To continue from my last blog post… **Please note: when I say pony I don’t mean these harnesses only come in the pony sizes. They come in mini all the way to draft. Also I am not saying that these questions and suggestions only work for ponies. They are all the same for every size of equine, including donkey’s and mules. Just wanted to clear that up!

Farm/Work Harness:

If you are using your pony/horse/donkey to work on the farm or drag logs or pull heavy loads with a low line of draft then a Farm/Work harness would be the most appropriate style harness.

The Farm/Work harness doesn’t really have a saddle as the other style harnesses do. Often this style of harness is used for a team of horses and they don’t need a saddle as there aren’t shafts that run through the shaft loops. If you are using this style of harness to also pull a vehicle then you simply put a nice thick pad under the back strap or “saddle”.

Often when you are using your animal for work and driving a team, there aren’t shafts but instead a team pole. The pole attaches to the collar and hames using pole straps. In that case the harness will not need shaft loops. Here is a blog post about changing a harness from a single harness to a team harness: Dividing and Multiples.

When the equine is dragging logs or clearing fields often the traces are lengthened a bit with some heel chain and then attached to a single tree or an evener, then connected to the log or the harrow or the sled.

Of course when using the equine for heavy farm work the collar and hames is a necessary piece of harness. We have many choices of collar and hames. Getting proper measurements is key to proper collar fit. We have a measuring stick you can purchase to help get accurate measurements. Here is a video that shows how to measure for either a SuperFlex collar or a work/buggy style collar:

If you are driving a mini or a small pony I highly suggest getting the Leather 10G style collar with the buggy hames with short tugs. I also really like the All Purpose Synthetic collar with the No Choke option. The No Choke means there isn’t any stuffing in the bottom part of the collar, where the wind pipe is. This just allows the collar to fit better on the smaller minis. The Brodhead collars are sized down a bit better for the minis and seem to fit the little guys very nicely!

The Farm/Work style harness does not come with a crupper. If you want that on your harness you need to let us know!

 

The Pleasure/Buggy Harness:

The Pleasure/buggy style harness is very similar to the Farm/Work harness and can be ordered with a standard breast collar or a collar and hames. One big difference with this harness is that it only comes in the shiny Bio-Plastic or the matte finish Brahma Web. Neither of these materials are the same as the soft strap that the Comfy Fit and MaraFUN harnesses are made out of.

 

 

This harness has a gig style treeless saddle and of course, breeching. The breeching on this harness is very similar to the MaraFUN breeching and this harness comes with a crupper.

Not a lot of upgrades to this harness, though you could absolutely upgrade to a Deluxe style collar or a collar and hames.

 

Show Harness:

The show harness only comes in the mini and pony sizes, similar to the MaraFUN harness. Lots of people don’t even know that we sell a show harness, as the Comfy fit is what we are known for. But this little harness is beautiful, hand made and is guaranteed to fit your mini or pony!

 

 

It was designed to be comfortable for the pony. It has the molded, padded crown on the bridle as well as the padded nose band with the nose band hangers, similar to the Comfy Fit bridle. There is one difference with this bridle though, it comes with the over check or a side check!

The saddle is well padded and has an aluminum tree in it.

As with all breed show harnesses, this harness does not come with breeching. It IS blinged out with patent leather though!

Coming up is a post showing the harnesses from least expensive to most expensive and some of the upgrades available for each harness!