[drivingpairs] Poles-Breastcollars
- From: kathy robertson <goodhors@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2006 08:30:08 -0800 (PST)
I would agree that breastcollars for a drop pole is
too heavy for horse necks. Breastcollars are more
likely to droop, pull down too low on chest with pole
weight. I would say breastcollar harness is not the
best choice for both a steel drop pole or a wooden
drop pole.
I am not sure from post if you are NOT wanting to use
a yoke on the drop steel pole at all. Sounds like you
just want to snap straps to drop pole end? To
correctly function, let horses control the vehicle to
steer, stop it, you NEED the yoke on a drop pole.
Pole NEEDS to be longer than the horses, not short at
all.
The spring loaded, modern vehicle pole, usually on
marathon vehicles, is one of the best new changes for
carriage and horses. Pole carries itself, but has a
lot of play to prevent soring a horse in work. Horse
doesn't have to carry the pole weight. Especially
nice with a short yoke to allow chest connection with
snap shackle, instead of the pole head with loops for
straps.
Front yoke on drop pole should be wide enough to
center horse in his singletree of evener. Yoke is
hung on leather loop, on pole. Leather does allow
some play, sideways movement of yoke for turns. Using
a drop pole with a yoke, you need a safety strap (A
MUST HAVE FEATURE!!) on pole to prevent yoke from
slipping off and dropping the pole end into the dirt.
You also need to have horses connected fairly tightly
to both yoke and singletrees on evener. Harness is
stretched fairly snug between front and back
attachements. You DO NOT want enough trace room for
them to get forward and pull yoke off the end of pole.
Letting pole end drop will bring vehicle to an abrupt
halt, spiking into the ground. On hard surface pole
end skids along, horses can get banged in the rump
from uncontrolled vehicle. Some will tolerate one or
two bumps before running. All VERY BAD for the
passengers!!
We had a wood drop pole on a trap, antique, very light
vehicle. We had a good time using the pair to this
vehicle. However the constant pole/yoke weight was a
pain. We tried hanging pole from a spring, pulled
carriage front out of alignment. Drop pole weight did
rub necks on long drives, even with full collars. Of
course we were not just strolling much either. We
always moved right along with some walk breaks, did
milage. Perhaps just gentle walking, slow trots,
short distances, would be easier on horses necks.
Poles that are not Marathon vehicle poles with neck
yokes, need to be somewhat long. Fixed pole or drop
pole, both should be about as long as the horse's nose
at standing, rest. This is allowing room at horse
rump to not kick vehicle in full stride. This length
is a leverage factor to allow horse to control vehicle
in turns and stopping. Too short a pole is hard on
horse, pulls him sideways.
The marathon pole, with springs and metal neck yoke
changes how horse is connected. Pull from front is
straight, not sideways, for stopping or turning.
Totally different from antique pole styles.
Self supported Marathon pole puts no weight on horse
necks until stopping, plus has brakes that driver
helps with. Breastcollars do a better job with
Marathon poles because they are more flexible than
full collars, on very active CDE horses. CDE is not
all straight down a track or road like most pleasure
driving.
Pictures are often done showing things, but the ideas
don't work well in practice. Or person with that
poor idea just never notices the bad parts. Could be
just the way they learned, always did it, don't know
any better.
I saw old photos of the elder Mrs. DuPont driving her
Pair ponies using spreader bars on breastcollar
harness. Looked VERY COOL! She was an expert, won
everything, had money to buy the best! I bought a
Pair harness with spreader bars, was CHEAP, what a
deal!! That was the WORST harness setup we ever used.
Those bars didn't stay on the breastplates, dug into
horses chests, moved all around. I think we only did
one round of the arena before heading back to the
barn. Whoever designed the spreader bars for harness
had a death wish!! We used it the one time, sold it
quickly.
From more experience now, I missed a lot of detail in
the pictures. Pair ponies were hooked to little tiny
vehicles, no weight to halt vehicle, backup. Vehicles
were only used on prepared ring surface or good roads
to ring. She was SHOWING ponies, so spreader bars,
breascollars, covered much less animal than collars,
everything looked very light and airy. Short times in
harness. Her unseen details could have been different
in how spreader bars attached to breastcollars, been
more fixed and stayed in place when working.
Pictures can work with you or against you, look hard
at the details before jumping in.
Kathy Robertson
>Hi all,
I have a question about pair harness with breast
collars hooking to a Robert's wagonette with a
drop pole and yoke. Have any of you hooked up
breast collars to a drop pole and yoke? I read
someplace that you should use the yoke with a
drop pole, but then the breast collars have
straps that hook to the end of the pole. Can you
hook up the yoke with a big carabineer to ring on
the breast collar?
I saw a picture on website of a pair hooked up
the straps on the breast collars to the end of
the pole on another Robert's vehicle. It looked
to pull the collars in on the horses and then the
pole rode too low.>
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