This is the horsegeeks husband making an inquiry. We are talking about buying a third cart and harness to train and drive our pleasantly plump Suffolk Punch draft. Cinnamon is(I guess) a typical Suffolk. She is not as tall as our Suffolk Sasha but is a little wider. This old style working Suffolk has been described as having the face of an angel, the girth of a beer barrel and the hind end of the farmer’s daughter (no offense to my cousin who is a farmer’s daughter and also has a large … nevermind). Just wide enough not to fit in the shafts of our 48 inch wheel Meadowbrook type cart. I was thinking about buying one of the metal, bicycle wheeled, carts at the Draft auction in Troutman, NC at the end of the month. Something like this
http://easyentrycart.com/ My question is how do they ride? Are the wheels and tires sturdy enough to carry the (like Cinnamon) pleasantly plump horsegeeks husband. Can you feel every bump while on the trail? Just a couple of questions for the forum today…thanks
Hello, horsegeek’s hubby! My hub & I just began driving last fall. Hope to meet you two in Troutman!
Our trainer has an e/e cart as pic’d but with motorcycle wheels & a Morgan horse. The cart has proved to be very comfortable for us in lessons. My hub drove it on the road & in the grass arena. I drove it in the arena only. I think you’d find it plenty comfy as long as it has some sort of spring, which I think that one does. One thing to look for that I think is very important to comfort - make sure the backrest is set back at least several inches behind the back edge of the seat. Our trainer’s is not. The front of the backrest is about even with the back edge of the seat - which doesn’t leave bum room. It makes me feel like there’s not enough seat under my thighs. Very simple to see in pics, and definitely easy to feel if you get to try it out even w/o horse.
Would you be using it primarily on trails or roads? I know people who drive those on the roads & have good luck. I understand the wheels are not great for trails. Our e/e cart has motorcycle wheels and is great on roads and x-country. You can find them other places, but I know Claudette Robinson in Tryon can get a cart like the pic’d and can get it made with several types of wheels.
My question to you is, if your big-butt (no disrespect intended, hehe!) draft won’t fit between the shafts of your big MB, is there even a chance it will fit between the shafts of a ready-made X-cart like pic’d?
The alternative it to buy through the mfgr. and then you’ll be sure it will fit your horse. They build one at a time, and will custom build if necessary. Lots of mfgrs. build these carts so you won’t have any trouble ordering one.
Yip
I had the Jerald easy entry cart. It was nice but I had a few minor dislikes with it.
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The tires are NOT suitable for trail driving, or any driving outside of a groomed arena. For trails I would suggest metal or wooden wheels. Anytime you hit a rock or protruding stump, the tire will deflate, pop, or come off the rim.
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The springs are NOISY. When you go over bumps, your seat bounces up and down and the huge metal springs make a lot of noise. If your horse is OK with that, no problem, but it kind of gets annoying on a personal level.
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The wheels need to have some kind of outer bar or guard. This prevents anything from getting caught in between the wheel and your cart as you drive. This is a picture of what I mean: https://jeraldsulky.com/cart/agora.cgi?cart_id=3990781.23538*Dd3wr6&p_id=00018&xm=on&ppinc=1a. The cart you pictured could be hazardous if you drive too close to a small tree or through thick brush.
Personally, I would get a Meadowbrook if I were going to be doing a lot of trail driving.
From Ms Horsegeek:
I drove a metal cart as my first training cart. I nearly jarred my teeth out on tractor trails … much less what we did last weekend. I haven’t driven any metal shafted cart in 30+ years. Once I drove a wooden wheeled cart I was hooked. However, in 30+ years a lot can change.
I have only seen one metal shafted cart that is wide enough to hold our Rubenesque girl, Cinnamon.
However, any information anyone can give us will be appreciated. I don’t want to rule out a good cart simply because that type wasn’t suitable when Lincoln was president! 
THANKS!
We had one of those EE carts for a while. It served its purpose for us - driving a very elderly retired from riding QH-type. When I drove it with my larger and more active Hackney horse, roads and XC here are a few things I did NOT like about it
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the tires were forever going flat - for no apparant reason We got a pump that worked off the car cig lighter plug to pump up the tires before using
I understand that there is some filler you can get
We also bought metal, much sturdier wheels with hard rubber tires
While they did not go flat anymore, we learned that those carts are designed to use the pneumatic tire as part of the suspension system
We felt every pebble after the tire change -
Going cross country at some speed with the Hackney, there were several occasions that I thought we were going to go airborne with the cart
Didnt like that feeling -
We pretzelled the shafts a couple of times. Once when the lighter horse tripped to his knees. When he got up the shafts pointed skyward. Those shafts are very lightweight metal and with the bulk of your Suffolks - the shafts would not stand a chance in the event of a problem
One occasion we had to dismount the cart to fix a small problem. The tire was in a dip and someone came up behind us. The horse spun to see what was coming and the shafts were history - We walked home from that one and came back for the un-usable cart with the truck
Personally, I think those carts are OK for ponies or for ring work with horses, but I dont think they are sturdy enough for XC
I love my 2-wheel training cart
http://www.vermontel.net/~greenall/carts.html
IF you are buying - we love the split seat, I would not bother with the box under the seat or probably even the dash, and if you horse is tall and you are short~ you might want to think about a short step to aid mounting
Best of luck
I have that cart in the mini size for my mini jack. When I got my new pony, 10.1h, I took it to a motorcycle shop where they put new mag motorcycle wheels on it and made new shafts (longer, wider and heavier material). It raised the cart and made it much more heavy duty to fit the bigger pony. Haven’t had much time to drive it but so far, it seems to be great.
