then adjusting again. So if you are up to this so am I.

My main question is why do you not have a bridle? Are you planning on driving in a halter? I would not recommend this, as this is highly dangerous, and it is not IF but WHEN a serious problem will occur.

In the American Driving Society rulebook, is says ..Removal of the bridle while the horse is still hooked to the vehicle, the driver will be eliminated from any event and in some instances be asked to leave the property. I am paraphrasing, but you get the idea.

So back to your harness;

#1 Put on a bridle! Blinkers or not, Put on a bridle. At all times while harnessed and while harnessing have a bridle on, I can't stress this enough.

#2 You horse is too far back in the shafts. The shafts are supposed to end at the point of the shoulder. Reason, shafts lto far forward will hit the horse in the face/head or neck when the horse turns, causing discomfort and counterbending, a no=no. And his rear end is too close to the cart.

Properly adjusted shafts at the point of the shoulder.









This photo the shafts are to far forward.









I put the cart up to the horse, put the shafts to to the shoulder the attach the traces. If the traces are to short figure out how to make them longer or buy longer ones. There is no negotiation here. Shafts can be a bit short but not a bit long.

This will bring your horse's rear end further away from the cart. Where he is now, there is no way his hind legs wont hit the cart, causing all but the oldest and kindest soles to kick. and you can't blame a horse for kicking if every time he takes a step his hocks hit the cart..

There are several more adjustments to make then maybe you can implement those adjustments, take a photo and then we will see what other adjustments need to be made.
I will try and post again this afternoon, I am having company this evening and need to clean house.
I just wanted you to know I will give you a hand.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

I just read your other post and it was very helpful: http://www.horseforum.com/driving/need-close-up-pic-please-349506/

The bridle I couldn't figure out and was really bothering her mostly the blinkers and the straps that crisscross her face don't actually crisscross but went straight over her eyes. I'll bring the bridle in really quick and get some pictures of what I'm talking about.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

OMG I'm so dumb, I brought it in and just noticed that I can criss cross them by unhooking them. I didn't see the buckles yesterday cause i only had 10 mins to mess around with it.....I'm scary...


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## Clayton Taffy

I jumped the gun by talking about hitching and shafts first thing. You need to get your harness fitted properly first. Yours looks preytty good but I would shorten you backStrap, (what goes between the saddle and the crupper (what goes under the tail )). Try and get the hip strap, (strap that goes up and over the hip and holds up the breeching) as close to the top of the hip as possible. To do this you need to shorten the back strap, then probably lengthen the crupper straps. There is some wiggle room here but get it as close as possible. There might also be different slots that you can have the hip strap go through the back strap.

Clear as mud, right?


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## FoxRidgeRanch

I got the bridle sorted out!! YAY even while she was trying to eat her breakfast no less. I'm going to tackle the harness here in a few mins just letting her finish up eating. I was having a hard time figuring out what straps connected to the cart and where earlier. there is a ring on the bottom of both shafts what is that little guy for?

This is the cart i have


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## CaliforniaDreaming

FoxRidgeRanch said:


> I got a cob size: Tough 1 Basic Nylon Driving Harness - Statelinetack.com
> 
> I was told it would probably be the best bet for a starter for her since she is only 14.1 at most.


Well shucks, wish I'd known you were shopping for a harness else I'd have recommended the Liberty nylon harness from Ron's/Amber Hillside. It's slightly more expensive (mine was $200 shipping included) but is a better quality harness with a real tree,etc. I used mine for a year before upgrading and it's now my spare/ train the mare set.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## CaliforniaDreaming

The ting loop at the bottom of the shafts is for the holdbacks.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## CaliforniaDreaming

Also, the criss cross straps on the bridle (and looking at google images) sound like over check straps and you really won't need them.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Clayton Taffy

With the bridle, make sure the blinkers are in the middle of the eye and stand out from the eye, no touching of the eyelashes. The noseband should sit about 3/4 to an inch below the bony protrusion on the side of the face. there should be plenty of ear room and the browband should not stick out to far from the head. The throat latch should not be so tight that he horse can't flex byt not so loose that the bridle can slip off the head.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

OK pictures!! The shafts are still toooo far forward but I think I got it alittle more straightened out. The hip strap may need to com alittle further forward. Lemme know what you think, where and what to adjust. 










































Still not sure what do to with this strap as its very slack...










or



















This last pcitre I think this strap is very short, its whats holding her to the cart.


