D-ring Front Trace

[dominiquer60]

I finally ordered Les Barden’s D-Ring Harness DVD. It certainly gives good convincing facts for how and why the harness works the way that it does (not that this forum didn’t have me convinced already). So we brought the DVD and computer down to Lancaster with us this past week and showed it to our harness makers at Peach Lane Harness. Abner and Mose really had no idea how the harness should properly function until now, they were excited for the opportunity to view a few key highlights from the video and really enjoyed the demonstration of the young man sitting on the tongue without the collar on the horses, the tractor demo of keeping the front trace at a right angle and driving over firewood to show how the harness acts like a suspension system.

We talked about the new front lazy/jack straps that we would like made because their standard straps are much to short and having the front traces shortened because they are too long and billow out when the harness is adjusted properly. Abner and Mose brainstormed with us in excitement with this new information.

Abner is slowly getting more orders for D-Ring Harness (sending to the UK this month) and now that he sees how they function and should be adjusted, he wants to make some changes to his D-Ring harness pattern so that folks are getting a harness that can function better than with his current pattern.

What is a reasonable length for a standard sized draft sized D-ring harness? Abner measures the length of just the leather or synthetic, he does not include the hardware since that is standard and does not change. His and therefore our current length is 21″, but we feel that 19″ may suit our needs better. I know someone with and 18″ front trace length for Suffolks, What length do other people use on what size animals. Abner would like to have a new standard length and will include it in his catalog, other lengths can be ordered of course.

If anyone has any other feed back from purchasing new D-ring harness from anywhere it would be great to know, inquiring open minded harness makers are interested in what we have to say.

Erika

[Rick Alger]

I have three D-ring harnesses. All three were cobbled together for specific horses. The lengths of the short tugs are 19″, 20″ and 21″.

Another point. The fasteners at the hames can be a bolt or a swivel. The swivel takes a shorter tug.

[Carl Russell]

He may need to measure the leather, or strapping, but the measurement should be taken from hamebolt to D-ring….. How the ends are dressed is up to the harness maker… Or customer…. But the length of the front trace for a medium draft 16.2hh should be in the 21″ range. Of course shoulder slope, and collar style will play into that on each horse, but he will do much better with that estimate than with then 24″ that seems to be the industry standard.

Carl

[Jay]

I agree with many comments above. I have shorteded all my short (front) tugs to 20″ (I have 15-2 to 16-1 Suffolks). As has been said, the 24″ length is far too long for this size horse. Jay

[Tender Soles]

I agree as well. I need to shorten the front tugs on our D-rings for our 16.3 Belgian and 16.2 Suffolk from 24″ to 20 or 21. They bow out just as you described Erika. This certainly diminishes the usefulness of the tongue weight-distributing properties of the harness to the back pad.

I also just acquired a third horse with a D-ring and Wallingford hames. Haven’t measured his harness fit yet, waiting on a collar that will fit his big neck. We’ll see how it fits soon enough!

I’m also thinking about switching from a bolt to a swivel like Rick mentioned. It’s hard to tell, but I think the short tug also wants to be lower than the hame bolt allows when the team’s pulling a load/implement on the ground. Does anyone else run their D-ring this way? Any appreciable difference in line of draft?

[Carl Russell]

The swivel on the front trace is not for draft action. It merely saves the leather when the harnes is hung up, allowing the thick leather to hang down without twisting against the hamebolt.

The front trace (read D-ring and jack saddle/belly band adjustment) should be ninety degrees to the hames at all times….it is the function of the D-ring that allows the rear trace to change for line of draft.

If the collar fits the horse, and hames fit the collar, then hames fit the horse, and adjusting the D-ring to match and hold the ninety will be all you need to worry about…. As long as the front trace is not too long…

Carl

[wild millers]

Erika, Thanks for bringing that down for Abner to see. I have thought about it in the past but haven’t got a laptop to bring.

When they made my harnesses, last winter, they were very helpful and didn’t mind doing a few custom adjustments to them for me. I had them make me a larger jack saddle with built in padding.

Recently I have realized, like you said, that the lazy jack straps for the jockey yoke are much too short and very over built. I would like to replace them with something longer and possibly lighter. I have been looking around old harness piles hoping to just find a light duty strap that is longer, but haven’t found one yet. I guess until I find something appropriate we could just use some bailing twine as Les suggests in his video.

