[drivingpairs] Poles

In a message dated 5/1/2005 12:02:17 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> I'd like to know about the
> suspended poles. Would this be more suitable for my little guys? How is it
> "suspended"? Do I have to buy a new cart/pole or can an existing pole be
> welded somehow?

First of: We are talking 4 wheel "carriages", not "carts". With carts we mean 
two wheelers, and while one can drive a two wheeler with a pair, I don't 
recommend it, as 
one can turn over much easier. But I do know that often draft horse people 
start their pairs (teams for them) in fore carts. That's fine for draft horses, 
but I'm generally talking carriage horses. So just for the record then, two 
wheel carts always have fixed poles as cart and pole is one fixed unit, 
however, 
the pole there acts and is like a drop pole, you'll see below how. Now let's 
talk carriages:

There are different ways carriage poles are designed and built. The main two 
traditional ways are: 

A fixed pole as you see it in all traditional European often heavy vehicles. 
That pole is just sticking out to the front and does not move up or down. 
Advantage: The horses don't need to carry it. Disadvantage: Since it doesn't 
move 
up or down, it's only good on a fairly straight surface, and no good for cross 
country, as when you go over a little hump or also through a little low spot, 
the pole has no way of moving up and down, and the polehead will go up and 
down substantially when going over that hump or through a low spot, even to the 
point that it might hit the ground and break - going through a little ditch 
for example, or come up above the horses heads, going over a hump. So it's 
clear 
that that doesn't work for cross country, but only on even surface, like the 
road or the dressage field.

Then we have the other traditional pole, the American drop pole, which 
usually has the splinterbar, and or single trees, and/ or evener all attached 
to the 
pole, and then is attached to the vehicle, usually at the axle with two 
bolts, one one each side, and the pole is free to swing up and down. When not 
in 
use, the front end rests on the ground.  Advantage: It's free to ride up and 
down with any unevenness in the road, without yerking up and down, as the fixed 
pole would. Disadvantage: The horses need to carry the weight of the front of 
the pole with their necks.

Now comes modern technology to combine both advantages for modern marathon 
vehicles to go cross country, so have a pole that can swing up and down if 
needed, but is suspended so that the horses don't have to carry it. It's also 
called a swing pole. There are various ways that carriage builders and their 
engineers have found to accomplish that. The simplest one that we see often 
here 
with lower price vehicles  - for example most Amish built carriages - is that a 
coil spring is attached on the top of the pole perhaps a foot or so in front of 
the dash board and hooked on to the forward lower end of the dashboard or 
there abouts. (Sorry, I am NOT an engineer and thus my "technical" descriptions 
are not too good). That coil spring then "carries" the pole and still gives it 
some room to swing up and down if needed. But at times the coil spring 
attachement at the dash board or there-abouts rips out, when that's not done 
really 
well (home built or after market modified), and the spring coil movement is not 
the best arrangement for free movement. Another way is instead of the coil 
spring on top, to have a shock absorber installed underneath the pole to hold 
it 
up, yet give it some flexibility to ride up or down. You see this with more 
sophisicated vehicles. Other sophisticated carriage builders incorporate some 
shock absorber, spring coild mechanism right into the pole, or into the end 
where it attaches to the carriage, and the better the engineering is, the more 
is 
the pole suspended so that the horses don't need to carry it, yet, is it able 
to swing up or down only when needed and not more then needed. You see that 
with almost all European import marathon carriages, as well as the more 
sophisticated American marathon carriage manufacturers, regardless of brand or 
manufacturer these days.

Unfortunately usually that's not something that one can easily modify an 
existing carriage with existing pole set-up to, but sometimes perhaps a person 
with good technical knowledge might be able to come up with some solutions to 
improve an existing traditional arrangement. As first step, perhaps such a coil 
spring can be rigged. But it all depends on the individual set-up.

On the other hand, if you have a drop pole, it really shouldn't be a big 
problem, as long as you drive it with a yoke and make sure that it's not too 
heavy 
in front, and that your harness is set up so that the horses can carry it 
well - wide neck streps or full American buggy collars for example (They were 
made for this set-up and have a better and wider carrying surface on top than 
European collars which were not made for this. See, it all needs to fit 
together 
and there are good reasons for all the little details) . Also make sure that 
the drop pole is not too long, e.g. your horses are not too far out there away 
from the carriage, as the longer that pole is, the heavier becomes the weight 
in front. Traditional fixed poles without yokes were supposed to be long for 
better angle of the pole straps, but not drop poles with yokes!! So don't mix 
up the two entirely different ways of hitching.  So hitch the horses as close 
to the carriage as possible, yet long enough away that the horses never are in 
danger of hitting the single trees.
Hardy


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