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Volunteer Team Talks
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How to Harness a Horse
- Groom the horse first
- Fetch the collar from the harness room—make sure it's the correct one
- Unhook the lead rope from the horse's halter and put the collar on—the wide part is the bottom and when putting it on push the wide part as close to the horse's throat as possible—this makes it easier for it to go over his/her head
- Once the collar is on, pull the horse's mane from under the collar in the way it grows as much as possible
- Re-hook the lead rope
- Go back to the harness room and find the correct harness
- Load it on your right shoulder from the back end of the harness to the front: brichen, hip drop, back pad
- Last of all, grab the hames, the right one in your right hand and the left in your left hand. Grab them midway up for the best leverage later
- Walk to the horse and approach him/her from their left side
- Touch the horse on the shoulder with the hame in your right hand
- As long as the horse remains still, push the right hame over the horse's shoulder, right behind the collar
- Once the hame is over, unload the rest of the harness onto the horse's back in the reverse order of how you loaded it on your shoulder: back pad, hip drop, brichen
- Once everything is on the horse's back, go around to the right side of the horse and put the right-side hame in the groove in the collar
- Check the adjustment ladder—see which rung it's on
- Go back around to the left and place that hame in the collar groove and check the adjustment ladder—are both sides in the same position?
- Secure the hames to the collar using the bottom hame strap. Make sure the hames are even on the collar and that they fit VERY snugly, but not too tight
- Now you can straighten out the other parts of the harness—make sure the back pad and hip drop are correctly placed; the brichen goes under the tail
- Go back to the front of the horse and connect the breast strap to the left side hame (the breast strap is connected to the pole strap)
- Connect the quarter straps to the pole strap, both sides, then the belly band which holds up the pole strap (the belly band should have slack)
- Is there a crouper? It goes under the tail
- You're all done! (Except, of course, for bridling and attaching the lines.)
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