[drivingpairs] Pairs and Carts

Hi Pat, 

I pasted a couple of Hardy's posts from last year,
down below.  Pair carts came up then and I thought
this covered it well.  You might read thru the
Archives for even more detail.  Post titles often are
not changed when topics do.
  We saw the same problems Hardy had, watching a
friend use the Meadowbrook pole cart to a Pair. 
Everything started well, pole cart was the most
wonderful idea ever!!  Then stuff happened. 
Turnovers, pole dropping out of yoke.  Cart was sold
on, back to a 4-wheeler for her Pairs.

We start our new Pairs, or new Pairs horse, in a
4-wheeler.  We try to get a lighter one, but something
with brakes.  Usually use the Pair Marathon carriage,
on the down slope out of the barn.  Horse knows how to
PULL if asked.  Not afraid of weight, but not a jump
starter, just leans a little harder if needed.  We
always tie the evener down with beginner Pair horse. 
Horses both just pulling off anchored singletree. 
Horse gets no bad reaction from pulling to start. 
Pair will to learn to start evenly over time, just
doesn't happen with new animals.  Tied down evener
prevents slow starter horse from being pulled back by
quicker starter.  Evener stays tied until BOTH horses
know how to start together.

  Driver's job to have horse responsive to voice
commands on the long lines, before going to vehicle.

  Experienced single driving horse usually has no
problem moving up.  Just has to learn to be part of a
Pair, working together, vehicle will pull on him a
little differently.  Most horses like the company of
another animal.

Kathy Robertson


   * From: Hzlax@xxxxxxx
    * To: drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
    * Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 11:55:22 EST

Don lined out some theoretical  ideas how hitching
could be done. I can 
confirm his ideas to be right on the money from my own
experience, not with a 
chariot, but I did drive a pair to a two wheeler for
many years - when we 
thought we couldn't afford a 4 wheeler yet. Friends in
CA from those days 
will remember me with Grimes' Palominos :-) 
The cart was one of the common modern Amish made
flexishaft meadowbrook type 
vehicles with the split seat arrangement, step in from
behind, left seat 
folding up, except instead of shafts it had a pole. It
was similarly (well) 
balanced as any such single vehicle, and as with a
single where there should 
not be too much weight in the shafts, this also did
not have too much weight 
on the pole.  We hitched the pair with full collar
harness and a yoke, with 
very short yoke straps strapped closely into the
bottoms of the collars and 
traces to roller bolts on a fixed splinter bar (thus
all closely hitched 
without too much play), plus normal pairs breeching
and normal pairs reins. 
One needed to be careful when stepping into the
vehicle from behind that the 
pole would not come up too much, but that was also
very similar to such a 
vehicle driven with a single. Once we were on the way,
I think the weight of 
the pole carried through the wide collars on the necks
of the horses was 
fairly minimal and exceptable.  It all worked well,
EXCEPT: The darn thing 
would turn over very easily, because contrary to a
single, which has support 
on both sides through the shafts, this thing did not
and could just rotate 
around that one pole in the middle like nothing. So
hazard driving, or fast 
turns, or driving sideways on a slope all were very
risky, but going straight 
down the road it worked.  For the risks involved I
would not recommend it to 
anybody nowadays.
Hardy


 My first question is, how many of you have driven
> pairs in a 2 wheeled cart.  I want to hear good the
> bad and the ugly.

 I recently wrote about that. It's VERY instable and
can turn over quickly as 
you don't have the shafts to balance the vehicle, and
the pole just rotates 
between the two. So not recomended.
Hardy (who has done that for many years)




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