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## Clayton Taffy

Raise the breast collar. tighten the rear buckle one and the front buckle two, 
Harness should be even on both sides.

Raise Tugs, What holds the shafts up, 4 or 5 buckles. They should follow the line your traces make from the breast collar to the cart.

Raise your breeching two holes on all buckles.
Loosen t Throat latch one buckle on each side.
Eventually you will get rid of the overcheck and get a real noseband. Try and find one.

Thats a start


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## Clayton Taffy

How many loops do you have on the shafts? and where are they located on the shafts?


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## CaliforniaDreaming

Can you get a close up picture of the tugs without the shafts in them? For some reason, I'm thinking they look like just loops of nylon, and can't figure out if you have an over girth or a wrap strap girth. What's all the excess nylon strappage in that close up shot of the girth 

I've always looped my holdbacks a few times. I usually leave them on the cart and have the alligator snaps to clip them to the rings on the breeching.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Left Hand Percherons

Hook your lead rope to the bit. You have no control over your mare. That's a train wreak waiting to happen.


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## CaliforniaDreaming

So after getting home and seeing the pictures on my computer (yay, bigger screen) and going on Google, it appears that the girth that comes with the Tough 1 harness is a wrap strap style, and you'll have to use the nylon straps at the bottom to wrap around your shafts. Urk. Maybe Taffy can chime in here since she has more experience than me, but I'm not sure how well those particular tugs with the wrap girth will work when your shafts are already pretty low.

Too bad you didn't have shafts like these 










It's too bad you couldn't return it. You look like you're going to need longer traces to set the cart shafts back further, and will need to find trace extenders (guess that's kind of a trade off with the sewn in traces vs the buckle in ones, but then, I've always had buckle ins)

Just curious, but is the tug strap just sewn onto the saddle?

It's water under the bridge now, but it's too bad you hadn't gotten this harness instead ( Amber Hillside Horse Harness - Formerly Rons Horse Harness - Liberty Harness ) I couldn't afford the Comfy Fit when I needed to start looking at harnesses, and almost got the Tough 1, but decided to look around first and found a good review on that one, and decided to take a chance. Their comparison photos sold me, and when I received it, I was pretty blown away with how nicely it was made. Ah well.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

The halter pictures the lead was attached and she was being held still. It was just to get pictures we didn't go anywhere. I had a friend from high school come out that shows in harness and works with the amish and he got us all sorted out and we went for a ride, she did awesome and the cart was awesome. We had so much fun and she was comfortable.


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## Clayton Taffy

I would love to see a photo of you all hooked up.
I would like to see how your friend ended up adjusting the harness.


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## Gmac

I looks like you have your tugs on the last hole, you might need to get some extenders so you can move your horse forward away from the cart and further up in the shafts. 
This is correct that is if there is a something that the strap is connected to on the cart so it doesn't slide back.









This is NOT correct:









The britchen strap(its the one under the tail that goes around the butt) is your brakes it keeps the cart from hitting and running over your horse. With your horse that close to the cart, the britchen doesn't have time to tighten and hold the cart back before its on the horse. The britchen needs to be straight not that loose and floppy. 
I would also when you start driving any distance I would get a pad for the breast plate. A pad will be wider and it will distrubute the pulling pressure over a larger area and be more comfortable for the horse. 
I don't claim to be anybody, just some thoughts that might help you. I also have had to learn without someone close by.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

I'll have to get her all hooked up again once she's healed up. I need to extend some of the straps for them to reach properly. We added 6 - 10" further forward in the cart, the shafts came level with the front of her chest, also we brought back an extra strap from the little ring on the shaft to the Britchen strap just enough to make it snug and stable. I Will see what I can do with the breast collar section on padding


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## greentree

What happened to her? I missed that.

