show harness/cart?

[BSharpRanch]

I show strictly for fun, and drive for mostly recreation where comfort for my horse=happy horse=happy me.

I have noticed at the shows, in videos of the shows and photographs of the show horses, that virtually every horse's traces are draping, and usually wrapped around the shafts of the cart. The traces are suppose to be what the horse pulls the cart with. So exactly how are these horses pulling these carts?

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

By the shaft stops. They want the front end to be "free" for better action so the cart is attached by the shafts and tugs. He's pulling by his saddle.

 

[jess - bentley]

I am part of a driving club and did not know that they show the minis like that. It is not correct for the horse to be pulling from the saddle and tugs. Your horse should always pull from the traces and chest and they still can move great that way. I would think it would be uncomfortable for the horses back to be pulling from the saddle!

 

[BSharpRanch]

I had thought that was what was going on till I seen some of the photos in this month's journal. The tugs and wraps are actually forward of the saddle, when if the horse was pulling from the saddle the tugs/wraps would be behind the saddle.