I was reading...

[Katiean]

I have driven for years. I started with race horses and graduated to minis. Anyway, I was reading some artical that I can not find again but it was how to attach the cart to the horse. It has confused me as to the traces. Now with the race horses the traces fasten on a pin for a loss of better words on the cross bar of the jog cart (no singletree) I get that. With pleasure carts, mini wagons and the such all have a singletree and it should move back and forth when you are driving. This artical said that the breaching should be wrapped through the footmans loop and tightly around the shaft of the cart catching the traces in the wraps around the shaft. Now here is what I am not getting. If I do that the traces won't have any motion and therfore the singletree will have no motion. My question is, "Is this artical right?" Also "What if you do not use a breaching?"

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Oh, no, good catch Katiean! You absolutely do not want to secure the traces in the wraps against the shaft for exactly the reason you've mentioned. You DO want to catch the traces in the open space between where the strap goes under the shaft and where it comes back over the shaft to be buckled in, but not in the wraps itself.

If that cart had a horizontal shaft arrangement I'd be running the traces through where I'm pointing in this photo, instead I put them through a set of trace carriers I normally suspend from the breeching ring.

If you don't have breeching, you should run the traces through the leather trace carrier loops that come on show carts or a similar nylon arrangement added to your easy entry cart. Their purpose is to keep the traces from drooping down by the horse's hind legs when the cart rolls forward, the same reason you catch them in the breeching holdbacks.

Leia

 

[MiLo Minis]

There is a diagram of how to wrap the holdback straps on the education pages of my website but you are correct, you shouldn't catch the trace in the wraps around the shaft only between the open loop that is created when you bring the strap forward and then wrap and take it back to the buckle. That way it is held up out of the way but is free to move back and forth.