Any driving people out there?! Help needed to fit a trap asap!!!

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mollymurphy

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Hi there,

we're currently breaking one of our mares to drive. We ordered the trap from a man at a market a couple of weeks ago and mum is going to pick it up in the morning. However, having just spoken to him, he's made it to fit a 14.2-15.2 - Molly's a welsh D X TB, 15.3 and quite stocky. We did tell him this, but he reckons it will fit!
So mum wants to measure Moll in the morn before she leaves. Having never driven before, we dont actually know what to measure!! Is it the width of her shoulders? And the height?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as he doesnt offer refunds, so it needs to fit, and google is proving to be useless!!

Thank you in advance!
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Oh dear!

You need to measure the height from the shaft to the ground from the point of the tuf stops, whilst the cart is level (ie the floor and seat are level). This will tell you where on the horse the cart will sit height wise.

You also need to measure the width of the shafts to ensure that your horse will fit comfortable between them, and finally, the length of the shafts to ensure that they are not too short or too long as the former will dig him in the neck when you turn and the latter will mean that the shafts are longer than the horse! Also where the cart will come up to in the tug stops so that there is sufficient room, you don't want the horse too close to the swingle tree, nor too far away though!

If he's made the cart to fit a 14.2 it will be a bit on the small side, but if he's made it for a 15.2 you will be fine.
 
Thank u chambon! I'll try and get mum to understand all that, so she can pretend she knows what she's doing tomorrow!!!

Hmmm....now just need to find out what a tug stop and a swingle tree is!! (Can you tell i've never driven horses before?!!...apart from when i was 4years old in blackpool and one of the carriage people let me hold the reins!)
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Swingle tree is the swinging bar attached to the front of the carriage that you fasten the traces to so you can use a breast collar instead of the traditional collar.

Tug stops are the fittings towards the front of the shafts that slot into the straps on the side of the roller to stop the shafts sliding too far forward and hold the carraige back.


...I think thats how I remember it, but a long, long time since I drove and groomed for a carriage driver!

Without being all snotty and bossy - can I suggest you and Mum get a couple of lessons? Its not quite as easy as harness up, put the carriage to, and away. You really need to know the correact way to harness up - there is an order you need to follow to do it safely - and to make sure everything is fitted correctly.

Am a bit worried for you - having seen the damage to horse and carriage after an accident with a national competitor and horse - it can go badly wrong even in experienced hands - let alone a novice combination. And anyone who rides and drives will tell you the rein handling is not the same between riding and driving.

You are very remote sat there in a carriage, compared to being on the horses back.
 
Oh dont worry - we WILL be getting lessons! Wouldn't even know how to put a harness on anyway, so couldnt go anywhere!! We've done all the long-reining and tyre-pulling, and me sitting in a tyre and her pulling me, but for the rest of it, we're gonna need help! Thankfully, molly's not been phased by any of it, so i'm not expecting any problems, but we'll see. Think she actually may have done a bit before we got her. Luckily, we know a couple of driving people, as there are no BDS instructors in our area.

Thank you for the advice though.
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Its OK when you get the hang of it. Generally its collar, pad then bridle when you put them on.

Last year, I was over at the yard of the bloke that I worked for, and when I went to help - he shouted at me not to as I didn't know what I was doing (he was unharnessing) - so I looked at him and said - funny that - I could swear you taught me... he looked sheepish and admitted he'd forgotten I used to groom for him!

I'm sure if you and your mum fancy a short holiday, you can go on courses - might be fun!

Forgot to add - this place ios supposed to be good, not sure how close it is though

Red House Stables
 
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