# Best Leather Harness



## Shari (Feb 12, 2011)

So what is the best leather harness out there for under $1,200? Something you can use for VSE or heavy use on trails.

And why do you think it is the best? Photos?


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## RhineStone (Feb 12, 2011)

When I first was looking for a mini harness, top on my list was a tree in the saddle. My mom had two mini harnesses, one that we bought through a local breeder who ordered it for her and took his cut (way back in the 90s) and one that we bought used. Neither had a tree. Then a friend mentioned this place called Driving Essentials. When I called, I was so used to talking with people who basically had no driving experience and just a "mini store", that I asked the voice at the other end of the phone if their harnesses had a tree, and if they knew what a tree was. I think I actually offended Jan for a little bit until I explained where I was coming from.




I ordered a Essential harness for my A horses. The Essential ran about $700 at the time I think.

The best thing about the DE harness is not only the quality of the leather and craftsmanship, but the service that goes with it. They KNOW their products and they KNOW how to fit a harness! And if it breaks for whatever reason, you call them and send it in. They fixed my pony harness that my pony broke AT NO CHARGE!

We already had a Smuckers for our big horse, so I knew what a "good" harness was. We also had a locally made Amish harness and so I was familiar with the "heavy duty" version of a big horse harness, too. The Driving Essential harness is VERY comparable to a Smuckers without so much price. I have a friend that has a Smuckers mini harness that is nice, and just about the same leather quality, but it cost more.

Now I have an Essential Plus with a fully padded skirt saddle and I am VERY happy with that. It was about $1000. It has "big horse" styling and has won Turnout in 6 out of 8 showings in the last two years, even beating a Hunts harness that is worth a couple of K. (I was pretty shocked at that one!



) Now to be fair, I show in a Freedom Collar from Camptown, and I am not as impressed with the leather. It is more "papery". But I like the cut of the collar and Alax moves better in it. I wish the leather was better quality.

My bridle I ordered from Fully Equipped Outdoors and I am impressed with that, too. It is very comparable to the DE and a little bit cheaper. I have a friend that has a whole FEO lg. pony harness, and it is very good quality and craftsmanship.

I have another friend with a mini harness from Iowa Valley Carriage and while it is a good quality for the price, I am not as impressed with the fit, but that also could have been the measuring my friend did to order it. Quarter inches matter in mini harnesses.

I know that a lot of people here like the Ozark harnesses, but I ordered a bridle last year before I ordered one from FEO, and I was not impressed with the leather. It was papery, like the Camptown. It is adequate, but definitely not the best. My mom has a breeching from Mini Express (to go with a show harness that didn't have one), and that too is papery.

If you want the best, a Freedmans is the top of the line, but I only know of one Freedmans mini harness and I can't imagine what it cost!



More than the $1200 I'm sure. The qualtiy of leather has A LOT to do with the price. That is why I wouldn't spend less than $400 on a leather mini harness. Anything less and you don't know what it is made of.

Myrna


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## Shari (Feb 12, 2011)

Thanks for all that info, helps a lot.

Ah... when I priced out the Freedman mini Marathon harness, designed the way I wanted,, just for a single, it was going for $6,000!! Kid you not.


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## CZP1 (Feb 12, 2011)

Thumbsup for Driving Essentials. I also have the Essentials Harness too and the fit is great and looks great to boot! I have gotten a ton of compliments on it and the leather gets better as it ages. Mine is three years old and looks just as good as the day I purchased it. As Myrna said the craftsmanship is superb as well as the customer service. They answered all my questions, and never was a problem. If something needed to be repaired (due to stupidness on my part with a horse) they repaired it quickly and was returned within a weeks time to when I sent it to them for repair. We were fortunate to visit their store last year. My husband, son and I got a personal tour of the place as well as a tour of all the carriages that were there.


