# Stiff harness-- long post.



## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Try an open or regular bridle. The blinders should sit about 3" away from her eyes. She may prefer the open bridle. Some horses need to know what's going on around them. I had one like that.


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

Olive oil softens stiff leathers well. Real neatsfoot, let it soak in and follow with olive oil. If it's still stiff repeat. Have the oil body temp.

If it's one of those cheap harnesses made in India you may never get it right. I bought one once and sent it back immediately. It was dangerous.

I agree use an open bridle. I never really used the blinders on my driving horses.


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## Left Hand Percherons (Feb 1, 2011)

I'm going to say that her harness is not properly adjusted or fitted for her. Are the holdbacks going through the footsman's loops and staying put? She should never be able to back up and hit what I'm assuming is the single tree. The breeching should move the cart back before that can happen.

If you do stay with a closed bridle, trim her eye wiskers so they aren't pushing against the blinkers.


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

musicalmarie1 said:


> My mom has a 14hh pony that was trained to pull a cart before being trained to go under saddle. She recently acquired a leather harness, and found someone to help her figure out all the parts and how to hook Chocolate (the pony) up to their cart. The first time they did it, she (supposedly) did a great job, and was better at pulling the cart than giving rides. She knew "gee" and "haw" and "step up" and how to turn... the cart isn't very conducive to backing for a pony her height as the back bar would hit her legs before the harness would do its job. *If the breeching was on properly this should have prevented this. This is dangerous as it would hit also going down a hill or stopping.*
> 
> Anyway, that was a week or so ago, and I was excited to get to finally drive a cart when I visited for Christmas yesterday. It was the first time mom had hooked up the harness by herself, and everything looked all right to me (though I've never done it, either). The only problem I had was that the blinders/ blinkers on the side of the head stall were so stiff and curved from lack of use that they were pretty much covering Chocolate's eyes and making her close them. Mom said that they were supposed to be close to her eyes like that because they're to keep the horse from switching to side view and only using forward view, but I pointed out that she couldn't even see at all. We fiddled with it for a bit until we thought we had fixed the problem, and hooked her up to the cart. *Quality of harness can also be part of the problem. Some blinders are flat and some are cupped.*
> 
> ...


 *Posting a picture would help to make sure you had it hooked properly.*


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

SueNH said:


> Olive oil softens stiff leathers well. Real neatsfoot, let it soak in and follow with olive oil. If it's still stiff repeat. Have the oil body temp.
> 
> If it's one of those cheap harnesses made in India you may never get it right. I bought one once and sent it back immediately. It was dangerous.
> 
> I agree use an open bridle. I never really used the blinders on my driving horses.


 Olive oile will attract mice and they will chew the laether.


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## musicalmarie1 (Dec 8, 2010)

I'll mention to her about the open bridle. I assume just hook the long driving reins to a regular bridle? 

And I mentioned to her that she needed a whip, though I didn't know that it would hurt their mouth tapping her butt with the reins. She was so proud of this pony for being able to pull, and was crushed when I had a hard time with it. 

Thanks for the tips!


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

6 cats in the barn so not much in the way of mice. But actually I keep my tack in the house. Large 2 legged vermin have run off with entire pieces out in the barn. Same with my grain. If somebody asks I just tell them I have trouble with bears but bags of feed don't just grow legs and wander. Mice are easy. Others not so much.


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