Nancy


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## FoxRidgeRanch

Nova is my pride and joy baby, she's the best horse I have ever owned, extremely easy going with everything, I trust my kids on her more then any other horse on our farm. this is also the horse that doesn't romp around, or even gallop much to play with the other horses, if she needs to move one she just does a classic my glare and its done. Anyway almost a week ago now something happened out in the paddock that got her worked up enough to seemingly bend a Tpost over. Dad called me and said she was limping and didn't wanna move but they couldn't see any major injury anywhere and i had to work in an hour so i couldn't go check myself. I came by after work almost a fr 24 hour after the incident and looked at her. I saw a single drop of blood on her feet but no wound..... so i went up her leg still nothing but more blood. She had a blanket on because earlier she had been shivering, prolly from light shock, and I pulled the blanket back to find a few ice cycles of frozen blood coming down from the udder area. It was so swollen with blood and fluid I couldn't see the actual wound and i thought she had been gored. I was sick, call the vet at 11pm and she was snowed in. The drifts were so bad that night. She told me to just give her Penicillin and 16-18 aspirin in her feed. She was/is/ eating, drinking, peeing and pooping just fine so we did that and the next day she was walking, still a little stiff but would come to the fence to see you. The actual wound was a small patch of where her hide was skun off but I'm sure she is very very very bruised , thinking she ruptured a milk vein. As of right now she is walking around just fine and the swelling is really starting to go down. she's her usually self but her belly is still sore to the touch.

The day after the incident...




























2 days after...



















Yyou can see how puffy it is here, sorry for the weird stance she was eating hay at a funny angle.


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## greentree

Oh, goodness!! I am SO glad she is healing now! That must have just scared you to death. She is such a pretty mare!!

Nancy


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## FoxRidgeRanch

Today she is looks almost normal except for the scraped area is still pretty swollen.


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## Zexious

D: Those are some scary photos! Glad to hear she's healing well!


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## Lorden

Hey. 
I do not want to be rude but your and Taffy Clayton harness is just too weak to use to pull vangn. 
According to me, a chest harness to be wider so you get an even pressure and then you should have a breeching as well so that you do not get all the pressure from the cart in the downhill slopes and when the horse should make a halt.
Then a good idea is to get a swingle and traces.
This is for the horse's best and my thoughts on how it will work for you and your horse.

Sincerely, Billy and Lorden


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## FoxRidgeRanch

Its not rude its a learning process. I wish I had people constantly available to pick brains for help. Any constructive advice is good  I hooked her up for the first time since the accident today and we went for a 4 mile ride. I am definitely going to get a bigger harness. This one is too small so we extended parts temporarily so I could get decent stability and it definitely looks better. 

I'm sure it still looks wonky but is it better? I could have tightened the breeching strap a bit more i think but i didn't want it to be super tight her first line out. You can see the give in it from the in cart picture. When we were moving forward the shafts were even with her shoulders until she would stop then it would shift forward a couple inches. So maybe tighter straps next time and I would really really like to move up to a better harness but she seems to enjoy doing this but I want a better quality harness. The bridle is slightly too small also and might be pinching her ears. she was fine on the way out but on the way home she started shaking her head like flies were around her ears.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

This was the first time we hitched up a month or so ago so you can kinda compare.


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## Lorden

Hello to you. 
First I want to apologize because I have not read the whole thread. 
I see you have breeching and even traces, however, they are very weak. 
My suggestion is before you buy new harness will take you some time to think about what you want to pull with your horse? 
I recommend you buy a good harness like this one here in the picture.
This type of harness you can use for everything from drawing a nice truck for plowing the fields with.

