# Hooking a harness with no breaching



## Leeana (Sep 23, 2011)

Okay - I am going to show how much of an ammature I am when it comes to driving.......

I have always had a harness with breaching and used it in the cart. I know at the shows (AMHA/AMHR/ASPC shows) they do not have any breaching attached. I have always been a halter person, but we currently have a driving horse. I last year took the breaching off from the harness as I was working with just some grounddriving and wanted the breaching off (and lost/misplaced it too somewhere between then and now).

My question is, with no breaching, how do you keep the cart from now sliding up on the horse? I was told that there is a wrap that ties around where the tugs are? But my harness does not have anything there to wrap around.....can I purchase and have them added?


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## Sandee (Sep 23, 2011)

Leeana said:


> Okay - I am going to show how much of an ammature I am when it comes to driving.......
> 
> I have always had a harness with breaching and used it in the cart. I know at the shows (AMHA/AMHR/ASPC shows) they do not have any breaching attached. I have always been a halter person, but we currently have a driving horse. I last year took the breaching off from the harness as I was working with just some grounddriving and wanted the breaching off (and lost/misplaced it too somewhere between then and now).
> 
> My question is, with no breaching, how do you keep the cart from now sliding up on the horse? I was told that there is a wrap that ties around where the tugs are? But my harness does not have anything there to wrap around.....can I purchase and have them added?


Since we show on mostly level, hard ground, there is little need for the breeching. My show harnesses no longer have the "wrap" straps either. I have the (almost) French tugs. They will pull almost tight around the shaft and then they buckle below after going through a ring on the saddle. Keeps the shafts nice like I said on level hard ground. Not too good in the pasure.

I believe they do sell seperate wraps straps which is a strap that come up from the bottom of the girth and around the tugs and buckles back to itself on the bottom. You might also look into thimbles which go on the ends of the shafts but these put a lot of forward pressure on the saddle. Again they work o.k. on the flat hard ground.


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## Minimor (Sep 23, 2011)

Leeana, you can buy a new girth that has wrap straps attached. Here is the one that Ozark Mtn. sells--this is where I've bought my extra girths & one of them will work well for what you need. girth with wrap straps


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## RhineStone (Sep 23, 2011)

Leeana said:


> My question is, with no breaching, how do you keep the cart from now sliding up on the horse? I was told that there is a wrap that ties around where the tugs are? But my harness does not have anything there to wrap around.....can I purchase and have them added?


You need to purchase a new girth with the wrap straps. Or the "french" tugs with tug stops, like Sandee said.

BUT....in my and most carriage drivers' opinions, breeching is _the_ most effective and humane way to allow the horse to slow and stop the vehicle. And as Sandee indicated, it should definitely be used for conditions outside of completely level ground. There are some people who do show their minis in breed shows in breeching, and I hope that trend continues.




While it isn't required for a carriage pleasure show, a good judge will more than likely not use a turnout without breeching in the placings (if the class is large enough and the rest of the performances are "equal". Been there, done that.



). Carriage drivers feel it is _that_ important, OR you can have a four-wheeled vehicle with mechanical brakes to slow the vehicle and not use breeching in arena classes.

I would try to find your breeching.

Myrna


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## Leeana (Sep 23, 2011)

Holly, my harness is Biothane...but that is exactly what I am looking for!!! (I looked over minitack last night and missed that! thank you)...would I be able to use the leather attached to my biothane harness.

I almost just want to buy a new harness, but i'd rather make this current one work for now until I am ready to buy a new harness...

Also, does anyone have a video or pictures of how to use the wrap straps and tie them?


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## rabbitsfizz (Sep 23, 2011)

They really are almost self explanatory- a good still picture will show you and I am sure once you have them in your hands you will see how to do it all.

Alternatively you could just ask them to sell you a set of breeching, which is what I would do.

Outside of an arena I just would not risk driving without breeching.


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## susanne (Sep 23, 2011)

I thought that the Regency Performance site http://www.regencymini.com/Regency_/Mini_Driving_101.html had a photo of wrap straps, but I thunk wrong. This is a great reference, anyway.

The Essential Guide to Carriage Driving, by Robyn Cuffey and Jaye-Allison Winkel, has a very clear illustration of how to do wrap straps.


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## Sandee (Sep 24, 2011)

Leeana said:


> Holly, my harness is Biothane...but that is exactly what I am looking for!!! (I looked over minitack last night and missed that! thank you)...would I be able to use the leather attached to my biothane harness.
> 
> I almost just want to buy a new harness, but i'd rather make this current one work for now until I am ready to buy a new harness...
> 
> Also, does anyone have a video or pictures of how to use the wrap straps and tie them?


This isn't the best of pictures but you can clearly see the wrap straps on this. The shaft goes thru the loop (tug) which is fastened to the top of the saddle. The wrap strap comes from the bottom of the girth (I like to do it this way) up from behind the shaft over the shaft behind the tug(and if there is enough) wrap again over the shaft in front of the tug and then back down to buckle to itself on the bottom. In this picture the wrap strap is so long that I wrapped it a third time and slipped it under the wrap and back to the buckle.


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