Regarding the Horses in our lives...

[perchie.girl]

One of the plans I had when I moved up to the desert was to build an all steel carriage for recreational or training purposes.... Kind of like something called the Warwagon made in Germany back then i had the ideas but NO money... Now I am just too old.

Here is the what I wanted to emulate. Sort of like this Only I want to make it less of a "competition" carriage and more like an Off Road Carriage. Enough room for two to four passengers and roebust enough to travel at about thirty five miles an hour over rough terrain. The one below is way too much money for someone who just want to bash about in the desert without getting killed.




Off road Carriages or Combined driving carriages

deb

 

[Peaches Lee]

One of the plans I had when I moved up to the desert was to build an all steel carriage for recreational or training purposes.... Kind of like something called the Warwagon made in Germany back then i had the ideas but NO money... Now I am just too old.

Here is the what I wanted to emulate. Sort of like this Only I want to make it less of a "competition" carriage and more like an Off Road Carriage. Enough room for two to four passengers and roebust enough to travel at about thirty five miles an hour over rough terrain. The one below is way too much money for someone who just want to bash about in the desert without getting killed.




Off road Carriages or Combined driving carriages

deb

This carriage is very close to the one I had experience with. I'm quite sure (actually hoping) that I have a picture of it. It's made in the Netherlands. We took the horses (Friesian stallions at their Performance Testing) out on the main roads and through the woods and also in the arenas. It was so much fun, but very foreign, all the straps and doo-dads. I would love to be a combined driver's groom--yeehaw!! Spanish Normans are lovely horses! I say if you want that carriage, you should get it! Don't let anything hold you back, you get what you pay for and you only live once!

 

[casportpony]

What's the name of that really high end leather harness company?

-Kathy

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Sigh fixed income and caretaker for my 98 year old grandma and soon Moms going to need a live in.... shes 80. Those carriages start at around 15,000. I would rather have a tractor... LOL.

But when I say I wanted to make them... I wanted to make them for sale here in the US... My background is Tool design and Manufacturing engineer. So the dream was to build a prototype and work hand in hand with a dune buggy manufacturer here to build them.

I do have two vehicles one a road cart I have posted here and the other is a Forecart. The forecart can be modified in many ways from being the front half of a wagon or the working end of a wheel driven manure spreader

forecart



Mine is similar without the fenders or the black basket. The deck under your feet is expanded metal and across the back it has a place to put a trailer hitch.... very very versatile.

They also come in all sizes from draft down to Mini... they are roebust and balanced and heavier than most carts out there... perfect for schooling.



deb

 

[perchie.girl]

What's the name of that really high end leather harness company?

-Kathy

Kathy there are a bunch of them and it really depends on what kind of harness you want.... There are some that specialize....

Smuckers is kind of Middle of the road.... Very good most excellent construction... If you said Smuckers harness you in a group of drivers you would get smiles and nods.

http://www.smuckersharness.com/

They offer Synthetics as well... There are some great advantages to using synthetics... Biothane and Betathane are very very very strong.... and can be washed with soap and water... they never need oiling. Just a wipe down before you go into the show arena. I wouldnt use them in fine harness though.

http://www.walshharness.com/walsh/Products/Show

Carriage driving essentials is a dealer for both smuckers and Walsh I belive or has comparable products
https://www.carriagedrivingessentials.com/

Carriage Driving Essentials
2901 Falling Acorn Drive, Mariposa, CA 95338

Which is North east of Merced... Might be worth a day trip.... sadly its always been too far for me. You can get everything you want there.... from Training to Show. And vehicles to boot.

And I encourage everyone who ever wants to teach their horses to drive is to hitch with snap shackles... They are a fastener with a quick release so you can un hitch quickly in an emergency....

Another top of the line... harness company I have drooled over them for some time.

http://freedmanharness.com/

There are more.... but I havent shopped harness in a long time.

deb

 

[Bunnylady]

I didn't know they had a name for the Percheron/Andalusian cross. We had one at the barn a few years ago; Destiny was one of the flakiest horses I ever handled. I remember telling the barn owner that it was going to be a red-letter day when I could bring her in or out without her finding something to spook at. Fortunately, she always paid attention to where I was, and spooked in some other direction rather than right over the top of me. She went over backwards in the barn aisle one time and smashed someone's custom painted tack trunk . . . the owner wasn't pleased.

 

[perchie.girl]

I didn't know they had a name for the Percheron/Andalusian cross. We had one at the barn a few years ago; Destiny was one of the flakiest horses I ever handled. I remember telling the barn owner that it was going to be a red-letter day when I could bring her in or out without her finding something to spook at. Fortunately, she always paid attention to where I was, and spooked in some other direction rather than right over the top of me. She went over backwards in the barn aisle one time and smashed someone's custom painted tack trunk . . . the owner wasn't pleased.

The cross is only by approved individuals... if I remember correctly.... Gosh this was a very long time ago....
So just crossing an Andalusian and a Percheron will not necessarily make a Spanish Norman...

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Spanish Norman foundation sires

http://www.spanish-norman.com/sires.htm

I dont know how they get to be foundation sires....

deb

 

[PaigeBundy]

Beautiful drafties.. Know anywhere near north louisiana that I could get one??? (Love the mini's too but I already have four of them

 

[Bunnylady]

This horse may have been from an approved sire, I really don't know. She wasn't locally bred; as I recall, she had come from somewhere in the upper midwest. Word was she had spent a brief period with an Amish trainer. That had apparently not been a happy time for her; the only time that I can remember her refusing point-blank to be led into the barn was when my husband was there, and he was wearing a gardening hat rather like the straw hats one often sees the Amish wear. She had been bought as a very green 4-year-old for a very green teenager; before they came to our barn, she threw the girl and broke her jaw. Poor kid was pretty thoroughly scared of her.