Bought a pony for lessons but would like to also train him to drive as that would give him another skill set. Where to start looking for a cart and harness?
I do have a STB that has a surrey and a meadowbrook so I have driving experience, just not with a little one.
Starlake Tack has just mini equipment including harness and the woman who owns it is very helpful. Yonies Harness has everything under the sun for driving. I have harnesses from both places. I have Starlake’s entry level harness, it was about $375 when I bought it, nice leather, headstall ok, not the best but nice enough for puttering around. I had a semi-custom biothane one from Yonies, very nice harness and the headstall is perfection. That harness was $700-800 before covid. I did get a shaped breast collar and buckle in traces and several extra doo-dads as add-ons.
I have a metal easy entry cart with heavy duty wheels. I was the best fit for my mini, activity level and budget, I purchased that from Kingston Carts. No, it’s not fancy, but I have shown in it and not been kicked out. Good luck with your mini!
Join the fb carriage sales pages and post an ISO ad (even better off you include the size of the mini and an idea of what you want). For harness, etc, Chrysalis Acres carries a lot of mini equipment.
Lots of online shopping for minis.
2 that get good reviews, but I’ve yet to use:
Patty’s Pony Place
Chimacum Tack
2 I’ve bought from & 
:
Chrysalis Acres - Mary Fowler knows her stuff & was great to work with.
IVC - Myrna & Chad Reinhart compete themselves & their custom stuff is 2 Die 4.
If you’re anywhere near an Amish community, minis are plentiful & harness is available at all price points.
My 1st harness was leather/brass from Tough-1.
Bought brand new at an auction for about 1/2 what Stateline was asking at the time.
Decent quality, served me well until I switched to biothane & stainless (because I wanted to get away from polishing brass 
).
Amish guy made that custom & I paid about 1/2 the OTR price.
My Fail was not asking for a treed saddle & regular buckles everywhere in place of the *#&! Conway ones.
My metal Easy Entry cart also came from
an auction. Current prices are doubled, but I bought 7yrs ago…
A couple years in, I upgraded the wheels & this year exchanged the bench seat for a bucket - with armrests & a cupholder 
Altogether near what a new cart would cost today.
Thank you for the information. I will look into both places.
I have joined that group. I did note that I need to make sure to add location because that is a very large group.
That cart sounds very nice! I am going to check out an auction that has a work horse sale coming up pretty soon but wanted to have an idea of what things cost and a back up plan.
Absolutely, but there’s a real tradition of “looking for a ride” for vehicles, so if what you want isn’t close it may not be a deal breaker (obviously you need to be really confident in both your knowledge and the seller’s honesty to do this).
we have bought harnesses and carts from 501.c3 horse rescues who have had the equipment donated … all that we have bought was of top quality at a faction of the normal cost
We have found that some of these rescues are buried in donated tack/blankets (one had over 400 blankets neatly stored)
That is a great idea! I will check into something like that also.
I’ve donated two pony harnesses to two separate rescues/therapeutic centers, several years apart. Both said they wanted them to start a driving program, but I did tell them to feel free to sell or trade them if they didn’t work out for their program.
It took me a while to wrap my head around donating my Hackney pony’s harness, because I missed him so badly after having to euthanize him. It was a lot easier with the larger pony’s harness since the pony was still alive and well, just retired from driving.
Rebecca
Stuff around here really seems to sell via word of mouth, so if there’s anyone you’re familiar with who’s tapped into the discipline, perhaps let them know what you’re looking for.
I found my current cart with an ISO post on a Facebook page, although be prepared to act quick as there’s always someone else ready to swoop in and buy it from underneath you.
I’ve found that Chimacum Tack (I think they are in California) has been very helpful. Though, I haven’t bought from them in several years and only draft stuff. But I did notice they had plenty of mini harness.
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