Harness & wagon fitting queries

[DownUnder Gal]

Yesterday we hooked Koby up to our garden wagon that Mark had converted with a home made shaft assembly. The results were mixed. Koby, bless him, was very patient and long-suffering while we fiddled around trying to get everything fitting correctly.  He didn't go bananas when we hitched him to the squeaky wagon but neither was he very impressed because there were 'wardrobe malfunctions'. I think I've an idea what the issues are but at the risk of embarrassing myself I'm going to ask what I think might be some pretty basic questions about correctly fitting harnesses and wagons.  Maybe there are others out there who will benefit from the answers    Nanno, would you please advise re the following?

1. On a four-wheeled vehicle (small garden wagon in this case, pretty similar to yours and Phil's) is it acceptable for the shafts to be pointing up quite markedly?

Koby is quite a tall goat and the height differential between (i) the connecting point of the shaft assembly to the wagon and (ii) the end of the shafts at Koby's shoulders is 25 inches. This means that the shafts are pointing decidedly upward and as such it is difficult to keep the shaft wraps and shaft loops vertically aligned. The shafts definitely do not 'float' in the shaft loops.  Does this mean that there will be unacceptable pressure on Koby's back? Nanno, I noticed that the pole between your goats on your team set-up also angles upwards somewhat but my shafts are angled even more so. I can't see a way around it given the difference between the height of the goat and that of the wagon. But I also note in your harness handout that sometimes the shaft wraps and the shaft loops can buckle together. I can probably do this with my Hoeggers harness but it's not going to fix the angle of the shafts.


2.  Is there a rule of thumb regarding where the footman loops should be situated on the shafts? We need to put some on, however weren't sure how to correctly measure where they should go. Or does the location not matter so much as the tension of the holdback straps once they're passed through the footman loops?  I imagine it shouldn't be measured to a landmark on the goat because different sized goats will potentially use the wagon. We ended up taking the britchen off completely yesterday because without the footman loops the holdback straps just slid along the shafts and were not only useless, they became a bit of a hazard - to the point where when I turned Koby the britchen slid off his rump to one side.

3. Should the singletree have complete freedom of movement? We copied a design from a book I have, only to find that each end hits either side of the front of the wagon when Koby took a step. There's simply not much play in its movement due to the fittings we used. Probably not so much of an issue for a mini-goat (with mini steps) but it seems to be a problem for a large-ish animal like Koby. So Mark has temporarily added a length of nylon rope between the u-bolt on the front of the wagon and the eyebolt at the middle of the singletree. This works well and allows Koby's shoulders free movement but at rest and when unhitched the singletree hangs down below the front of the wagon. It didn't get caught yesterday but I'm concerned it might one day - I suppose the tension of the traces will be key (which is another issue - they seem to be about 12 inches too short).  I'll try to get some photos to show you what I mean. Nanno, I noticed that when driving pairs your double-tree originates from down below the wagon, not on the front of the wagon itself. Is this required due to the width of the doubletree and therefore is not required for a singletree (the latter being somewhat narrower)?

Thanks for your help!