hackney driving harness

Wally said:
Do you ever use a false breeching or pray and rely on he tug stops :D :D
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Sometimes you do need to do an emergency stop and the tugs do take the brunt of it but on the whole it works well without the vehicle slamming up the horses back side,the vehicle doesn't weight alot so there isn't alot of weight on the horses back. When i first sat in a hackney wagon i thought bloody hell this is gonna be hairy but once you get used to the lack of vehicle around you it becomes the norm. So much work goes into them even though they do look hairy believe me they are bomb proof (on the whole) and the vehicles stop very easily, you don't use false breeching in the ring. i love hackney harness as there is so little of it before i worked with hackneys i worked with teams so coming from cleaning all that to a few straps of leather was a godsend.
 
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Wally said:
I take my hat off to you for even being able to rigg the ropes required!
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Wally when i was learning believe me i got into some spectacular knots :cool:
worthy of an olympic medal, but if you use the right long reins with a bit of weight to them they stay out of the way of the booting rope and don't get knotted if you use lunge reins (yuck) you will get in the mother of all knots as they tangle so easily. If you use leather or raw hide they don't knot so easily and the weight helps mantain a steady contact (i'm sure you already know this). I too use sailing rope on the mouth end of my work longreins this works very well.
 
Now that is very interesting, I first started to use yacht rope in the 80's. When I was asked to make draw reins for an argentinian polo team with this design........ the light dawned!

I used the same design and thought it was so much better and lighter than ordinary long reins and training aids. The feed back and contact is so much more positive.
 
BTW did you know, that in Australia they show all their Shetland ponies in driving classes in Hackney Viceroys.??????

Well that was what I was given to believe after some Ozie folk visited us a couple of years ago, they were horified to see us showing in wagonettes and spindle backed gigs, and I laughed to see a Shetland in a pony viceroy!
 
I have about one quarter rope to three quarters either leather or hide, best long reins I've ever used and I've tried goodness knows how many different types to find the right ones, I have work driving reins the same too just alot shorter.
 
Wally said:
BTW did you know, that in Australia they show all their Shetland ponies in driving classes in Hackney Viceroys.??????

Well that was what I was given to believe after some Ozie folk visited us a couple of years ago, they were horified to see us showing in wagonettes and spindle backed gigs, and I laughed to see a Shetland in a pony viceroy!
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Yes Wally i didn't know they did it in Oz but I came across "Shetland" ponies in wagons in Canada at the Royal Winter Fair quite frankly I had heart failure as they are far removed from a proper Shetland. In Canada (and America) Shetlands are like minature hackneys.
 
I use one third yacht rope two thirds leather/webbing. webbing catches the wind here had snatches dreadfully outside. More rope to leather is better outside,

My problem with Shetlands in viceeroys I saw, was they were semi Island type in viceroys!.....ponies capable of real work in a show waggon. Shetlands are M&M work ponies! not Hackney ponies, you'd never put a Hackney down the pit, so why a Shetland in a Viceroy?????
 
Wally said:
Now that is very interesting, I first started to use yacht rope in the 80's. When I was asked to make draw reins for an argentinian polo team with this design........ the light dawned!

I used the same design and thought it was so much better and lighter than ordinary long reins and training aids. The feed back and contact is so much more positive.
Click to expand...

I also don't have the reins very thick as alot of english harness seems to be, my reins work and show just under three quarters of an inch. 've put a link to a harness maker in america under here, have a look. The first picture is of american reins.

http://www.lasalleharness.com/Page%2010/Page10.htm

http://www.lasalleharness.com/
 
Wally said:
you'd never put a Hackney down the pit, so why a Shetland in a Viceroy?????
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ha ha ha so true but i'm sure both breeds would try their hardest to accomodate. The thing with American Shetlands is that they are mostly made up of Hackney blood. I did speak to a few breeders whilst I was out there and said quite frankly that true Shetlands are nothing like this and breeders over here would be none to happy about how you have bastardised the breed, it didn't go down to well but it was just simply the truth. A hackney is a hackney and a shetland a shetland end of.
 
My driving reins, through preference, are half to 5/8 of an inch, 3/4 is too fat for me.

My fave riding reins are 3/8, no thicker then half inch! Double bridle reins are a dream at 3/8 and half inch!

I have made an exception to tandem, where I have lead reins at 3/4 and wheel at 5/8 so I can tell and feel them apart at an instant!
 
I am a bit of a weirdo, and would secretly like hackney X Shetland to drive. Hackney mettle and Shetland brain..........formidable! :D :D
 
Wally said:
My driving reins, through preference, are half to 5/8 of an inch, 3/4 is too fat for me.

My fave riding reins are 3/8, no thicker then half inch! Double bridle reins are a dream at 3/8 and half inch!

I have made an exception to tandem, where I have lead reins at 3/4 and wheel at 5/8 so I can tell and feel them apart at an instant!
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i think mine are the same i get mine from Canada from a harness maker called David Freedman http://www.freedmanharness.com/

His harness is so lovely I nearly could eat it !

I love the exception with the tandem reins very clever, I will remember that one, my love is a pair I've only had one go of a tandem which didn't go to badly !
 
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Look at the old photos in the Shetland Pony books Wally - they used to show Shetlands in viceroys over here in the 60s and earlier! I would love a viceroy for road driving - imagine the speed you could get up in one of those :D Mind you I have never forgotten the hackney stallion we used to have on our local BDS drives, foot on the accelerator and off he went in a puff of smoke, not to be seen until we all caught up with him waiting for us at the picnic spot - lovely lovely horse and boy couldn't he move! Completely sane and sensible though, fast and flashy but not a nutter. I'll have a hackney X Shetland if you breed one Wally :D
 
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Well, Frances and I have just got back from the drive from Hell!

The boys were atrocious! Charlie was mad as a mad thing that's mad! They were apalling! I am utterly ashamed of them, high as kites the pair of them. I am wondering now if I wing it at the RHS and do tandem in the exercise vehicle! and leave the wagonette at home!

Putting shoes on them doesn't help as they go along with gay abandon over all surfaces!

I have no Shetland ponies! they are disowned!
 
Don't you just love it when they go right !
When they do decide to have a hooley it does make me appreciate it when they do go beautifully, for me it's all part of it I love having a bloody difficult one then getting that feeling when you have cracked it.

P.S Shame their not mares i know of a lovely little hackney stallion only 11.2 champion pony real stunner in harness
 
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