New England Harness

[DraftDriver]

My husband Mark and I have been looking at this type of harness for Trixie and for Smoke for a few weeks now, doing our research. Rural Heritage has a really good article on it:

http://www.ruralheritage.com/tack_room/d_ring.htm

I like the idea that the harness maintains the proper line of draft when your hitched to a wagon or pulling a load. Part of the reason we are looking into this type of harness is ever since Trixie had the abscess on her chest, she has been witchy when it comes to anything near her lower chest. She isn’t outright nasty, but she will flip her ears back, drop her head and give you “The Look” or wrinkle her nose.

Harnessing her myself a few days ago, I took my time, touched her, talked to her and she still got that angry look but did not drop her head or wrinkle her nose. I wanted to ensure that I wasn’t missing something or nothing was pinching or rubbing. Part of me thinks it could be because she remembers that it hurt, I had to drain it for over a week twice a day, clean it out, and I am sure that, while she was rather stoic about it, it did hurt her. My teams well being also plays in when I drive them, I don’t want them to not look forward to being worked or grow sour.

Has anyone else used this type of harness? If so, how did you like it? What did you think of how it was made? Where did you get yours?

[Joshua Kingsley]

There are alot of people on this fourm that use the D ring harness. There are some threds on here about proper fit and such. You should look up the discussion on the front trace length.
Joshua

[mitchmaine]

We should debate this d-ring harness thing a bit. I read the link and don’t agree with the writer fully. Under a load, both tugs, front and rear, and ring are in alignment pulling at a direct angle to the hame, regardless of height. I was told the harness was developed in the woods for woods work. Its heavy. And meant to be on a pole. Teams pulling heavy sleds loaded with logs over frozen ice and snow, depending on holding back the load as much as pulling it. The ring was a cross, where the strainthrough the traces to the load, crossed the hold back from the britchin to the neck yoke. In tension both ways, the weight of the pole was taken off the necks, but had to go somewhere, so was taken up in the britchin. I have it and use it, but I think it’s too much harness for farming or even twitching. Part of its appeal is when (not if) you broke a tug, you just cut it out and riveted in another, done, back to work. The drawback is its heavy for you and the horse. Paul birdsall has a great system for old men and young women and d-ring harness, where his harness comes apart in pieces for assembly. I think the hames, back straps and britchin is one bit and tugs another. makes it much easier to put on. Anyway, please jump in here, anyone, in praise of this great harness, cause I must just be missing the point and would love to debate it.

[DraftDriver]

Thank you so far, to those who have answered. I should explain that I won’t be doing any heavy hauling or moving logs around, our team is worked more on a wagon for personal pleasure and the occasional church group who wants us to give rides or if we hitch them to the fore cart and drive down the road every few days for exercise as well as the few shows we go to just for practice and the experience for both mares.

As for heavy, I have a set of leather w/brass fittings and dots on a work harness we use that is an older set of team harness. Yes, it can be a bit of a pain to get on the animal for me, I don’t have the upper body strength my husband has but I can do it. If I have a step stool it is even easier for me as I walk the hames up the back, setting everything else (the saddle and britchen) on the back, set my hames to the collar and work backwards. If this helps Trixie with her adversion to being touched on the chest, then it would be worth it.

[mitchmaine]

cari, one thing i like about the d-ring, or maybe don’t like about the breast snaps on the belly backer, is how easy it can snap into a halter or bridal if they rub the yoke alot. that could be trouble. i wondered about using a strap and buckle up there in place of the snap, but never got too far with it.

mitch

[Carl Russell]

As many of you know, I am an advocate for the D-ring harness. I have never know any other. I find it to be very simple and straight forward, and not really that heavy.

Les Barden (603-332-0082) has put together an instructional video that is by far the best authority on the subject.

There are a lot of misconceptions, mostly based on familiarity with other harness systems.

1. The belly band and back pad should be adjusted so that the angle of the front trace in fact never moves. It may require the horse to endure upward pressure on the belly if the angle of draft is too high, but that is better that the collar changing angles with every step.

2. IF adjusted correctly there is NEVER any weight on the horses neck. If the trace lengths are correct for the horse, and the angle of the front trace is correct, then a full grown adult should be able to sit on the end of the pole by the neck yoke, and the market straps(from hames to neck yoke) will remain slack. If they do carry weight as the author suggests, then the harness is not adjusted correctly.

3. The britchen must be snug, and up near the point of the rump where leg movement won’t be affected. If the britchen is not snug then the animals won’t be able to effectively back, or hold back, a load.

There is no comparison in my mind, but then again I have never tried any other to truly know.

Carl

[Claddagh Farms]

Carl,

Do you have any pics of your D-ring harness hooked to poles? I’m new to the harness, and am loving how easy it is to put on & go for logging, but I’m a little stumped (no pun intended) on how to set it up properly for pulling a cart or tedder. Even my 80+yr old teamster is at a loss on how to do it any more as he has been using Western harness for so long.

[LStone]

Hi guys,
I run two of them and have for a few years now. Confronted with growing horses, and lighter loads imposed on younger animals. I have had a time really keeping on top of optimum adjustments and for my purposes I think I am doing okay. I re-read this atricle. I have read it several times and viewed Les’ video many times as well. I think I get the concepts of it and I have no major disagreement with either resource from what I have seen first hand and I think it delivers what it advertises. Mitch I think the article addresses a lot of your examples and I happen to agree with the concerns you stated. I don’t really notice any weight issues, but I think your major point is that if there is no pole then the benifits of the harness are minimized and I agree.

You may remember though that I am in the market for those old fangled Jockey yoke hooks that are pointing down as opposed to the inside. My filly caught her lower jaw on one last summer. So I think that is still a major drawback in its use being as there are two times the potential for trouble with these newer hooks that were sold on my harnesses. I do have a question regarding the 31 inches of the pole cap though. I have not been very sucessful with being able to adjust the harness to get the pole cap to float at 31 inches. It seems to me that to get the weight off the collar and to float period it has to be higher than that. I might be missing something here, maybe my market straps from collar to yoke are way too short or better yet should be taken off to adjust to 31 inches. There was also a thread where I think Don was trying to deal with it on a three abreast. Not sure if he ever worked that out but I think I made a choice for a versitle harness overall and that is very important to me. So as long as you know what you’re dealing with going in I don’t see a problem with jumping onto them.

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