How to get the harness to stop slipping.

[Cricket8]

Well today was not a good day at all. Everything was going great until..... today. First my sister decided she wanted to drive Cricket and she took her up a small hill and all of the sudden the harness slipped back and off went Cricket the bucking tornado. Thankfully no one was harmed. I jumped off to try to catch her and my sister stayed on. YIKES. I fix the harness and I drive her back to the barn to figure out whats going on. I re-adjust everything and then take her back out. I was looking up front and thought maybe my wraps were too tight. As I jumped off she jerked forward with my sister on again... and once again bucking and kicking. She knocked into the back of my leg I managed to keep ahold of her and slow her down but, by the time everything was said and over with we both were bleeding. Nothing bad just a couple of scrapes. I am taking the harness to a friend to have it adjusted a bit. She does have a breeching on since we do a lot of up and down hills. I am at a loss. I love the standardbreds and their quick hitch harnesses. And I miss having a buxton.. haha. If I had one of those I wouldn't be having this issue at all.

Question 1: Can you wrap the wraps too tight to where it makes to much slack in the girth?

Question 2: How much slack is acceptable in the trace?

Question 3: What else could be wrong since everything had been fine for the days prior to putting on the new harness and cart?

 

[Minimor]

If the wraps are tight enough that the girth goes very slack then the wraps should be loosened a bit or the girth should be tightened a bit. I don't adjust the girth so that it is tight, but I do like 'snug'. More importantly--how are your traces adjusted? If the harness is slipping back this way then it would seem to me that your traces are likely too long, with the wrap straps perhaps being a bit too tight--she is pulling the cart with the wrap straps and shafts rather than with the traces. If the wrap straps and traces are adjusted correctly, when she is in draft there should be very little pressure on the wrap straps--the traces should be doing the pulling. If the traces are doing the pulling the harness should not slip back.

 

[Cricket8]

Thank you! That's what I thought and that's what I was going to do as I was jumping off the cart to fix when she jolted and went off into a bucking rampage. I think the traces may need to be shortened as well. Thankfully my friend who sold me the harness also does leatherwork so she can mess with that why she heals up from kicking the metal basket OUCH! Just figures when I want to take her to her first little show and have someone show her in halter that she would do this. Prayerfully I go out to the barn in the morning and her leg isn't a giant mess and thankfully the show isn't for another 5 days. See this is why I joined. Because I tend to second guess my choices.

 

[shorthorsemom]

I would suggest that you get a trainer to go over your hitch up and harness. Or, you can try posting a photo for one of the experienced drivers here on this forum to critique. I had the forum folks evaluate my hook up several times and had a trainer working with me so I did both...Even with semi slackish girth not overly tight, you shouldn't ever be able to pull the harness back to the hips with the cart if you harness is properly adjusted. Britching and breast collar properly fitted will keep your horse properly secure between them with the cart attached. Is your britching secured through footmans loops, is your collar at the right height, lined up with the point of the shoulder, length of traces is important so your baby isn't pulling into air with the shoulders. I agree that it does sound like your tie downs were possibly supporting your cart and your horse was not pulling into the collar but without photos I am just guessing. Sometimes things loosen up after you get going too and what looked like a great hitch is now too loose and causing problems. Since you essentially had two "wrecks" very close together, you might want to do some line driving and have a buddy ready to step in to help and be a header for your baby and do a slow comeback. I had the same problem with you. After my minor bucking leg over shaft "wreck" my trainer had me do quite a bit of catch up training so my boy wouldn't have the memory of the incident and cause a worse wreck when we got going again. My minor wreck still caused harness damage, so I would suggest you go over everything again. Is your harness leather or something else. Some harnesses feel tight then "give" once you warm up. I would suggest you do a slow come back and forget the show in 5 days.. sorry, not trying to be mean, but I wouldn't consider a show if my guy was just coming out of a wreck. New harness has very little give. I know what you mean about standard bred harnesses... I used to drive at the local track when I was a kid and I see amish drivers locally everywhere with hanging breast collars, too tight check reins and britching laying on their hocks and they still manage to get around without any problems. My luck and a minor error in hook up and my guy hates it... go figure... I do think that with minis that smaller increments in change equal larger differences... My trainer does biggies in CDE and she is always telling me that with minis even an inch or two off can be a big problem.

What type of cart do you have, is it balanced? Are your tugs the right height and where is your swing tree mounted.. just a few questions that pop into my mind. I am basically still a newbie, but am going over all the drilling my trainer gives me during my lessons. Best wishes.. hope the leg is ok on your baby and glad you didn't get hurt. Take care... thanks for posting, always a learning experience to be had on this forum!

whoops, just realized you said show in halter not driving in a show... sorry, I assumed you were talking about a driving show since you mentioned a new harness.. delete my comment about the showing...hope the leg heals

 

[Cricket8]

Thanks for your reply. The harness is leather so I guess it would start to give a little after a bit of driving. Everything looked good when I checked over it (was the last thing I was worried about checking over) haha. It will be a few days before I harness her up again because I would never want to be walking on a brusied leg and my friend is going to find a smaller girth or make one and find a smaller breast plate. With the Standardbreds we just take them out no matter what we had one with a broken long pastern bone and gave her a few months to heal and she went back to racing. She eventually was just acting like she didn't want to race anymore so we retired her from the racetrack and gave her to one of our good Amish buddies to use as his buggy horse. She does great and she seems like she loves it! Cricket (the mini) is a very seasoned mini she was bought from an Amish auction and she's been there and done that but, surprisingly she has tugged a my heart strings and I baby her. She gets massages weekly because she was really sore after we got her. She isn't sore now but, she still gets the massages. And the funny we had a psychic (it was free don't worry) come out and read her. She supposedly said that she doesn't like people calling her ugly (which my mother and some of the other standardbred parents in the barn call her) She heard a rumor that she may be bred and she doesn't know how she feels about it. So funny. The cart is just a standard EE cart and everything but, the traces and maybe the girth (I think) are the problems. Made holes on the breast plate to raise it some so it sits correctly.

 

[disneyhorse]

Photos would help a lot. Harness really shouldn't slip when fitted correctly and I guess you've figured out why

We'd love to help you but without photos it's just stabs in the dark.

 

[Cricket8]

Problem fixed!!!! Sloppy traces! Wonderful, amazing, joyful drive today! Thank you all for your advice.