Yours sincerely Billy and Lorden


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## Lorden

Hello to you. 
First I want to apologize because I have not read the whole thread. 
I see you have breeching and even traces, however, they are very weak. 
My suggestion is before you buy new harness will take you some time to think about what you want to pull with your horse? 
I recommend you buy a good harness like this one here in the picture.
This type of harness you can use for everything from pull a nice carriage to plowing the fields with.

Yours sincerely Billy and Lorden


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## CaliforniaDreaming

Loren, what kind of harness is on the Gypsy looking draft pulling the wagon? It's a bit blurry, but looks like a nice harness.



> I could have tightened the breeching strap a bit more I think but I didn't want it to be super tight her first line out. You can see the give in it from the in cart picture. When we were moving forward the shafts were even with her shoulders until she would stop then it would shift forward a couple inches.


Huh. Where have you got the holdbacks attached? When looping up my holdbacks, I go through the u-ring on the shafts, up over, wrap a few times and then back to the buckle. It almost looks to me like you just have them running through the ring, and not over the shaft at all -- which *could* be part of the problem for why the shafts are shifting forward. The breeching is supposed to act as brakes, but if they're not attached to the shafts, they're not going to be braking.

And I think I said it before, but your shafts seem really low. With easy entry carts, they're usually tipping _up_ because the wheels are smaller and that changes the line of draught, but yours are almost below her belly when they should be sitting halfway up her side. It could be that the tugs are sitting too low (you've got a pretty cheap junky harness as it is) and when you do get a better one, it'll sit better (hopefully).

Anyway, here's my EE cart, 14.1 hand horse. 










You can see how much higher my shafts are sitting right? And also how my holdbacks are wrapped. That was a year ago, before I got bigger wheels for the cart which made the shafts fit more level and my Comfy Fit harness.

It's good that you're getting a different harness. Buckle in traces are the best, so much easier to work with than the sewn in ones. It'll be better to get a better quality harness anyway. I'm not sure I like the look of that crupper very much.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

The harness I have is crappy and too small, the holdbacks weren't long enough to reach the D ring on the shafts and if I just tried to wrap them they just slowly worked their way back too me so i took some paracord for the moment and extended them just to the d ring but had left a little slack in them yet which needed to be tightened up. I'll tighten up the tugs and try to get some more pictures. I won't be able to grab a harness right away so I probably won't be going out much til i can get some money round up for one 

The traces are way way too short and had to extend them too so the cart could be further back away from her. I'll see if I can wrap the holdbacks around. I'll try to get some more pictures later.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

I'm actively looking for my next harness, horse size and I don't have a lot of funding for it. I'm going to try to sell my old one and maybe some other tack I don't need to build up to getting a new one/ used one. Any help would be awesome, I reallllllly can't afford a whole lot. Any help is appreciated.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

some I have seen on Ebay, input please!!

NEW LEATHER DELUXE LONDON HORSE HARNESS SET(FULL SIZE)

Plain Black DD Leather Driving Harness Horse Size Cart Horsedrawn Combined

just a couple to start but i can't really tell if the breast collar area is wider


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## CaliforniaDreaming

FoxRidgeRanch said:


> I'm actively looking for my next harness, horse size and I don't have a lot of funding for it. I'm going to try to sell my old one and maybe some other tack I don't need to build up to getting a new one/ used one. Any help would be awesome, I reallllllly can't afford a whole lot. Any help is appreciated.


How much is your budget, do you think? I don't know if you'd get a whole lot for the current nylon harness, but it's worth a try, I guess.


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## CaliforniaDreaming

FoxRidgeRanch said:


> some I have seen on Ebay, input please!!
> 
> NEW LEATHER DELUXE LONDON HORSE HARNESS SET(FULL SIZE)
> 
> Plain Black DD Leather Driving Harness Horse Size Cart Horsedrawn Combined
> 
> just a couple to start but i can't really tell if the breast collar area is wider


I'm not fond of black harness unless it were nylon or betathane. My one pair of leather driving reins that I use for ground driving are dyed black and stained my gloves really bad. Also, I showed the link to a friend who drives, and she says she had that same harness for ground driving training, and she said it was very stiff leather, and that stitching came out very easily.

