Where to find Light Harness

[Exceller_Fund]

Hey all, I know this may seem a little silly to some of you... but we have a foster that is looking for some light harness to start one of our TBs with. He raises Percherons so he is no stranger to breaking/training horses to drive. However, he only has heavy harness currently. The horse he is looking to start has issues with people on his back (more mental than physical), so we'd like to give this a try. He is a very nice horse and even nicer to look at! Anyhow, we (our foster) obviously does not want to spend a ton on harness that may get a little beat up, so I thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone has any ideas for us (him)?

Thanks!!

P.S. We trained an OTTB to drive at the last organization I was with and he did fantastic and it was a lot of fun so I'm looking forward to giving this a go!

[Ashemont]

There are lots of places to get light harness but you need to make sure you get one that fits the horse properly and it MUST be in good condition. You don't need one that might break!

My recommendation would be to get a good synthetic one. We have Yonie's harnesses and have found them to not only be strong and solid, but they look nice, fit well, and are very easy to care for :) They'll also help you with fit, which is most important.

Please don't try to go cheap and get one off of eBay as most of those aren't very good. Can't stress enough that the harness must be safe.

A search of the archives should give you a number of places to try. Good luck!

[RidesAHaflinger]

Here's a list of harness suppliers to get you started:

http://www.caaonline.com/caa_content.asp?PageType=Dept&Key=6&MType=HA&MTypeDesc=Harness

Wonder if we should add this to the driving info links? (I added it)

[Exceller_Fund]

Great, thank you! I agree, safety and proper fit are most important. :)

[War Admiral]

There are a lot of good Amish makers in addition to the ones linked to, you just kinda have to shop around.

I drove my late and much-missed TB for 8 years. A TB with a good brain can be the best recreational driving horse in the world. Good luck & keep us posted! Pics would be great! :)

[Christa P]

Got for it with the TB. I had an OTTB mare that I drove for years - parades, pleasure drives, pleasure shows and CDEs. She took to it very easily.

Christa

[Exceller_Fund]

If/when we find the harness, I'll definitely let you all know how it's going! Thanks for the advice.