I have just started a young Friesian cross to drive, and she is huge (16.3 at three years old) and our driving terrain is grassy farm roads. What carts would you recommend for most multi-purpose, durable options? I want to be able to take at least one other person with me, but more would be good. I may be interested in some type of driving competition, and would like the cart to be suitable for some sort of showing or competitive driving, and of course, I’m on a budget!
What is your budget? That will dictate what you end up with. Your wish list is everyone’s ideal and all in a $1500 budget… Which more than likely wont happen.
Because you have a larger, fairly powerful horse, you need something pretty durable, and if you want multiple passengers and think you want to do combined driving type things, then i would save your pennies for a marathon carriage.
HOWEVER, it’s not very safe for a green driver and green horse to be driving 4 wheels. It’s not impossible, but very easy to jacknife and flip over should the horse start backing up for any reason and you cant get them to stop and go forward. For that reason, everyone on this forum would recommend starting with a 2 wheel cart, which is only going to allow you to take on one passenger, unless you get a village cart, which sits a bit high and a bit easier to tip over with a young horse too… Not exactly something you would want to take out on a marathon course should you end up that route.
Best multi-purpose carts that could do marathon easiest, ie. they have detachable marathon steps that hang off the back: Pacific, Wagner, i think bellcrown has a model that does this too? I have a frey Sprint which i really love, but they do not offer a marathon step. Not to say that you MUST have a marathon step for a cart to do combined driving, you can only use a cart in training level, so while a step would be nice, i think quite a few people dont have it. All of these are hard to find used, and new will run you $2500++
A marathon carriage you might pick up used for 3-4k if you really watch and act quickly when you see one, new they go for 8-12k. I got very lucky with my marathon carriage and picked it up for $1500, but it needed a lot of work, all cosmetic though and was fairly do-able, however, i will tell you that i will NEVER take on painting a carriage again! 
Driving is not a poor man’s sport. Well, a lot of poor people do it, raises hand here… But it’s NOT easy and you really have to wait and watch and jump on any good used stuff you find. I suggest starting to take lessons and get more direction on what you really want to do with your horse first, then your trainer might know of used vehicles in your area that would be suitable and cheaper. The best deals can be found word of mouth.
There are many types of driving competitions and they each use a different style of equipment. If you look at pictures of friesian breed driving you will see the sulky’s with the rubber tires. Also at a breed show you will see a pleasure cart with the big wooden wheels and at a combined driving event the marathin carriage. All of which you will see different styles of harness. It would really be helpful to narrow down your driving disciplin.
But the best advice I can give is a Freisian is built like a 55 gal drum so your shafts will need to be wider than most standard shafts that you will find on used vehicles.
Your horse is too young to do any CDE this year. There are age limits in the rules, to prevent over working, over facing, young animals in such a strenuous activity.
With her size, you might want to even wait until age 5yrs, her bones are not close to being “done” on the maturity scale, since larger horses take longer to finish growing and getting bones “hard”. We are talking spine, not just legs and knees, being done growing at age 6-7 years.
So with that in mind, a Road Cart is a light vehicle, does only hold two people. They are fairly inexpensive, easy to move around, take pasture driving, two-track farm lanes pretty easily. You can modify the ride with more or less leaves in the springs, for a more comfortable ride. Too stiff will make the vehicle VERY bouncy over rough ground, but too soft a ride will not give you any cushion over holes. Some vehicles ride better for one person, while others do better with two persons inside.
Your young horse can move her load pretty easily with a Road Cart as she gains driving time and experience going all over with you. She has to learn to be brave, hold back on hills, pull harder on uphill grades. Facing dogs, bike riders, livestock, machinery on the roads, all take time to learn and manage. This age is a learning and building time, aiming skills development towards her more mature expectations.
And ALWAYS keep in mind that she is YOUNG, so you need to limit what you ask of her in milage down the road, long work sessions around the ring. Your efforts need to be focused on keeping her HAPPY in her work. She LIKES going out, not turn things into a chore and effort to do.
Drivers can often “over-do” their horses because unlike riding, the Driver NEVER gets sore or tired!! You can easily sit that cushion all day long, while horse is just DRAGGING along. You think about it, and it adds up to SEVERAL hours that you and young horse have been out, lots of miles under those wheels. Horse may need a couple days off, that is a LOT of work.
Her body is also young, unfit, so hauling 4 people around is a BIG load, on 2 or 4 wheels! You have to build her up to being fit, build muscle to move those kinds of load. So outings with various friends may need to be limited to one at a time this year, with her still growing. You can easily scare a young horse, suddenly loading them much heavier than they ever pulled before. They put out their regular exhertion, but this load is MUCH HEAVIER, so they panic. Some jump forward, some rear, some quit and won’t even try again. Yet if you slowly build up the weight, DON’T LET HER FAIL TO MOVE THE LOAD, then she will gain confidence and be willing to try with each increase in load.
Sounds overly complicated, so have a plan, keep a workout diary on a daily calendar in the barn. You can check to see if you did steps, how long, when, to move on to the next step. We got pretty confused with our horses, having new ones coming along, so we had to know who had done what. That prevented us and THEM from being surprised if they never did it before!! Know that skipping steps leads to confused horses. Steps are needed to develop her basics, so she can think back to basics when faced with new things, be willing to try when asked.
3yr old is just a baby, so take your time bringing her along. You will be lots happier with your horse as she reaches maturity, is totally confident in various situations a driving horse encounters. Slow start, long time building the mind and body, will help her physically last longer in being able to work with you. She has never been athletically fit, has soft bones, so pushing now, can give her problems later.
Wow, I just want to thank the above posters for some great information!
Fondly, Jackie and Ollie
Kutzmann TR50
The Kutzmann TR50 is a very nice cart for large horses also. It has a back step drivers wedge and passenger seat. Also disc brakes.
I can send pictures if you are interested of one with a 16.2 warmblood mare.
Richard Holyoak
Diamond H Carriages
