# Home made harness....=)



## Lil Eowyn (Dec 3, 2012)

Hello!

So I really wanted my mini to pull my younger siblings around on the sled, but I couldn't afford a harness, so here's what I did.

Materials:

•a Breast Collar

• A regular horse's saddle girth

•A small Lead rope

•A lunging rope

•A regular horse's saddle's safety strap

•Some leather or twine string

It took a while to figure this out and design it so it wouldn't hurt/pinch/bother her and so she wouldn't get tangled up. I put the saddle girth where it usually goes and tied each end together so it was tight enough to stay on. Then I put the back safety strap ( as a loin strap) where it usually goes and made it fairly loose so it wouldn't bother her, then I used twine string to hold them in place. I used a breast collar on her and attached it to the girth so the girth wouldn't slip down when she pulled. To keep the back strap on, I put a soft lead rope where the Breeching would go and attached it to the other strap and then used leather regular horse reins as the crupper.

Then I took the lunging rope and attached it to the girth, and put it through the safety strap (loin strap) and the crupper and then put it through the sled rope and brought it back around and put it through the other side and attached it to the other side of the girth. Then I led her with a halter and lead and she pulled the kids on the sled. =)

I tried posting pics but for some reason, it won't let me--

So do you think this is safe and okay for me to do?

Thanks for your input! =)


----------



## hobbyhorse23 (Dec 3, 2012)

I'm having a hard time picturing what you did, but kudos to you for coming here looking for advise. Pictures would definitely be helpful! Be careful using a flat rein as a crupper as that's going to dig into her sensitive dock area if she clamps her tail and might cause her to kick. Cruppers are usually made of stuffed, folded-over leather so they are round and soft.

Leia


----------



## Performancemini (Dec 3, 2012)

Pictures would be nice. It does sound like maybe you did pretty good. I agree with hobbyhorse about the crupper part though. Maybe you don't really need it? I have a very experienced friend who trains and gives lessons (horses, ponies, minis) and she rigged up something that sounds similair to yours for a sled to pull the same way. She used neoprene girths for breast collar, girth and "saddle" and then rope of lines for her traces, etc. The kids had fun. She had them wear hard hats for safety's sake.


----------



## Lil Eowyn (Dec 4, 2012)

Thanks for the advice, I don't really know the harness parts, but maybe I was looking at the wrong this when looking up crupper, but I used a soft lead rope for under her tail and the flat leather is the line that connects to the back strap..Yeah...its confusing XD


----------



## paintponylvr (Dec 4, 2012)

I'd love to see pics - I can't quite picture where/how you did some attachements. Agree with both above on the crupper issue.

Is this how you ran the traces thru the breeching? How did you also run the traces thru the crupper?







You know you could go one better if you are able to braid...

Here are pics of the training harness I've used for 3 years now. I made it out of recycled haystring that is braided in a flat braid for parts and round braids for other parts. I made the crupper (s) and as I got better, more advanced in my braiding I graduated to making it with 2 buckles and covered the round braided part with rubber hosing from Lowe's hardware store. I had the time, during the winter to do quite a bit of braiding for two winters in a row. This year - I'm busy training ponies to drive and I'm zonked in the evenings when I come in - so haven't done any real braiding. I used a training surcingle for the backpad - it worked well enough but was far from perfect. Luckily, my cart seemed to work OK with it - pretty light so didn't dig into the back. We even used this harness for the original training work with my pair - tho the draft horse folk didn't think much of it. It DID work and still does. Plus recycled all that haystring... making the guys at the dump very happy they don't have to deal with it all! This kind of braiding requires very long string to start - so small square hay bale string doesn't work well. I also did a lot of braiding when visiting with other people, when I rode along with others and I wasn't driving (did that alot as I didn't have a truck for several years - I paid gas plus extra and got rides for my ponies and I to lessons and functions in 2009, 2010 & 2011).

I did have an old Hackney quick hitch training harness to use to measure parts from (didn't have breeching, but I got measurements from someone else to use to make that). I fashioned all the parts that way - also utilizing books and video to make sure I put adjustments in correct spaces. Also, as I became solid at braiding in buckles, I used them for last set of traces (no pics yet) instead of using the conways - which do work loose at the most in-opportune times! Zip ties and/or electrical tape would help prevent that.

I've braided all the collars that our ponies wear to catch to feed. While I find halters rub their heads and get caught, the collars don't. When I was on the road this year - they had name tags zip tied to their collars that matched the name tags at each bucket - so the folks who cared for them knew who was who.






The first two pairs of traces I made are pretty worn and need to be replaced. I haven't had the chance to braid them up yet - when I do they will be double layered with buckles instead of single layer and conway buckles. To see more braiding go to this braiding album I have braided in paracord, but prefer to use the haystring for now. Fits the ponies "nicer", is already paid for and recycles a necessary evil.


----------



## paintponylvr (Dec 4, 2012)

O, great idea, to set up your first harness the way you did!

