They look like the reins and the other straps going down crossed each other when he is in motion, and pulled hair out. I have no idea what the straps may be called, sorry.
I just occurred to me, I wonder if some badly fitted racing blinkers with plastic cups were used during training.
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Fildago, after the island I grew up on. Barn name Figgy for short.
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I removed his shoes yesterday. The shoe on the left is his… shoe on the right is one of Storms aluminums.
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What kind of WB cross is he? DHH? He’s really adorable. I think he will fill out nicely. He looks very kind and I like the nickname Figgy. Super cute.
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Friesian/DHH. Mom was the DHH.
I have always had a bit of a love affair with the DHH since seeing one cantering over a 4ft oxer at a snail crawl like it was a pole on the ground. And then carting a kid around the 18inch hunters like he was an oversized pony.
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That is some craptastic harnessing.
No crupper means the hipstraps & breeching can slide around < as they have in the pic, pulling the backstrap off center & likely causing the girth to rub. Driving girth is not done up as tightly as one used for riding.
Breeching is too low, shafts are too long.
I’m not familiar with how a collar/hames affects the line of draft, so shaft angle to singletree could be okay. Or not.
Figgy (
love that!) is a Lucky Guy to end up with you.
And he’s got some goodsized feet! 
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Look at the picture from the back, there is no crupper, but there are two backstraps at angles which should keep the hipstrap and breeching from sliding around and it’s probably quicker to put on, especially if they’re using the harness on multiple horses.
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To my eye, it looked like the backstrap had already been pulled off center. 
The britchen is definitely too low and too large in general and is definitely sloshing around. That being said, a lot of work harnesses run without the crupper. It isn’t needed at all with certain types of britchen and is somewhat optional with others. However, the lack of the crupper And the too big breeching is going to slide around a bit as seen. And I have no idea how that horse could hold back a heavy load on a hill. Except, it was probably never asked to!
But, I still can’t figure out those rubs, at least not with that cart and shaft arrangement. Unless they were compensating for the too big britchen with a weird tie into the collar??
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The good news is he came from coastal NC… doesn’t get much flatter than that 
I think the reason everything is wonky is because most of the Amish/Mennonite carriage horses are significantly smaller than him, more around 15h. So they had to use a mix of draft (way too big for him) and cob/small horse (too small) tack.
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I think they’re from a kidney drop https://www.mydrafthorse.com/index.cfm/category/21/harness---show---work---pleasure.htm
Take another look with the image from the back blown up huge. The only thing that looks off centre to me is the rein keeper which is set for right-hand drive.
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Still looks wonky to English Mini-Driver Me.
This is how my harness looks when I drive (seated center):
Yabbut (lol) You’re seated centre and are using terrets on your breeching. In the picture (hoping that my screenshot blows up the appropriate area) if you draw a straight line on the horse’s spine from tail head to centre of collar, everything lines up pretty well except the strap and ring for the left rein (and I’m saying rein to avoid confusion between the imaginary line you’ve drawn and the driving line) which is on the off side of the spine leading to a driver that would be seated right of centre. I think the angle the photo was taken at makes it appear wonkier than it is.
Why strap and ring and not terrets I do not know. The only thing I can think of is if the same harness is used for working with tugs instead of traces, it may make rein handling a bit easier - keeps them up away from the tugs, but low enough to not have to straddle the widest part of the hindquarters when walking behind or sitting on a low implement. That might be a reach. It could just be a different style or another reason completely.
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As you say that harness would quickly convert to a dragged implement. With my horse (who goes in a Yankee D-ring logging harness and is generally dragging logs), the lines don’t even go through keepers at the breeching. That allows me to drive him well off to the side, which is critical if you have a drag implement or a log. I could (and probably should) put keepers on when driving from a cart. A crupper in my set up would be optional, as far as I can tell it runs 50/50 with farming/logging horses as to whether it is used.
I do think though that for road work, a crupper might have been a good idea for Figgy, if you look at the photo you can see a rub forming on the top of the rump from the amount of motion. That fast trot is a very different thing than what I am doing…I basically never do more than a walk, with the rare brief trot, though that walk is moving!
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Thanks for that explanation!
I use tire pulling to add muscle to dressage horses, so my knowledge of work harness doesn’t go much beyond breastcollar and tugs and a surcingle to give me something to pass the tugs through to keep them up a bit from ankle level when hitched to the single tree. I don’t bother with crupper or even breeching since nothing moves about and the tires give us all the stopping power we could ever need in a flat arena LoL!
I went to my local Amish tack shop - everything from workhorse equipment to show driving to dressage and Hunter tack and said, “Henry, what do I NEED to safely pull a tire.” and walked out with everything I needed - breastcollar adapted with rings to make the traces work as tugs, and a singletree and nothing more 
I was grateful for the spared expense and the minimal harnessing. I used to used a barn owner’s stuff several barns ago, and honestly, it was a PITA to have to deal with bits of harness I would never need.
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That is wonderful!
I wouldn’t know where to start with a breast collar on the other hand! I get how a collar works, though I still struggle with seeing proper fit.
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I SO want to switch to a collar & hames for my mini.
But I priced the collar alone a couple years ago - working, not patent Show - it was $300 
Add hames & the need to change my singletree to alter line of draft… 
I wanted to show him as Honey, I Shrunk the Percheron 
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That would be so fun!
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I’ll also add WRT the very loose breeding, the carriage has brakes. Obviously not ideal, even with brakes I would prefer my breeding properly adjusted, but it’s not as much of a safety Hazzard as it first looks.
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