Now we start

After several months of fiddling with cart and harness I have finally found a suitable fit for Lady and her harness and cart. I have to admit, the process put me through a bit of a learning process to achieve this.  When I first put Lady to her cart, the shafts "seemed" to be too long...the shafts kept pushing forward past her shoulder, putting Lady into an uncomfortable and potentially dangerous situation. Shafts too far forward complicate a horse's ability to turn, and risk catching a rein, which can be dangerous if you horse panics. 

Not properly fit shown here, hard to see the shafts, but you can see how loose the breeching is.

To figure things out, I had to go into the learning process. What I learned is, it was not the shafts that were the problem, but rather the footman's loops.  The loops on this cart were set too far back. When I hooked the breeching to the loops, then connected the harness,  there was alot of slack, which, caused the cart to not be stopped by the breeching, but instead move forward and the end result was the cart moving forward past the shoulder...

so...out comes the drill, I flipped the cart over (literally) and reset the footman's loops...and today, was our first drive in a turnout (term for cart, harness and pony together) that fits!  We drove today a bit,  doing some turns and whoas. Whoa is the most important gait a driving horse can have. You really need that gait!

My next step is to get some photos while we work. Photos are an essential learning tool for me. They allow me to see what I can not see from my cart seat....If I set things up right, I should be able to get the hubby to snap a couple photos and I will share of course....so,  all my equipment (well, I am still trying out bits) is fitted and fitted properly...and now we start ;-0