Before ordering our harnesses I had spoken with Les about D-ring customizations and he had warned me of the 24″ short tugs. He suggested 22″ to fit our suffolks and that is what I ordered. They do billow a little bit when there is no load, but I wouldn’t say that it affects our ability to tighten the hitch between the yoke and evener. This is something I will be watching closely as the boys continue to grow.

Overall though I have to say that we have been very happy with our new harnesses from Peach Lane. We got the nylon version, they are holding up great, were very reasonably priced and fit very well.

Nice to think of Abner and Mose getting a chuckle and some new information out of the video.

[dominiquer60]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I figured the hardware variations and length would come up, I just asked the question like Abner wanted me too, his hardware is standard to him.

It looks like an general front trace length of 21″ (with hardware) from hame bolt to ring can be recommended. Abner can mention his new standard length in the next printing of his catalog and recommend that smaller horses/ponies order a shorter size.

Wild Millers, I brought my lap top down just in case Abner was open to watching a bit of it. We brought our repairs down the first day and seeded the idea of how the harness should work. We went back the next day and after more good conversation about the front lazy/jack straps I offer to get my laptop out of the truck if they wanted to watch it. They were very receptive and the sight of all 4 of us leaning over his counter to watch Les on a little screen still gives me a chuckle 🙂 It is great that you have a similar harness to ours because this past weekend we harnessed up for the first time after watching the video and have some things to think about as well.

Sam immediately went to work with his square and adjusted the harness as best we could with what we have. D-rings were brought up a hole or a half hole, britchen brought up a hole or two, back straps out a hole (those mares have grown a bit since the last adjusting). One thing Sam had to have made a while back were longer straps between the D and britchen the standard length was too short, if we shorten front traces, we fear that we will also need all new straps here again as many are on the last hole already. Shortening the front trace should just take the billow out of it, but if the D with new front trace takes out the tiny bit of wiggle room in the rear backing strap, we may need to go bigger.

Also now that we brought our britchen up in a more proper location, the trace holders on the last/longest hole are threatening to disturb the draft angle of the trace. We figure we can probably just take them of for now as they don’t serve much purpose.

The harness girth seems a bit long, most of our horses need the girths all the way to the shortest hole on both sides in order to not have the girths hanging loose.

If we shorten the front trace I don’t think that we have to worry about lengthening the long trace. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Finally back to the lazy/jack straps. Those of you using properly adjusted D-Ring harness, how long are your lazy/jack straps? are they adjustable? is there ever a time that you need to shorten them up to keep the pole up high? Now that we have a common front trace length Abner would like to know what would make a good lazy/jack strap. We like the looks of Les’s conway buckle and snap, the conway gives you some adjust-ability and the snap is handy. I think that a single ply leather/beta strap or a double ply nylon should work. What length do you use and also if you use a snap, what kind do you use for the least risk of getting something caught in it?

Sam wants a lazy/jack strap that can be adjusted short (with buckle or snap). His reasoning is that when plowing (especially with a 2 way plow) one should hitch long for the correct angle of draft. When hitched long, we loose the ability of the D-ring dynamics to keep weight on the back and off of the lazy/jack straps and the pole drops to a level that is not safe or preferred. We did hear in the video that Les compensates for the tight traces and 2 way plow by backing in order to get the rolling hitch point to shift, but Sam doesn’t like this idea. Any thoughts on the adjustable lazy/jack strap or the physics involved with the functionality of the D-ring interfering with the angle of draft for plowing?

Thanks for all of the feedback!

Here are pictures after the recent adjusting frenzy, not the best angles but, I think we are heading in a better direction.

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[Rick Alger]

I don’t use front lazy straps . If the harness is tight (tugs and britchen), the neck yoke is suspended right where it ought to be. In the video, that shot of Sax sitting on the neck yoke shows this. Tension is holding him and the neck yoke in place, not lazy straps.

I don’t know much about plowing, but for twitching wood I don’t use back lazy straps. I want the tugs unrestricted so the log will rise and fall with the terrain.

Along this line of thought, I suppose you’d have to figure the line of draft for a plow with a vector from the D-ring instead of the hame.

Also, hitching long on a sulky shouldn’t change the weight on the back pad as long as the hitch is tight.

But either way, loose hitch or sulky plow, I don’t see lazy straps having any role in the physics of getting the job done.