Congratualations.


----------



## studiowvw (Dec 4, 2012)

Paintponyluvr - your braiding is amazing and congrats on putting together your harnesses!

I am just seeing one thing that is a problem in your first pic - when running the traces through the breeching rings, you are bending the line of draft.

That is, when they pull and weight goes on the traces, the rings will cause pressure on top of their hips. Ideally you would drop something from the ring to hold your traces in a straight line, so all the pull goes to the load, and none to the top of their backs.

In the pics, they don't seem to be bothered, so maybe they aren't pulling anything heavy.

I did make that mistake once with a log, and the horse's startled reaction told the tale.


----------



## susanne (Dec 4, 2012)

.

Paula, your work is beautiful!

I don't want to infringe upon proprietary secrets if you market these, but I'd love to see a close-up to see your braiding technique/plaiting patterns. As a macramé-er of old, weaver, and knot-nut, and as one with a shed full of baling twine, I've often thought of doing something like this.


----------



## paintponylvr (Dec 4, 2012)

studiowvw said:


> Paintponyluvr - your braiding is amazing and congrats on putting together your harnesses!


THANK YOU!



> I am just seeing one thing that is a problem in your first pic - when running the traces through the breeching rings, you are bending the line of draft.
> 
> That is, when they pull and weight goes on the traces, the rings will cause pressure on top of their hips. Ideally you would drop something from the ring to hold your traces in a straight line, so all the pull goes to the load, and none to the top of their backs.
> 
> ...


Well, I have an answer - tho might not be perfectly acceptable, LOL...

1 - At the time we started doing this (even as late as 2011 - when this pic was taken) - I didn't fully understand how "line of draft" worked or that it was set up wrong.

2 - You are right - it didn't bother either of these mares - once they got used to wearing breeching. Doesn't bother another little mare I've got or any other I'd done this with. Just turned into part of their "job description".

3 - You are right again - nothing we were doing was really "heavy" - of course that's debatable!

4 - I'd tied twine (didn't have anything at the time that was braided that would have worked as strap or lazy carriers) - but we found that with that - especially at first - that they were stepping over the traces. The Draft Horse trainer I was working with at the time - said let them. They'll figure it out. At first there were a lot of wrecks, skinned legs and upset ponies and then in turn it upset both my girlfriend and I. BUT in the end - he was right. They figured it out and I quit running the traces thru the breeching rings.

Honestly - now that I know a LOT more (and I'm still learning!), I'm surprised that the "narrow" breast collars didn't bother them. If nothing else, I'm getting pads that can be used for "regular" harness and putting on my hay string harness. However, I really haven't used those harness (s) this past year (since I got the work style farm harness)... So I didn't end up getting the pads yet.

One other thing - I knew that it wasn't quite right but not at that time how to fix it exactly. We did keep an eye on them - their backs, their hips and their chests. I knew that the surcingle wasn't an actual "good" saddle/gig pad, that the breeching rings weren't the way to run the traces and that the breast collars were a bit narrow... They never did seem bothered or upset - again - once they got used to WEARING the equipment (in Bit's case - she was highly upset when she was introduced to the breeching - boy could she buck!). The reason I feel that Bit (the closest to you in that pic) is sweated (VERY) is simply because she's still very green and she would leap into the harness and pull hard - always "competing" against her sister. If you study the picture -we incorporated a draft horse trick of using a "buck back strap". It's a set of loop reins hooked to both sides of her bit, then a large snap leadrope attached to the loop reins so that it will slide as she turns. The lead rope is then tied off to the equipment (or it could be attached to the double tree or to the tongue but this simple drag didn't have those). If she outdistances her sister, she pulls the load using her head, face & mouth. She learned to give to the bit and shorten her strides and lighten her pull - by punishing herself. Yes, this can & usually is attached to a halter or to a noseband rather than to the bit. I found it didn't work with Bit that way very well. And once we'd done this a couple of times - guess what - we weren't using it anymore.

Now, I'm always asking Bit to step up and stride out. We have also used the "buck back strap" on her partner at one time or another. Slowly, she's learning to extend her legs out and reduce her choppy stride.

BUT thank you for pointing it out and giving me a chance to formulate my reasoning and what we did. It allowed me to learn more and also to understand more of the "why" you do things...


----------



## paintponylvr (Dec 4, 2012)

susanne said:


> .
> 
> Paula, your work is beautiful!
> 
> I don't want to infringe upon proprietary secrets if you market these, but I'd love to see a close-up to see your braiding technique/plaiting patterns. As a macramé-er of old, weaver, and knot-nut, and as one with a shed full of baling twine, I've often thought of doing something like this.


Susanne - I'm going to start another thread - rather than stealing this one...LOL.


----------



## studiowvw (Dec 4, 2012)

Sounds interesting - congrats on persevering and carrying on. I had to "fake" my equipment too when I was young, not always a success!





It was fun anyways....


----------

