Which Harness goes with Which Vehicle?

Nearly every day someone asks me if they can use (insert any breast collar style harness here) with their Hyperbike, easy entry cart, meadow brook cart, show cart, etc. So I thought a blog post about this was in order!

Horizontal Line of Draft

The Pleasure style harness is any harness that has a breast collar, whether that is a straight style breast collar, a standard curve, a Deluxe style or a Euro style breast collar. A breast collar style harness is used when the line of draft (this is from the breast collar, down the traces to the single tree) is horizontal. My rule of thumb is when the line of draft is above the horse’s hocks, it is considered horizontal. A horizontal line of draft would be many easy entry style carts, the Hyperbike, a jog cart, most meadow brook carts, most show style carts and some marathon style vehicles.

Low Line Of Draft

There are some easy entry carts that have a low line of draft. In these cases a collar and hames will help your equine be more comfortable when pulling your cart. Our customer Patty, noticed that her pony seemed reluctant and not very forward when pulling this cart in his Deluxe style breast collar. She saw a blog post that we shared about breast collars and lines of draft and decided to try a buggy style collar and hames. She is thrilled with how well her pony is going in this new set up! He is much happier, more forward and is rounding in his top line easier. Using the correct equipment is key to having a happy driving partner. Many wagons also have a low line of draft and/or are very heavy making it necessary to use a collar and hames. To sum up, the line of draft dictates which breast collar you will use. The breast collar style harness will work with the easy entry cart, the Hyperbike style cart, the Meadow Brook, the jog cart and the show cart. When you are moving into driving a Hyperbike style cart the only things you will need to change are:

• the driving lines – many people prefer using 6 1/2′ – 7′ long driving lines (please note: mini and small pony driving lines are 5/8″ wide).
• And, the traces are often too short for the Hyperbike so you’ll either need the Hyperbike Quick Hitch, which will add about 6″ to the length of your traces or purchase longer traces. This is because the single tree is located under the seat, so it’s further away from the pony than it is when you are driving an easy entry cart.

All the words that are colored and bolded are links to products. Click on the word to go to the product! If you have any questions please email me at mindy@chimacumtack.com or call us at 224-HARNESS (224-427-6377)