As far as the brown harness goes, it's really low in cost, which means the leather's probably poor quality and cheap made because where's the profit if it only costs that much. I wouldn't trust a harness that inexpensive for doing anything serious like pulling. It might make an OK ground driving harness (I had a leather secondhand harness for ground driving) but it could be a real disaster if you were hooked at the time and something broke.

If you can swing it, I'd look at some of the betha/biothane stuff. It's a lot easier to clean than leather is (I can just hose mine off, sometimes with it still on the pony) and better quality than low-priced leather harnesses. And you could always add stuff on like a new noseband or something, depending how you wanted it to look.

It'd cost a little more, but it might be more worth it in the end, especially if you really like driving. And it doesn't have to be a Zilco or a Comfy Fit or anything like that. I've heard some pretty decent stuff about Driving Tidbits. Almost got the marathon set, but she does have an economy set that's around $400. 

Drivingtidbits.Com - Your One Stop Driving Shop

Otherwise, I'll say it again, I liked my Liberty harness from Rons/Amber Hillside. It was $169 ($200 with shipping to the West Coast) and made a great starter harness for the first year I was driving.

Amber Hillside Horse Harness - Formerly Rons Horse Harness - Liberty Harness


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## Left Hand Percherons

Don't waste your time looking at new harness on eBay. 99% are cheaply made. I think you can made some alterations to your current harness and it will work fine for a first harness. You will need a sewing machine (walking foot preferred), a hole burner (icepick or nail on a stove will work), some webbing the same size (1 1/2 to 2 inch probably) and a cigarette lighter.

First what's wrong with the current pictures.

Your shafts are still too low. They should come up to the point of the shoulder. The shaft loops need to be adjusted all the way up. If they are as high as they go, pick 6 inches off and move the buckles up.

The breast collar is too low. It needs to hit her right where the neck and chest meet. So shorten the neck strap 3-4 inches. It will be even with the shafts. When it's low like that, it interferes with her shoulder.

Britchen is too tight because the part that goes around her back side isn't long enough. This is where you need to cut the webbing that runs under the tail so you can hide it, burn the raw edges so they don't fray and scab about 4-6 inches of webbing on. It's also too far back which is another clue it's too short. The spider (the 2 straps that are over the rump) needs to be about 4 inches farther forward even with the point of the hip. Draw a line from the point of the hip to the stifle and that's how far forward it needs to lay.

You can fix the bridle by putting a driving bit on her with a purchase. That will give you an extra 2" easily. Can't do anything for the blinkers. Try shaping them (be easy or they might snap) but they might just have to stick out. You can also just drive her in an open bridle and throw that one out.

The holdback straps are not too short. You don't have any footman's loops to attach them to. There should be a second smaller loop that is 6-10 inches forward of the stifle for the holdback. For whatever reason, the footman's loop is most often in the wrong position or missing on the used carts I have bought. 

Get a set of harness pads to spread the load over more area.

It could just be winter fluff, but things look too tight. There should be some side to side play on a harness. It allows the harness to move with her and not restrict movement.


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## greentree

This looks like that same harness....$330.00 INCLUDES the pads, bit, etc. I will ship you one, if it fits your budget. You can choose red, blue, or black pads...mine are black.

Nancy


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## FoxRidgeRanch

I really like the liberty harness!! It looks like awesome quality and its affordable


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## CaliforniaDreaming

FoxRidgeRanch said:


> I really like the liberty harness!! It looks like awesome quality and its affordable


I really really like it. I think because it's made by a harness shop and they put the same kind of work into the nylon set that they do with the leather ones. Cleans up really easily, vinyl lined all over and I was won over with delight when I pulled it out of the box. The pictures on the Amber Hillside site do not do it justice, it looks even more amazing in person.