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## hobbyhorse23 (Feb 13, 2011)

Can you two lovely ladies post close-up pictures of your DE harnesses? I've always wanted to get a look at one up close and feel the leather and such. We don't see any of those or the comparable Carriage Driving Essentials harnesses from CA in Washington as with no pleasure driving shows available, most go for synthetics for CDE and then show harnesses for AMHR/AMHA. There's not a real good market here for a nice leather carriage harness with all the fine points but I'd love to see one.



Pictures on a horse are good, so are close-ups of the actual harness please.

Leia


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## susanne (Feb 13, 2011)

.

Ditto. Good, sharp close-ups, please.

I was just looking at the DE website, and the most mouth-watering harnesses have only small photos, while their lower price points have nice detailed shots -- go figure...


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## ClickMini (Feb 13, 2011)

Me three! Pics! Pics! Pics!


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## CZP1 (Feb 13, 2011)

I have a picture but it won't post!


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## RhineStone (Feb 14, 2011)

You guys are asking a lot! My harnesses have winter smutch all over them!



If I get a chance to clean them up, I'll try to take close ups. In the mean time, the DE website has pretty accurate representations of their harnesses.

Myrna


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## CZP1 (Feb 14, 2011)

http://www.appybeads.com/new-page.html

Pictures of DE harness

This is my horse, Cheyenne, at a drive from last year. Top side of harness. You get an idea of the thickness of saddle, and side profile of bridle.

He likes to pose for the camera!


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## rabbitsfizz (Feb 15, 2011)

I have been looking at DE harness (well, I have been looking at LOADS of harnesses



) and I like the look of it a lot. Can you tell me if the Mini harness looks just like the pictures on the site, or is it adapted- specifically, what is the breastcollar like and which harness do you have??


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## Shari (Feb 15, 2011)

CZP1 said:


> http://www.appybeads.com/new-page.html
> 
> Pictures of DE harness
> 
> ...


That is one itty bitty photo... do you have one larger for us ah.... older folks?


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## RhineStone (Feb 15, 2011)

Ok, so I dug out a bucket of water and Murphy's Oil Soap and ran over my mini harnesses quick and got the major chunks off. They are in used and "abused" condition (i.e. I don't wipe my harnesses down after every workout. They get a good cleaning and oiling about 2x/year). I don't have "practice" harnesses and "show" harnesses. I have one harness per size of horse, so my practice harnesses need to clean up for show.

Here is my 2003 Essential Mini A harness:






It has a "traditional" saddle. Also pictured is the straight breastcollar with folded patent leather. DE doesn't have a shaped breastcollar.

Here is the whole harness including the breeching, also with folded patent leather: (I must have bumped the saddle terret. It is normally straight and just turns to straighten. I actually take them out to clean them.)






Here is the bridle:






It has "box" keepers, single buckle caveson, flat throatlatch, and a "spotted" browband. I ordered the side check attachment extra.


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## RhineStone (Feb 15, 2011)

Here is my 2006 Essential Plus Mini B harness. I ordered it with the upgraded fully padded skirts. When I ordered it, they couldn't get the brass pug seat (that thing that is on top of the saddle that the backstrap hooks to) so that is why this harness doesn't have one.






The difference between the Essential and the Plus is that the saddle skirts are patent all the way down. Most of the differences are in the bridle:






The bridle has open keepers, double buckle caveson, rolled throatlatch and chain browband. (It doesn't come with the tandem rosettes, I just didn't take them off.) The teardrop is also not standard. I took that off my pony harness.

Here is my 2010 FEO show bridle:






It has all the above features plus the ornaments and the patent caveson.

Myrna


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## RhineStone (Feb 15, 2011)

Here is my Essential A harness in action on a 33.75" gelding:






And my Essential Plus B harness on Alax in 2007 before we started using the Freedom Collar:






The A harness has a single neckstrap and the B has a split neckstrap. My mom custom ordered a split neckstrap with rein terrets, so that is what I use now.

Myrna


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## CZP1 (Feb 15, 2011)

Myrna, thanks for posting the pictures. My harness has the silver accents. But the brass looks GORGEOUS!!


