How to measure an existing harness

Usually, I ask people to head out and measure their horse or pony for a new harness. But sometimes they have an old harness that fits their equine very well and want to measure the old harness instead. I get tons of questions about how to go about doing this. So I made a video!

Note, I remove all the parts that I want to measure from the harness; the brow band from the bridle, the traces from the breast collar, the girth from the saddle, then lay the parts flat and measure them on a table. This is the best way to get an accurate measurement.

Our harnesses are hand made here in the USA. Because they are handmade sometimes parts aren’t exactly the measurement you ordered. For instance you may order a 21″ long back strap and get a 24″ long one. That is perfectly normal and doesn’t require an exchange. Just trim it to the length you need. The back strap I measured in this video was 8″ too long when I fit it to Zorro!

If you order a 14″ brow band and get a 14 1/2″ brow band that is also perfectly acceptable. But if you order a 14″ brow band and get a 16″ brow band then an exchange is warranted.

In a perfect world every harness would fit every equine on all the middle holes. But in this world sometimes certain parts of the harness will fit best on the smallest holes and sometimes they will fit best on the largest holes. If you have a growing young horse and your new harness fits best on all the largest holes, then we need to talk about exchanging some parts. But don’t be alarmed if all the parts and pieces aren’t adjusted to the middle holes.

If you have any questions about measuring please email me at marketing@chimacumtack.com.