Question on Team Harness conversions

happy appy · Jun 1, 2012

I have 2 nylon breast plate harnesses now that I want to be able to convert to use as team harness. I know that I need a piece for the breechen under the bellies to the front to attach to the pole. I have found a site online that sells these conversion pieces but with me being in Canada and shipping what it is, the cost to get them him is crazy. I don't want to buy a team harness, cash flow for extra's is a little tight after my recent purchase of the wagon so I want to try and get something made locally instead. Any help with measurements and pictures would be very helpful.

rbrown · Jun 4, 2012

I am totally clueless about pairs harnesses, BUT Skip's harness was originally a pairs harness that converted to 2 singles. I have all of the conversion parts- I have no idea what they are, how they're used, or where they go on a pairs harness, but I'm happy to take pictures of them and measure them for you!

happy appy · Jun 4, 2012

I ended up calling the place where I bought some of my harnesses and they told me what I was missing. It turns out that there were 4 pieces that I needed to make it a complete team breast plate harness. Not bad, $200 dollars later and 2 weeks to ship and I should have everything!

hobbyhorse23 · Jun 5, 2012

rbrown said:
I am totally clueless about pairs harnesses, BUT Skip's harness was originally a pairs harness that converted to 2 singles. I have all of the conversion parts- I have no idea what they are, how they're used, or where they go on a pairs harness, but I'm happy to take pictures of them and measure them for you!

It's easy to convert a pair harness to single, but not so easy to go the other way as there need to be a set of rings sewn in to the breastcollar for the polestraps. =^) Most the "conversion kits" out there are not particularly horse-friendly as they put a lot of weight on a very fine strap around the horse's neck and can be quite uncomfortable. Hopefully with such a small wagon that won't be a problem! The other parts, the breeching and tug conversion, shouldn't be a problem.

Leia

happy appy · Jun 5, 2012

There is an extra piece that goes around the neck and attaches to the back band with another strap. There is also the hames holder on that strap which hooks to the pole. I also got the hold backs and the martingale for underneith up to the breast plate to the ring.

I got them from here. I most likely didn't use the correct names of everything but you can see from the picture what I needed.

http://www.aaronmartin.com/images/catalogue/product/1936.jpg