Do you think a brown horse would look better in brass or chrome hardware on the harness and carriage? She sometimes looks almost black but is really a true brown and at certain times of the year has the orangy muzzle/flanks.
I always go with stainlesss because of my breed BUT true brass needs to be polished a lot to keep the green away. It is a lot of work -as I understand it.
[QUOTE=Cielo Azure;4235340]
I always go with stainlesss because of my breed BUT true brass needs to be polished a lot to keep the green away. It is a lot of work -as I understand it.[/QUOTE]
Hmm. So you don’t base it on the color of the horse at all?
I show Percherons. In the USA, one does not show Percherons with brass in draft shows (breed shows), if one wants max points for presentation and turnout. They aren’t going to kick you out or tell you that it isn’t done but…it isn’t done (grin).
A pleasure show, that is a whole different story. There you just pick a metal and stick with it. If you go for brass, then it is brass everything. If you are showing a Percheron in a pleasure show, you can go either way as long as all metals match.
I do like chrome/silver tones on a black or grey horse though. It is the extremely rare Perch that is not black or grey.
Depends on what your plan is for driving
are you just driving for fun and pleasure? If so, go with the best fit harness and then decide if you can live with whatever metal it has.
If you are doing carriage driving where turnout is a factor, I would go with brass. It is more traditional. And I have that dark chocolate brown horse that you speak of, with the mule-y brown tones around the face and flanks. Brass looks much better with that brown undertone of the hair coat.
In more formal pleasure shows Brass has always been top of the line best of class, but it needs more care than white metal.
To make life easier as people moved more away from carriage showing and more toward Horse Driving Trials, people started looking for more ease of use and went strongly toward Chrome.
Nowadays, chrome is widely accepted in the show ring, but there is nothing in chrome to match the look of a well turned out set of harness with brass.
Brass vs Chrome
My first harness was brass, bought second hand, not really a choice on my part, but when I was ordering my harness and cart from Driving Essentials, I asked the same question of my BO and her reply was " How much work do you want to do???". I went with chrome. I drive a dark brown Paint, with about 40%? white, so more dark then white, black harness, put to a natural wood grain cross country Meadowbrook. I won turnout at my last show!!! Sorry to brag, but it was a really good show for me!!!
I understand the tradition part of driving so I think the choice has to personal and what you are going to do with your turnout. I show only pleasue driving, but also so alot of “pleasure driving”, so wanted an outfit that would be suitable for both, without spending a lot of money. It worked for me, just meant I had to clean the harness more, but last year purchased a used Zilco, so now keep the leather one for showing. Still have to clean and polish, but the harness is not as dirty as when I was using it everyday.
Good luck with whatever you choose and have fun doing it.
Like Jill, I show Percheron’s too and my driving harness is black leather with chrome buckles, hames balls, etc. It looks nice and is eye catching and easier to clean.
However…I also do farm classes and my work harness, which is also leather, has all brass inlay and spots as well as hames balls. So, my husband, who was former Army, gets out the brasso and really makes that harness shine, so it does look nice if you take the time to do the upkeep on harness.
And personally, while I think that biothane is nice, I just got a team harness of biothane, I love real leather.
[QUOTE=IAPonyGirl;4236228]
Hmm. So you don’t base it on the color of the horse at all?[/QUOTE]
Brass is more formal so it can depend on your overall turnout.
For me it would always be brass.
Here stainless steel would be for trade classes only.
As others before me have posted, if you arent showing, I think its a matter of personal preference. I have a bay horse and I have a black biothane everyday harness w/ chrome and a brown leather show harness with brass. I actually like my biothane harness much better than my expensive Smuckers show harness. Go figure!
