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) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus _________________________________________________________ To Unsubscribe, change to Digest or Vacation mode go to: http://www.drivingpairs.com/dpmem.html `````````````````````````````````````````````````````````