I highly recommend it if you get it. It's not a harness on par with the Comfy Fit, or Zilco or something like that which is why I upgraded my harness once it was financially feasible for me, but it is really nice for starting out. The price couldn't be beat.


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## michaelvanessa

*harness.*

hiya lorden taffys harness is fit for purpus as she has done cross country driveing with her horse pilgrim.
as to harness for my maxi cob quincy i was given a fine driveing harness brest collar set.
i also put him to a four wheel exercise waggonett.
we have done brake tests with him and the cart as we have disc brakes on the rear.
i have applyed them and asked him to walk on as instructed and asked to stop.
even though the harness is fine it is robust and fit for purpus as well on a load test with brakes fully applyed.
so i used quincy so to speak as a load bank to test his traction in draft.
as well as disc brakes it also has a swingle tree as well.
all my other harnesses are hand made english leather hand stitched.
except 1 which was made from a rotten broken harness compleatley remade to its existing spec.
also i use to drive tandem and thats at a full gallop and both ponys were working in as a beautiful unit and both complemented them selfs.
i had tammy as a wheeler in the shafts and tricky as a leader thay were very responsive in walk trot extended trot also paceing cantering and at a full gallop.
all i can say all harness are fit for purpus as like taffy clayton has a zilco harness so does my frend carol with her pony stanley and he is put to a four wheel waggonett.
also quick releases are used with quincy tricky and stanley.
as to harness strengths thay are well up to spec and the tasks required and fit for purpus.


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## FoxRidgeRanch

Another funny question could i substitute a plain western bridle for the driving bridle and just reattach the overcheck to it? The bridle thats on it currently seems to pinch her ears. I'm still planning to get the liberty harness.


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## churumbeque

CaliforniaDreaming said:


> I'm not fond of black harness unless it were nylon or betathane. My one pair of leather driving reins that I use for ground driving are dyed black and stained my gloves really bad. Also, I showed the link to a friend who drives, and she says she had that same harness for ground driving training, and she said it was very stiff leather, and that stitching came out very easily.
> 
> As far as the brown harness goes, it's really low in cost, which means the leather's probably poor quality and cheap made because where's the profit if it only costs that much. I wouldn't trust a harness that inexpensive for doing anything serious like pulling. It might make an OK ground driving harness (I had a leather secondhand harness for ground driving) but it could be a real disaster if you were hooked at the time and something broke.
> 
> If you can swing it, I'd look at some of the betha/biothane stuff. It's a lot easier to clean than leather is (I can just hose mine off, sometimes with it still on the pony) and better quality than low-priced leather harnesses. And you could always add stuff on like a new noseband or something, depending how you wanted it to look.
> 
> It'd cost a little more, but it might be more worth it in the end, especially if you really like driving. And it doesn't have to be a Zilco or a Comfy Fit or anything like that. I've heard some pretty decent stuff about Driving Tidbits. Almost got the marathon set, but she does have an economy set that's around $400.
> 
> Drivingtidbits.Com - Your One Stop Driving Shop
> 
> Otherwise, I'll say it again, I liked my Liberty harness from Rons/Amber Hillside. It was $169 ($200 with shipping to the West Coast) and made a great starter harness for the first year I was driving.
> 
> Amber Hillside Horse Harness - Formerly Rons Horse Harness - Liberty Harness


 A proper black harness is used with brown reins. The reins are brown so dye does not come off on your hands/gloves. My guess is your harness was inexpensive. Any decent harness maker does not sell black reins.


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## CaliforniaDreaming

churumbeque said:


> A proper black harness is used with brown reins. The reins are brown so dye does not come off on your hands/gloves. My guess is your harness was inexpensive. Any decent harness maker does not sell black reins.


