Going from carriage to cart

[Stonewall]

I have only driven my horse put to a carriage. I am mostly pleased with my Kuhnle k-190. I confess that the loading, unloading and hauling of the carriage gets to be a little much sometimes. A cart would be lighter and more space efficient, though I would need to detach the shafts for hauling.

But just for tootling around (mostly rough roads) and maybe some competition, how hard would it be to find a cart with detachable shafts? And how much of learning curve to learn to drive a cart? Are carts as stable as a carriage? Would I need different harness?

[goodhors]

First, from our experience, carts (any 2-wheel vehicle) are not as stable as a 4-wheeler. This is because the axle is your pivot point, horse in shafts is your third point on the ground. So any movement horse makes causes the front go up and down on the axle while he moves along. Getting in and out of a cart will pull on horse to a degree, whether using front entry or rear entry to reach the seating. Horse needs to stand very well, when used with a cart for your getting in and out.

4-wheels is the most stable, has 4 points on the ground all the time, no horse action affects the ride as it will in a cart. Shafts are hinged to the axle, so the action of horse is lost by the time it reaches the hinge point.

Carts with detachable shafts will be found in newer vehicles, modern construction, mostly metal over wooden carts. There are various brand names out in use, that are easily taken apart and reassembled. As the User, it will be up to you to keep an eye on the pieces used to hold things together, checking often for wear on bolts, nuts tightened enough, so things don’t “rattle apart” from not being put back together correctly or wearing out. You need to replace those nuts and bolts more often, they wear with all that taking things apart. Metal of cart, both shafts and receiver sockets, may also develop metal fatigue, just snap on you in time. Kind of like bending a paper clip until it breaks, which is metal fatigue in action.

Personally, I don’t like the ride in a cart, too much back and forth in the seat while horse is moving. This can be changed with different horses, the kind of action they have, but you ALWAYS have some movement riding in a cart from the horse.

Carts to turn much shorter, so that can be very handy Trail Driving, over a 4-wheeler if you meet a downed tree, mudhole from the rain yesterday, where trail is not passable. It is up to the Driver, how they drive on a trail, how tippy a cart can be when getting one wheel much higher than the other wheel. Those little inexpensive carts with bicycle type tires are VERY tippy on rough ground. You CANNOT prevent tipping once they start going up. Their wheels also will fold on turns, not meant to take sideways torque. Rubber tires can come off the rims with turns, while bumps can make the tires go flat. But they are cheap, widely available, so folks buy them anyway. Air filled tires always have a chance of going flat, though the newer vehicles have heavier motorcycle tires on metal spoked (not bicycle spokes) wheels, are a bit tougher in harder uses. Rubber on steel wheels or wood spoke wheels, with no air can’t go flat! Ha Ha

Not sure what kind of outfit you haul with, but winch to pull vehicle into truck bed or trailer is a HUGE help in getting loaded. You just push the button, winch does the work while you steer. A winch was one of my best-ever Mother’s Day gifts!! I think the air horn was my favorite gift though, got quite a bit of use from that as well!

Sorry, can’t think of any names besides the Sprint cart by Frey, as about the most modern vehicle that disassembles. Lots of good comments on that vehicle, but it always depends on what you expect of it, how well it works for YOU. Our friend loves his, but uses it for conditioning and CDE things, not Trail Driving. There are used ones out and about too. if you want to shop around.

http://www.colonialcarriage.com/category.cfm?id=202&title=Sprint%20Driving%20Carts

[Hilary]

I figured goodhors would have the more detailed answer, but my 2 cents is that one benefit to a cart is that if you have a spooky or bucky pony the 2 wheeled vehicle makes it harder to pull shenanigans because he has to move the whole thing. Especially if you put a bucking strap on him. But otherwise, they are more work for the horse and less comfortable for the people.

I think since we bought the carriage I have driven our cart 10 times. When the carriage was being repaired.

[2tempe]

You may find your horse drives a bit differently. With the 4-wheel, when the horse is turned, the front wheels turn, bringing the shafts with them. On a 2 wheel, the shafts are attached to the body of vehicle, and when the horse is asked to turn, it has to push the shaft around.
May not be explaining this clearly, but when I went from a 2 wheel to 4, my trainer told me the horse would be likely be more comfortable, in part because of the turning and in part because the of the balance/weight distribution and other things noted earlier.

[Stonewall]

Thanks for all these comments. I think I will continue down the road with my 4 wheeled carriage. I am appreciating it more.

Goodhors- I haul the carriage in one of those big vans - it is called a Ram promaster but is a european van that is known as a Ducato for more than 30 years. When I travel with horse and carriage, I roll the carriage out and camp in it. I’ve fixed it up with insulation, solar, fan, bed, heater and refrigerator and it reasonably comfortable. It is quite a bit easier to load a carriage into it compared to a pickup truck. image by bouteloua, on Flickr

I have just recently installed this winch - which may make loading and unloading easier. https://www.superwinch.com/products/superwinch-winch2go

[China_Doll]

I had a sprint and it was very handy for hauling with the removable shafts. I also think it was more stable because the center of gravity was much lower than my 4 wheel. If balance they are not hard for a horse to pull. Actually easier as they are much lighter than the 4 wheel. the only thing you might want to change is have a sliding back band and at least a 4" wide saddle.