A harness touches more of the horse than a saddle

From the collar to the crupper, a driving horse is covered in leather. Where it rubs, why a matched pair is more than looks, and what the minutes after unharnessing are for.

A saddle sits on the back, a girth goes round once, and that is the whole account. In harness the list is longer: a full collar or breast collar at shoulder and chest, a pad with its girth, breeching across the quarters, a crupper under the dock, tugs and a bridle with blinkers. Every one of those is kit on skin, and in harness it pulls.

The draught does not go through the straps. It goes through the skin underneath.

Full collar or breast collar, two ways to pull

A full collar puts the draught on the shoulder, which makes it the piece for heavy work. It also has to fit most precisely: fitted to one horse the way a saddle is, room at the windpipe, no shifting under load. A breast collar forgives more but insists on its height: above the point of the shoulder so the shoulder stays free, and well below the windpipe.

The places everybody knows

• Shoulder and chest under collar or breast collar, along the edge.
• The girth area behind the elbow, often buckled tighter than under saddle.
• The crupper under the dock, the most thankless spot of all.
• Breeching across thigh and quarters, wherever the braking happens.
• Behind the ears and around the blinkers, which belong at eye level.

White hairs at any of those places are a message from the past: pressure stood there a long time, and the buckling has not changed. A bald or open patch is a message from today, and it belongs to the vet, not under a thick layer of grease.

Two horses, one picture

A pair makes a demand a single horse never does. They have to work together, and in competition driving they have to look together: similar type and height, markings as close as you can get, a way of going that matches. Uniformity is judged, and it is not a beauty prize. Two horses that stride the same and are put to the same length pull evenly. The one that pulls more collects the friction.

Leather, sweat and the quarter hour after unharnessing

Sweat dries on leather and leaves salt behind. The salt draws the fat out, the leather goes stiff, and a stiff edge sands. So after driving the harness gets seen to as well: wipe the inner faces, rinse the bit, hang the leather up dry and feed it regularly. Wiping it down also puts your eyes on the stitching, which in harness is not cosmetic.

The horse gets the same pass. Shoulder, chest, girth, dock, quarters, behind the ears, once with a flat hand and once with water where salt has dried.

A harness that fits goes unnoticed. A harness that does not fit shows up in the coat the next day.