Horses in modern times are practically not used as draft animals, but occasionally you can see an animal harnessed to a carriage or cart - a real museum exhibit. Despite modern materials, the harness, like the harness technique, has not changed for hundreds of years.
Types of harnesses
Depending on the type of harness used, there are five main types of harness. In a shafts-arc harness, two shafts fastened with an arc are used. The horse's pulling force is transmitted through a collar worn around the animal's neck.
Due to its wide distribution on the territory of Russia, the shafts are otherwise called Russian.
Threaded-post-edge harness is characterized by the absence of an arc. Shafts are attached with belts to a collar or to a wide strap - shork. The pulling force is transmitted through the lines.
The line-and-drawbar harness is used in carts and agricultural implements that have a drawbar - a kind of shafts attached to the center of the wheel axle. In drawbar carts, as a rule, horses are harnessed in pairs, like a khasok.
The line harness is the easiest option. It has neither a shaft nor a tongue. The pulling force is transmitted through the straps, which are attached to the yoke or shorts.
The combined harness is used in multi-horse carriages, carriages. It combines the line and one of the above harnesses. An example is the "troika" - the rootstock is harnessed to the shafts, for the tie-down harness they use the post-stitch harness.
Russian horse harness
When harnessing a horse, you must strictly follow the order. Before harnessing, the horse is cleaned, the completeness and serviceability of the harness is checked.
Before starting the harness, it is important to make sure that the horse is free of injuries or soreness where it touches the harness.
Then a bridle, saddle and collar are put on the horse. The saddle is located at the withers and serves to support the entire harness. The collar is turned over, put on and returned to the desired position on the neck.
A harness is spread on the back and attached to the collar. Shley - a leather belt that keeps the collar from moving forward when driving downhill or when braking hard.
After that, the horse is wound between the shafts and fixed together with an arc on a yoke. The fastening is rawhide or flat tugs on both sides of the clamp.
The next step is to tighten the lower part of the clamp, called pliers, using a special strap - suponi. After that, you can proceed to fastening the entire structure to the saddle.
To do this, the saddle is fixed with a girth, passing it under the horse. Both shafts are fixed on the saddle with a long strap, called the saddle, while they are slightly raised to transfer the weight of the harness from the collar to the saddle, along with this, part of the pulling force is transmitted.
It remains to additionally secure the shafts with an abdominal strap that passes under the girth and attach the control reins to the bridle rings.
The horse is unharnessed in the reverse order.
