The Unicorn Hitch

Some people get bored driving just one pony, or two ponies and think driving THREE ponies (or donkeys, or mules, or horses, or draft horses!) would be the ultimate fun! Enter – The Unicorn Hitch!

Amie so kindly put her two ponies and Bandit, who belongs to Lynda Harris of Rockin’ Heart Ranch, together in a unicorn hitch, took some photos and gave a little explination of how it works. These three have driven as a unicorn hitch before but Bandit and Kevin (the pinto) were the wheel horses and Cody (the buckskin) was in front. 

All the harness is from Chimacum Tack. The single tree attached to the front of the team pole is from us as well! When I can, I will put links to the products. 

Note: **All words that are brown and in bold are links to products.

Let’s dive right in!!

First, it’s helpful if your breast collars have the Pair Ds.

What does this mean?

When you add this upgrade to your order your breast collar will have TWO D-rings sewn to the front and also an extra D ring sewn behind the trace buckle:

In the above photo you can see the rings on the front of the breast collar and the extra ring behind the trace buckle. The reason having this extra ring is so nice is because it gives you something to connect the Side Hold Back Rigging to.

(The above breast collar is the Comfy Collar with the Pair D Upgrade. NOTE: ** when you need the pair ds you MUST add the upgrade to your cart!)

Without the extra ring you have to connect the Side Hold Back Rigging to the SAME ring as the trace buckle is on:

In the above photo you can see the Side Hold Back Rigging is buckled just above the trace buckle making things a little wonky. THIS is why you need the extra D rings when driving a pair or a unicorn hitch or a team hitch.

(The above breast collar is the SuperFlex collar without the Pair D upgrade.)

You will hitch the wheel horses or ponies exactly the same way you do when driving a pair. However there is an extra single tree connected to the front of the team pole, in this example.

This single tree can be purchased here: Steel Logging Single Tree Amie asked that he leave the clevis hooks off so she could snap her Quick Release Shackles right to the single tree ring.

Bandit, the front pony, is hitched using the ComfyFit Buckle in Traces we sell. For Tandem we just need to know how long you want them and then we can custom make them. The traces on Bandit (the front pony) is using in these photos are 65″ long, from end-to-end.

Instead of using the breeching, he is using the Tandem Trace Carriers.

Amie says, “My tandem traces are probably a little long for a unicorn hitch but they give the right idea. I might should have dropped the tandem trace carrier down a hole on each side.”

I think the length of the traces will vary with the pony sizes and how they move. 

You can add Roger Rings to the wheel horse’s bridle, on the inside of the bridle, to help keep the front horse’s lines from hooking on the wheel horse’s blinders.

In the above photo, you can see the Roger Ring attached above the cheek buckle on the bridle.

The photo below shows the evener and the front of the team pole, with the little single tree attached. 

This is a VERY simplified blog post about the Unicorn hitch. This hitch is actually very tricky to drive. It’s so easy for the front animal to turn completely around and face the two hitched to the vehicle, so you want to be doing this with very well trained animals.

This blog is just to show how Amie hitched her Unicorn hitch. I’m sure there are a few different ways this can be done. I would love to hear from you if you drive a unicorn! How do you connect your front equine to the wheelers? How long are your traces and how big are your equines? We love it when customers share their set ups with us!