[Carl Russell]

My Lazy straps are 1″ light leather straps about 18″ long….. I have used nylon rope. They are adjustable, but not conveniently. They are entirely inconsequential to me. All they do is catch the hold-back when I unhook the yoke. I immediately upon unhooking, hook my hold-back up into the ring at the top of the lazy strap…. no need to let them hang.

I also hook them tight in a two-way, and back them to get the slack for the evener to roll. I am not so sure that there is a lot of tongue weight on a riding plow anyway, the problem is to maintain collar position, and if the straps are too short the pole could be causing the collar to shift during motion.

Carl

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[Hopewell Farm]

Like Carl, I had lazy straps for the hold back straps made from 3/4″ leather with a conway buckle and snap. I think they are currently adjusted to about 15″ inches in length. For me they only suspend the neck yoke during hitching, once I have the trace chains attached and adjusted properly there is no tension on the lazy straps.

I also had lazy straps for the traces made as the ones that came with my harness were much too short for ground skidding or implements with low hitch points (distorted rear trace putting pressure on hip drop/spider). These I had made from 1″ leather with a conway buckle and snap so I could remove them altogether when using carts and wagons as the straps serve no purpose with high hitch vehicles. I also use a 3″ ring which is what the trace runs through. I have found that the trace slides much easier through the ring (verses some type of leather piece), which allows some lift of the trace when needed (no load) but allows the lazy strap to slide up toward the D-ring when under load thus eliminating tension on the lazy strap from being transferred up to the hip drop. Similar to the front hold back strap lazy straps I don’t want any tension on these lazy straps either when under load. Right now I have these straps adjusted to about 20″ in length.

I added a couple of pictures to show the straps in use, it was hard to get one with the trace lazy straps under load as the black leather disappears against the the black coats.

John

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[Billy Anderson]

This is interesting. I have just come of the phone to Simon Lenihan tonight regarding this harness and setup. I bought a set of this harness that gets imported from your guys over there. Sizing has been a bit of a problem. I bought webbing harness and have had to burn extre holes through the webbing to get the desired fit. When using on the single horse in swedish shafts on my forwarder and im asking him to yield over in tight spaces the shaft is falling in behind his leg. I have adjustable front traces but think i may have to shorten them more and bring the ring further forward. Keep the harness snug all round and the back pad on top of the withers like the swedish harness is.

[Does’ Leap]

Hi John:

I like your tug carrier – elegant, simple, and light. I have some of those leather monsters with decorative studs and thick leather straps. These are overkill and not very functional. Do you ever find the horses catching their bits on your lazy strap snaps? I think Les Barden might use his lazy straps for check reins when the horses are hitched and lazy straps not needed. Seems like a good idea but I would imagine you would have to attach them higher up on the hames to effective. Anyone else do this?

George

[Hopewell Farm]

Hello George,

I did originally get the hold back strap lazy straps long enough to use as check rains based on Les’s video. I have only tried to use them in this capacity once with no success really. For me, with them adjusted long enough to not restrict the horses head during typical working movements they were too long to restrict the horse from lower it’s head. I haven’t experimented much further then this initial try, but I suspect I would either need to shorten them some and/or hook them higher on the hame. I am sure it is an adjustment failure on my part as Les indicates in his video that he has had good success with them, I will have to play with them more.

I have not had a bit get hooked by the snaps yet.

John

[Carl Russell]

Erika, if Sam can find a way to shorten the neck yoke set up, it might help with the pole and draft angle for the sulky. I like to have the yoke under the horses’ noses, or even shorter if possible with a plug-yoke.

I stopped using the traditional neck yoke years ago. The old timer who sold me my first horse had made up a neck yoke from an old spread-chain, and it can be shortened by rolling it toward the horses, wrapping the chain around. I started doing that, just because I could, and found it to help significantly with the D-ring hitch, and pole height…. Of course it is the same basis for Les’ plug-yoke design.

The D-ring harness has some great features designed into it, but long front side straps and neck yoke can actually defeat the purpose of carrying weight on the saddle. The longer the arms of the suspension triangle, the harder it is to get a functional hitch.

There is conventional thought that there is a standard pole length, but I have found that I end up modifying pole length to fit my hitch…. And that is based on the way I set up my harness…. Not the other way around.

🙂

Carl

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