[QUOTE=goodhors;7398370]
You probably want to first measure the horse, get his sizes, before you start looking for harness. You try to get buckle to fit in the center hole of billets from saddle, traces, backstrap. This lets you have room to shorten or lengthen as horse gets fat, then fit, or grows. Cobs tend to have large bone, so may take quite a while to FINALLY finish growing, especially geldings. Could be 6yrs before he is about done. So keeping that in mind for harness, what fits now, may not fit well in a year or couple years with his “mature” figure.
This site shows you where to measure, so you have sizes to put against harness you look at.
http://www.smuckersharness.com/pg3.html
Most folks go with breastcollar harness, it fits him fat, fit, as he grows. Neck collars need to be WELL fitted, to be comfortable, usable, and neck sizes can change a lot over a season. That can call for owning two or more neck collars to cover his body changes. Gets expensive, because nice collars in quantity are not cheap.
What you really want to check is the harness hardware, buckles of QUALITY, with heavier STEEL tongues. Tongue of buckle is what takes the stress and strain, so they need to be able to take a load, not bend inside out. Cheap hardware often has wire-like buckles, coated buckles that rust fast, don’t stand up to time or much use.
Leather has a lot of good features, does take a bit more care than the synthetics. You would probably like BETA biothane, over plain biothane. The Beta stuff is quite leather looking, matte finish, softer to the feel, holds up pretty well. Plain biothane is much more shiny, often thin strapping, can have sharp edges. Both are a good material, easy upkeep synthetics. Nylon harness can be good or bad, depending on who makes it. Box nylon harness often has cheap hardware, stiff strapping, bad proportions that don’t fit any horse. Cheap price though. Tedman nylon harness is great stuff, soft strapping, wonderful stainless hardware, but comes at a much higher cost. There are other nice harness makers of synthetic harness out there. Easy care is the big seller, since often they are no cheaper to buy than leather. I can wash my Tedman harness in the washing machine, hang it to dry. While our leather harness is all hand cleaning and conditioning to do it up right. Often you can find used harness at good prices, which is easier to start with, see how horse develops before investing in better quality stuff.
Country Carriages USA has often been recommended on here before, by very satisfied customers. She often has used items, ask about harness. They are VERY helpful to beginners.
http://www.countrycarriagesusa.com/
Welcome to the fun of having a Driving horse.[/QUOTE]
Hello goodhors,
Very informative post. Just wanted to see if I could help clear a few small things up regarding Biothane. First, thanks for the kind words about Biothane Beta coating. I agree with you on the Beta recommendation. As you mentioned, Beta is matte finish and soft to the touch. The plain Biothane you mentioned is our Gold coating…which is glossy. Each of these are coating classes, and all are available in a variety of thicknesses, so one could get the exact same thickness in Beta and Gold(shiny)…and thus…the same edges. They probably will feel different as Gold is not as soft.
Hope that helps.
Also, all Biothane is made right here in the US. It’s a 2nd generation family owned business that is very good to us employees.
Scott Hanna
Biothane Coated Webbing
www.biothane.us
What kind of pony do you have?
