Shaft length and wheel height

I'm looking at buying a cart for a 44 in or 11H foundation shetland. How long should the shafts be and what size wheel? She is 43 inches long. How do you measure the horse for the width of the shafts?

There is a chart on the ADS website that will tell you all of that.

http://americandrivingsociety.org/Members/NewDrivers/DrivingVehicles.aspx

Is it very accurate? I read it but it stated that my 11H pony would need 55" shafts. I can't find a 55" shaft cart. So I wasn't sure I trusted how accurate those numbers were. After reading that I wrote down all those measurements and then My daughter and I went to the Carolina Carriage Super Store and the person working there said that a 36" wheel was for a full size horse and that wheel would be way to big for a 44" pony. So, then I began to doubt those numbers and thought I'd ask on here.

I looked at the chart on the ADS site. They do recommend 55" shafts from "tip to singletree" and 33" wheels. The 36" measurement was from the ground to the underside of the shaft at the tug. This would be with a typical cart with straight shafts being level.

You can measure your pony from the point of her shoulder to behind her between 12" to 18" for the "tip to singletree" measurement. The wheel measurement totally depends on the type of cart you'll be getting. I'm sure you saw many mini carts with 20" wheels. Notice how the wheels are low, not close to the seat. If you look at a Meadowbrook type cart, the wheels will be higher. So, even though the wheels are bigger, they're not adding to the height of the cart.

These are both carts that would fit a 32" mini but they have different size wheels. ADS tends to think you're using a traditional type cart, not a pipe cart.



Cart with a 20" wheel



Meadowbrook with a 24" wheel

I have a cart with 54" shafts and they are much too short for my 44" ponies. 60" worked but the cart (EE) they were on was horse size and much too high for a pony that size. I have a 65" shaft now and it works.

Thank you so much for your responses. What size wheel for an average "pipe" EE cart would you recommend for a 11H pony? I'm looking at a Frontier equestrian EE cart with brakes and heavy duty wheels. So if I'm hearing correctly I need to not measure wheel diameter so much as the height of the shaft at parallel to the ground? Does the cart shaft need to come straight across the point of the shoulder - level?

Minimor - what size wheel do you have with your cart for your 44 inch pony?

Ivantresca - thank you for those pics - they say a pic is worth a thousand words and when I saw them it finally clicked for me - cause people kept telling me it all depends and I didn't understand - now I do. LOL Thank you.

maggiemae - You are correct for the type of cart you're talking about. The shafts should be parallel to the ground and level when you measure from the underside of the shaft to the ground. You're looking for the right height for the tugs to be on your pony. An inch or two either way is probably OK.

I think my ponycart wheels are 26"