I imagine it wasn't as I obtained it second hand for ground driving purposes.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Lorden

michaelvanessa said:


> hiya lorden taffys harness is fit for purpus as she has done cross country driveing with her horse pilgrim.
> as to harness for my maxi cob quincy i was given a fine driveing harness brest collar set.
> i also put him to a four wheel exercise waggonett.
> we have done brake tests with him and the cart as we have disc brakes on the rear.
> i have applyed them and asked him to walk on as instructed and asked to stop.
> even though the harness is fine it is robust and fit for purpus as well on a load test with brakes fully applyed.
> so i used quincy so to speak as a load bank to test his traction in draft.
> as well as disc brakes it also has a swingle tree as well.
> all my other harnesses are hand made english leather hand stitched.
> except 1 which was made from a rotten broken harness compleatley remade to its existing spec.
> also i use to drive tandem and thats at a full gallop and both ponys were working in as a beautiful unit and both complemented them selfs.
> i had tammy as a wheeler in the shafts and tricky as a leader thay were very responsive in walk trot extended trot also paceing cantering and at a full gallop.
> all i can say all harness are fit for purpus as like taffy clayton has a zilco harness so does my frend carol with her pony stanley and he is put to a four wheel waggonett.
> also quick releases are used with quincy tricky and stanley.
> as to harness strengths thay are well up to spec and the tasks required and fit for purpus.


Hello to you michael vanessa and the rest of you too. 
I apologize for the misunderstanding, wisely I think the harness is weak but like you said, it goes kind of harness good for lighter horse wagons braked, type jig and marathon carriage. 
That said nothing wrong with that kind of harness with it I want to get across is a coarser type of harness that a work harness (sorry that I can not all the names of the harness in English) is an excellent harness for a beginner, first as buying to a specific harness to drive finely so you are pretty locked into this. 
But buy you a harness that can be used for everything you can for example harrowing paddock pull home timer and so much more.
What I mean is a handsome all-purpose harness provides so many more opportunities to discover how fun it is to work with your horse and what great benefits you can have with a harness and horse.

P.s I also want to apologize for my poor English. 
Best regards to you all. Lorden


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## jimmy

Lorden said:


> Hello to you michael vanessa and the rest of you too.
> I apologize for the misunderstanding, wisely I think the harness is weak but like you said, it goes kind of harness good for lighter horse wagons braked, type jig and marathon carriage.
> That said nothing wrong with that kind of harness with it I want to get across is a coarser type of harness that a work harness (sorry that I can not all the names of the harness in English) is an excellent harness for a beginner, first as buying to a specific harness to drive finely so you are pretty locked into this.
> But buy you a harness that can be used for everything you can for example harrowing paddock pull home timer and so much more.
> What I mean is a handsome all-purpose harness provides so many more opportunities to discover how fun it is to work with your horse and what great benefits you can have with a harness and horse.
> 
> P.s I also want to apologize for my poor English.
> Best regards to you all. Lorden


your English is good Lorden,I have no problem understanding you


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## ThunderingHooves

churumbeque said:


> A proper black harness is used with brown reins. The reins are brown so dye does not come off on your hands/gloves. My guess is your harness was inexpensive. Any decent harness maker does not sell black reins.


I have a harness that's black and the reins are actually half black (part that attaches to the bridle) and the second half is neutral brown. They're all nice quality too.


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## Lorden

Hey. 
Well certainly there are black quality rein that do not stain, but I prefer the reins of braided hemp they are rough and good for agricultural work. 
I also have fine rein when I drive the cart, and they are braided black leather rein that will not slip.


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## greentree

Lorden, could you please post a close-up picture of those braided hemp lines?

I have some braided leather lines that I have really grown to like. My hands are quite damaged, and I need all the help I can get with grip.

Thanks!
Nancy


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## michaelvanessa

*to lorden.*

to lorden its a pleasure meeting you and your horses and also thank you for shareing your pictures thank you like jimmy has said your english is perfect.
once again thank you.


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## michaelvanessa

*to green tree.*

hiya and how are you. 
do you like laces leather reins.
i have a set of brown ones and thay are fantastic i use them with tricky and thay are about 15 years old now.
i can see if my harness maker in newmarket is avalable to make a pair for you.
many thanks michael.


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