Question on cart size??

[happy appy]

I am having a hard time finding a pony cart for my 12'2 h pony. She is 54 inches long from point of shoulder to point of butt. All the carts that I can find in my area to buy have 60 in shafts and 26 inch wheels. I can't get the cart to balance because the cart shafts need to hang too low and she is so close to the cart I don't think that she would be able to walk.

I'm looking at this cart today. It has 72 inch shafts and 46 in wheels. Do you think it will fit? I wont be able to take it home to try before buying this time. It's on the other side of the province (state) from me.

 

[paintponylvr]

Tina -

I probably missed you. I would measure your mare from the ground up to where the cart shafts should be (maybe have her harness on?).

Then taking that measurement with you, see where the cart shafts are when you hold them up and the cart is balanced. I'm not sure if you would want to vary from your measurement on your mare or not... If it matches, then buy it. If not, continue looking.

The length of the shafts would probably be fine for your mare. If you add 12" to the length of your mare you get 66". The cart shafts are 72" or 6" longer than the "general" accepted distance. You would increase the distance if your mare has a long stride, so I believe that that would work?

 

[Dreamer]

I have only been driving a couple of years but I will give you my opinion 60 inch shafts are definately too small for your pony. From my understanding for a mini you want to add an extra 10 inches to get shaft length and the bigger ponies/horses 12 inches. If your mare is 54" then she would need aproximately 66" shafts. However it is better for a horse to have shafts that are a bit too long than too short. For example some of the smaller minis drive in 48" shafts and look and do just fine even though the length is probably a bit long for them. However you will also need to find out the height of the shafts when level. and measure your mare in harness to see how high it is from the ground to the tugs. You want the shafts to be level and it is ok if the shafts would be slightly uphill but it would be bad if the shafts went downhill. It is a lovely cart by the way. I wouldn't worry about the shafts being slightly long but you really would need to find out the hieght of the shafts compared to your mare to know if it would work or not.

 

[happy appy]

Thanks everyone, I have the measurement from ground to where it would attach to the saddle and I'm using that to give a yes or no on the purchase with. I'm hoping it will work. I'm on my way to look at it now.

 

[happy appy]

Woot! We got the cart! It will fit! I can't wait to get some help hitching her for the first time. She has been working and ground driving and is very comfortable in the harness. Now it's time to move on to in cart work.

 

[Dreamer]

Congrats. That's exciting.

 

[paintponylvr]

OH, how neat! Can't wait to see pictures of your new driving pony with your new cart.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Yes please, pictures when you have her in the cart !

 

[crisco41]

gorgeous cart,,have fun!

 

[paintponylvr]

have you had a chance to drive her yet?

 

[happy appy]

lol She hasn't even been hitched yet. She is green still and I have been working with her on a training cart. It's my mini training cart but it has longer shafts. I can't ride in it so we have been ground driving her while hitched to it. The shafts sit in the tug loops and the trace is attached only. That way if I need to get her out of it I can quickly. I have to wait until I have help to hitch her to the real cart and drive her. So far I have had to do this on my own. The last couple of weekends we have been doing hay so no time to play.

 

[paintponylvr]

AAWWWW!

Thanx! You do hay? Wish I could ship some down. I sosooo miss Canadian hay(s). Would have to go check out maps to figure out where you are vs. where we were (we were in north (middle) MT and got hay from just over the line - about 50 miles from us I think. I don't really remember - it's now been so long. Not sure if they could even as easily get "over the line" now.

Well, sounds like you are doing OK with her. I will wait patiently for you to let us know how hitching her to the "real" cart goes, LOL.