Three abreast with D ring harness

[Donn Hewes]

Today I was plowing a little snow with three horses and used a single offset pole with a two horse neck yoke for horses wearing D ring harness. This system is simple , but places tongue weight on the horses neck. My carry straps have snaps on them that allow me to triple them up and shorten them easily. The only other thing to remember in this case is not to over tighten the traces. You don’t want the third horse to tighten the other two while working. Just loose enough so when third horse is in the collar they aren’t rear ending the other two. Last summer I was using a solid neck yoke made for three with two tongues and that system is valuable for heavy work or tongue weights. I am still toying with the idea of a three horse neck yoke that is not stiff and allows for each horses movement; more on that later. I will attach some photos, but don’t tell Liz Brown but the New Hot tub is the only thing I finished in the Mower shop this month!

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[carl ny]

Where did you steal that speed limit sign???? Is that 30 MPH in the hot tub?? LOL

carl ny

[Donn Hewes]

They are really handy when you just want a little piece of aluminum. The guys at the city street department were throwing them away. My other cart has traffic arrows in two directions.

[carl ny]

Seems like I remember that on the ground drive cart you made out of a tractor..

carl ny

[dominiquer60]

I have a 3 horse yoke in my barn back in NY, it is not stiff. It has a ring in the middle, but I can’t recall exactly how it was set up. Maybe I will find it for you the next time I am there, hopefully soon 🙂

[Donn Hewes]

Attaching a horse in the middle will work, but is not ideal. With a western britchen harness, it is not a big deal and only means that when backing or stoping the horse in the middle will do 1/2 the work and the others will do a 1/4 each. With a d ring hitched to carry the tongue as intended ti won’t balance very well; the extra load in the middle makes the broken (ring in the middle) neck yoke not straight. It might be possible to make two yokes that are 16″ on the outside and 32″ on the inside (they would over lap and need to pass each other easily). Then I think you could hook the center horse jockey yoke to one yoke on the left and the other on the right. The hard part will be making them pass each other with out any sticking.

The straight yoke with three attached Jockey yokes is pretty much what Les Barden described to me. I have used it in the field as well as at the Field Days, and it works OK. You do notice the tension coming off and on an individual momentarily, and this would be unavoidable with the straight yoke. That is why I will continue to look for another option. As a side note, my four horse neck yoke works great with a D ring harness.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Erika, Attaching a horse in the middle of a yoke like yours will work, but probably not for a d ring. With a western britchen harness, it is not a big deal and only means that when backing or stopping the horse in the middle will do 1/2 the work and the others will do a 1/4 each. With a d ring hitched to carry the tongue as intended it won’t balance very well; the extra load in the middle makes the broken (ring in the middle) neck yoke not straight. It might be possible to make two yokes that are 16″ on the outside and 32″ on the inside (they would over lap and need to pass each other easily). Then I think you could hook the center horse jockey yoke to one yoke on the left and the other on the right. The hard part will be making them pass each other with out any sticking.

The straight yoke with three attached Jockey yokes is pretty much what Les Barden described to me. I have used it in the field as well as at the Field Days, and it works OK. You do notice the tension coming off and on an individual momentarily, and this would be unavoidable with the straight yoke. That is why I will continue to look for another option. As a side note, my four horse neck yoke works great with a D ring harness.

[carl ny]

Just a question about D ring harness. All D rings I have seen hook to the yoke like a side-backer.Is there any reason why you couldn’t have a D ring set up with belly backers? You could still have the tugs work on the D ring principle.Just a thought.

carl ny

[carl ny]

I forgot,I don’t know if that would help any on your problem with the three abreast yoke.

carl ny

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Carl, One of the main distinctions of the D ring harness is where the “front side strap” from the yoke, transfers the load to the back saddle through the D ring. This would not be possible with a belly backer, and is the major difference between the D ring and the “side backer” which doesn’t include that feature.

[carl ny]

I see what you mean,I guess I was just thinking about the transfer while pulling and not while backing. Duh.

carl ny

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