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## rabbitsfizz (Feb 16, 2011)

Both look to have really good workmanship.

Is there an advantage to having the cavesson on a separate headpiece?


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## Shari (Feb 16, 2011)

Thank you for the photos. VBG

Both look very nice but I like the look of the Essential Plus Mini harness bridle best. Now saving pennies!!


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## RhineStone (Feb 16, 2011)

rabbitsfizz said:


> Is there an advantage to having the cavesson on a separate headpiece?


I'm not sure I understand what you are asking.

Cavesons on riding horse bridles are on a separate hanger that goes over the poll and under the crown, but they don't have the little loop that keeps the blinkers from gaping. My driving bridles hang off the buckle on the side. They are a pain to adjust, because you pretty much have to take apart the bridle, but when you know WHY they are made the way they are, then you get used to it.

Myrna


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## hobbyhorse23 (Feb 16, 2011)

Thank you, Myrna! Those pictures are just what I was looking for and the detailed description of the differences was perfect.



The only thing I'd still like to see is the underside of each saddle. I can see some of the extended padding you're talking about on the Essential Plus and like it, but I'd like to see the gullet and padding up there as well on both saddles.

CZP1, I love your boy but like Shari can't see much of the harness from that picture. I'd be curious to see what it looks like in stainless as that's what Turbo will take- can you show us?

Thanks!

Leia


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## RhineStone (Feb 16, 2011)

hobbyhorse23 said:


> The only thing I'd still like to see is the underside of each saddle. I can see some of the extended padding you're talking about on the Essential Plus and like it, but I'd like to see the gullet and padding up there as well on both saddles.


I thought about that, too, AFTER I already took the harness back out to the barn.




I'll see if I can get that done tomorrow.

Myrna


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## RhineStone (Feb 16, 2011)

I was able to take photos tonight.

Here is my DE saddle with the fully padded skirts:






And here is a view of the skirts:






Here is the "traditional" DE saddle:


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## RhineStone (Feb 16, 2011)

And for comparison's sake, here is a Smucker's traditional saddle. This is for a big horse:






Here is my big horse Smucker's Better Fit saddle:






The Smucker's Better Fit has more gullet clearance than the DE big horse fully padded saddle, but I like the DE padded mini saddle. It is a great value and craftsmanship.

Myrna


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## hobbyhorse23 (Feb 17, 2011)

Myrna, you're a gem! Thank you! Looks like the Essential Plus is a very nice saddle indeed with that extended padding. I think the tree would be a little wide for my boys, especially the basic saddle, but usually those can be bent in a bit. I'm surprised to see how little clearance the Smucker's traditional harness has- I would have expected better of them.

Leia


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## RhineStone (Feb 17, 2011)

hobbyhorse23 said:


> I think the tree would be a little wide for my boys, especially the basic saddle, but usually those can be bent in a bit. I'm surprised to see how little clearance the Smucker's traditional harness has- I would have expected better of them.


They both aren't as wide as they look. I had to spread them out a bit to put on my saddle rack. That is one thing I DO like about the padded saddle is that you don't end up with that "hollow" part where it gapes from the horse under the traditional padding. Putting that saddle on a thinner-built horse looks a little silly because there is the "hole" under the padding and behind the skirts, but I haven't had one mini that padded saddle hasn't fit. There is no gape with the padded saddle.

The Smucker's traditional didn't fit Spider AT ALL. It sat right on his spine. But in their defense, that saddle is probably about 15 years old or more (we bought it used 10 years ago). Maybe they have made some changes in the meantime to their traditional saddles. The Better Fit was great for Spider a few years ago, but now he is so sway backed that the front of the saddle bumps the back of his withers, and we can't move the saddle back much because he is so well sprung. The lower profile Zilco fits him better now. And looking at the Zilco, it has something of a "tree" or at least a "framework" to which the padding is connected. The Better Fit is STILL an awesome saddle, and it too fits most any horse, thin or chunky.

Myrna


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