Opinions on a good quality affordable harness

[goodhors]

I don’t like the 72D harness. You don’t NEED an overcheck, so that is extra to pay for which you probably won’t use. Snaps on the breastcollar are easy breaking point, lazy way to take off. Horse should be able to put his own head thru straps to put breastcollar off and on.

A stiff back on the harness saddle, even fuzzy padded, won’t keep weight off the horse spine with a 2-wheel vehicle. Weight will make him sore backed, inhibit his action, be tiring on long drives or with heavy loads. Buggy harness is for horse with 4-wheels, no shaft weight. Saddle with no tree, is cost cutter difference between a Cart harness with the tree (2-wheel) always having shaft weight of vehicle and passengers on horse back. Buggy harness (4-wheel) only having to carry shafts with no weight so they often get away with no saddle tree or ignore the results in horse movement.

Fuzzy pads can be colorful, easy to wash for keeping harness clean. However they compress under shaft weight of 2-wheelers, so not really that good of padding. Often sponge inside. They don’t protect the spine, beyond maybe letting the harness saddle rub a hole in horse with 2-wheeler shaft weight.

Strapping width on breastcollar “looks” narrow, as does the saddle. You said 4", but doesn’t look that wide to me. Narrow widths cut into horse more.

I really don’t care for the little buckles on the bridle. Ones I have seen have little wire tongues, not up to much strain so buckles will fail you when strength is needed. Other buckles on harness appear to be Conway buckles, which can be hard to use, adjust easily. Looks like you get a bonus of hip rings for the reins. They can work well on long relaxing drives, but will dull the horse rein signals a bit. Not a show accessory.

For me, the $600+ price tag is too high for what you get. I would not be shopping there.

[rugbygirl]

Not to contradict good hors, but just a reminder that it’s 600 CAD. I just bought a used, entry level light harness froM the US, respectably priced at 285 US. It came in at just over 500 CAD with exchange, shipping and duty.

[goodhors]

Yow! I had not realized the rate was so skewed. I can see why OP wants to buy Canadian.

[rugbygirl]

Shipping is significant too. Harness is heavy and shipping anything to or from Canada is expensive. But yeah, the exchange is not in our favour right now!

[DiamondJubilee]

Sorry I’m so late to this one. I missed it before.

Yes, buying Canadian is so much better when you live here (we are in Ontario). I have bought many types of harness from all sorts of different makers. We have just found a local Amish man who lives a few hours away from us and have purchased a biothane harness from him (he’s been making them for years, but I just found out about him).

We went to his shop to speak to him in person and to see his work. I was very impressed with his harness and we have just purchased a pair set for our new ponies. It is being made now, so I don’t have it yet, but it should be done shortly (it was ordered mid December but we are not in a huge rush for it so we told him Feb or March would be fine).

His harness is very similar to Yonnies harness (he was acutally just at Yonnies harness shop the week before we met him) but there are some small things that I like about his harness better than the Yonnies (we have a single set of Yonnies harness and do like it). It was even quite a bit less $ than a Yonnies harness (more than $600 US cheaper for a pair, but as I said, there were things I liked even better on his harness than the Yonnies harness).

He doesnt have a website, but does have a FB page. He does not go on it so the best way to get a hold of him is to call him. But there is someone on his FB page that will message you back if you have any questions about the harness.

Here is his page:
https://www.facebook.com/Countryside-Harness-Abner-Brubacher-851789768187163/?hc_ref=SEARCH

He does a lot of mini harness right now, so you need to sift through some pictures to get a better picture (I find its hard to see a lot of the details on the mini harness since its so small).

The price is very reasonable and the quality is really nice. We own many sets of harness, from leather to biothane, and they are both great, but for everyday use we prefer to use the biothane (we have Freedman, Ron’s Harness, Driving Essentials and 2 sets of Smucker leather harness. Then we have a pair set of Zilco and a single Yonnies harness and now have just bought a pair of Countryside Harness all in biothane). He also makes them custom so you can change almost anything you want!!

[goodhors]

Glad to hear you have found a harness maker that will make what you wanted. I like happy endings!

[DiamondJubilee]

goodhors - for sure! We’ve been looking for a while now and have heard about this company a few months ago from some friends who have been dealing with him forever. Unfortunatly we still need a leather show pair harness (with collars) and this gentleman does not work with leather any more, so we will have to keep shopping. But luckily we have a year to get our act together We are really happy with our small pair of Driving Essentials Harness and will be going back with them next year for our larger set. Why did we have to step up in size lo!! We had to start all over again…

[goodhors]

We did the resizing thing years ago, changing from Western type to larger Sport horse types. We ended up selling all the harness, vehicles, truck and trailer, because the new horses didn’t fit! Luckily we bought weanling Sport horses, so it was a gradual sell off. Looking back, I think all we did not need to replace were the stalls and leadropes! The biggest surprise was a show we planned to attend with them as 2yr old. Hitched the 2H trailer, pulled it out to practice loading again. Well horse went right in, but we could not shut the door with 12 inches of rump hanging out! Husband said “pull her forward”. I said “Her nose is plastered against the window!” He came to see, then said “Guess we will not be going, take a look at her rump”. Horse had all 4 feet in, but her rump did not fit in there. Darn! They had fit as yearlings and done well in their classes. So it is true, you don’t notice even big changes seeing the horses daily. And they KEPT growing!

Now everything we have is large sizes. The western horses turned into “ponies” as they got into their retirement years. When someone says they have a "big " horse at 15+h now, we smile.

[keysfins]

As for pads under the saddle, I learned to stay away from fleece and fuzz, because they will absorb sweat. With the equine working and sweating, the salt of the sweat can really irritate under the fuzzy pads, as in salt rubs. Actually, it was a judge at a CDE who gave me that tip.

There is another padding material for under the saddle, which does not absorb sweat and salt. Brain fade at the moment, it isn’t neoprene, was somewhat waffle-like allowing air flow. I’ll have to look at my gear to see if there is a brand or specific material. It’s been a while since my CDE days.

Ahh, Letty’s pads:

http://www.drivingessentials.com/product_popup.php?ID=51567

[Carrie94]

I just got in my new harness - so excited! Bought it from Ideal Harness. He actually sent me a different one than I had asked for. The one I asked for had buckles for adjustments at the breastcollar, but the one he sent had it on the carriage end. He apologized for it and said that 99% of people go with the one he had sent me. So now I’m just curious, is that a big deal? I know you guys said you prefer buckles on the breastcollar end. Any special reason why?