HoneyPie said:
I am having such a dilemma picking a harness!! I have narrowed it down to Ozark mountain Carriage harness with the V Breast Collar or Country Carriage Beta Bi with a Super V breast collar. I have seen the CC beta on several of the minis posted on here and I love the way it looks. It seems to fit well and have wider straps for comfort but I don't know how I feel about the beta material. I like that the OM is leather but the breast collar and saddle seem more narrow. I don't show drive but would like to do some CDS/ ADS if I can find some in our area, which of these harnesses are the most versatile for entry level showing and/or CDS/ADS competition? Are the beta reins stiff or uncomfortable? Does the beta hold up well or does it crack and show wear bad? Does the leather conform and move with the horse better? Care is a non-issue, I have a cheap leather harness now and I have no problem with cleaning/caring for it. I have been struggling with this decision for months and I need to get one ordered soon, please help!! Any opinions or advice would be so helpful.
The most versatile harness is going to be the leather one. You can take off the breeching, put the neck strap back over the waterhook and add a check and go AMHR/AMHA, or use it as-is for ADS pleasure driving shows or CDE's and it will be perfectly appropriate in all of them. Leather does conform better but you'll need to pad the saddle of the OM as it's treeless and doesn't have much spine clearance although it will be fine once it's got a pad on. (Kody likes his, and he's picky.
) With a shaped breastcollar it doesn't matter much if it stretches to fit as it should lie nicely over the horse's shape and not be affected by his shoulder movement very much anyway.
How stiff a beta harness is depends on where you buy it and what grade of material it is. Just like leather, there's cheap stuff which is nasty and doesn't conform at all even after miles and miles of use, and nicer stuff which is much softer and looks a lot like leather. My initial synthetic harness from Carriage House in Florida (who uses the same manufacturer as Country Carriages) was very stiff and I ended up sending it back even though it was nice as my horse is sensitive about his harness and objected to wearing the material. Last time I handled a Country Carriages harness in 2009 they had vastly improved the materials from my previous visit in 2007 and it had become a pretty nice harness for both comfort AND looks. I still don't like it in the pure synthetic but if you order the waffle weave lining they offer on both saddle and breastcollar it becomes awesome. I love that model! Their "Super V" breastcollar has also become much more shaped and now fits like the Freedom Collar I'm always talking about. Overall it's a very nice harness and would be my second choice behind a leather-lined ComfyFit synthetic sport harness. The leather on those makes all the difference in comfort for the horse's skin but is specially treated so it's still wash-and-wear. Mine is still holding up beautifully after five years and hasn't been touched with a leather cleaner or conditioner.
Beta reins can be a mixed bag. Its awfully nice to be able to ground-drive with the (unbuckled) reins dragging in the dirt and not worry about how I'm going to get the mud out of the grain, but on the other hand they can be a little slippery and come in limited widths. On the plus side again, they don't ever stretch and don't require a splice in the middle like leather reins. On the negative side they're just a little heavier and have a bit less "feel" to them. And of course BAD beta reins suck just as nasty Indian leather does! GOOD beta reins on the other hand are great for winter driving as I don't worry about them in the rain and you can always order the grippy kind so they don't slip. I often use my leather reins with my beta harness in the summer but that's primarily because the particular beta reins I ended up with are just a bit heavier than is comfortable for me and my light-mouthed horses. That's not the fault of the material though, just the size it was ordered in.
In general beta holds up very well. Most the vendors I know will replace a part if the product wears out within the first couple of years as there's no way it should be doing that.
Jetiki said:
I've also had personal experience with a Chimicum harness and I think its their older style they may have changed things but I don't like the design of the neck strap and the saddle that came with this harness has no tree. This again is my personal preferences and experiences.
Chimacum, like most other vendors, offers different levels of harness. They have both plain and fancy draft styles, cheap entry level pleasure harness, show harness, and the Sport Harness which we're usually referring to when we say a "Chimacum harness." The sport harness is the one I buy and it's always had a tree. I bought my first sport harness from Camptown then bought a replacement sliding backband saddle from Janie at Chimacum and they were identical in almost every way. Not surprising since they were made by the same person! Marjean is now using a different harness maker so I can't say if they're still similar, but she does sell a quality product and is very nice.
TMR really nailed it with her assessment of why you should choose one type or another and if you're thinking of doing primarily ADS pleasure driving shows I'd definitely go with leather. The CC harness has the looks to fake it at a pleasure show but the ComfyFit does not and leather is going to beat either one in that environment. Pleasure shows are all about tradition!
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