Chat
01-14-2017, 04:00 AM
We undertook a bit of bush engineering today in an attempt to get the shaft assembly for Koby's wagon and harness fitting better. This entailed taking the assembly to bits and starting again. Koby was so patient; once the shaft assembly was complete and he was hitched, one of us kept him occupied with corn chips to minimise fidgeting while the other made adjustments to the harness. So here are a few photos for you to critique. Still not quite right, but we're getting there. There is no way one person could have done this alone - one needed to mind Koby at his head and keep him calm while the other stood back to survey the overall picture and then try to fix what didn't look right. Tying him up with the wagon hitched wouldn't have worked.
Taking the assembly to bits
Apologies for the poor quality of this photo; it's another frame from a video. We've made the corners of the rear section of the shaft assembly squarer than they were. No parts were available to enable making it completely square but at least now it is more closely aligned to the width of the wagon. I've removed the nylon rope from the singletree per Nanno's suggestion. Each trace has been extended by buckling a strong nylon dog collar onto it. I'm going to have to do something about the carabiners which attach the traces to the singletree though - they are way too small and fiddly to work with when they need to be attached/detached without delay (they came with the harness). I also need to fashion some keepers for the loose ends. I think the hold back straps are too slack in this photo, is this correct? And I'm not sure if the traces are the correct tension - we ended up tightening them after this photo. Without the shaft wraps the shafts kept riding up and becoming unstable, so we put the wraps back on, looped them through the shaft loops and it worked much better.
We've tightened the holdback straps in this photo but I'm wondering if we might need to move the footman loops (these are made from pipe clamps). In any case we need to get bigger pipe clamps because the thickness of the holdback straps means it's tricky to thread them through. Are you only supposed to thread them through once? We need to ensure the buckles are facing out so they don't rub Koby. Is the britchen at the right height? I also lowered the breast strap because it was very tight over his withers; he seemed happier about that.
We've now covered the bolts attaching the shaft assembly to the steering arm of the wagon with a piece of agricultural pipe (not shown in this photo). I was a bit nervous that the ends of the bolts might cut Koby if the back of his hind legs made contact with the assembly before we had it fitted correctly, or in the event he gets a fright. The end result doesn't look pretty but it's functional and safer
One thing that became very obvious was how wide an arc we needed to walk Koby in order to turn him successfully. I'm not sure if we were doing something wrong or something is still not fitting correctly, but if we tried to turn him in a tighter circle the britchen slid sideways and the shafts went a bit awry, so that the end result was Koby not positioned squarely in the whole rig and being rather uncomfortable until we straightened it all up. However the final turn we asked him to do was before we tightened the holdback straps so maybe that was the issue and next time it will work better.
When I bought the harness a couple of years ago it didn't come with any instructions. It was fully assembled when I unpacked it and I had no idea what all the extra straps were for (e.g. shaft wraps, holdback straps). We might be progressing at a glacial pace but at least I'm learning what all the bits are for
. It's great to read about everything from a theoretical perspective in books but for me it doesn't come together in my head until I'm actually using the equipment and asking questions to you guys.
As always, any suggestions as to how to improve this set-up would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Taking the assembly to bits
Apologies for the poor quality of this photo; it's another frame from a video. We've made the corners of the rear section of the shaft assembly squarer than they were. No parts were available to enable making it completely square but at least now it is more closely aligned to the width of the wagon. I've removed the nylon rope from the singletree per Nanno's suggestion. Each trace has been extended by buckling a strong nylon dog collar onto it. I'm going to have to do something about the carabiners which attach the traces to the singletree though - they are way too small and fiddly to work with when they need to be attached/detached without delay (they came with the harness). I also need to fashion some keepers for the loose ends. I think the hold back straps are too slack in this photo, is this correct? And I'm not sure if the traces are the correct tension - we ended up tightening them after this photo. Without the shaft wraps the shafts kept riding up and becoming unstable, so we put the wraps back on, looped them through the shaft loops and it worked much better.
We've tightened the holdback straps in this photo but I'm wondering if we might need to move the footman loops (these are made from pipe clamps). In any case we need to get bigger pipe clamps because the thickness of the holdback straps means it's tricky to thread them through. Are you only supposed to thread them through once? We need to ensure the buckles are facing out so they don't rub Koby. Is the britchen at the right height? I also lowered the breast strap because it was very tight over his withers; he seemed happier about that.
We've now covered the bolts attaching the shaft assembly to the steering arm of the wagon with a piece of agricultural pipe (not shown in this photo). I was a bit nervous that the ends of the bolts might cut Koby if the back of his hind legs made contact with the assembly before we had it fitted correctly, or in the event he gets a fright. The end result doesn't look pretty but it's functional and safer
One thing that became very obvious was how wide an arc we needed to walk Koby in order to turn him successfully. I'm not sure if we were doing something wrong or something is still not fitting correctly, but if we tried to turn him in a tighter circle the britchen slid sideways and the shafts went a bit awry, so that the end result was Koby not positioned squarely in the whole rig and being rather uncomfortable until we straightened it all up. However the final turn we asked him to do was before we tightened the holdback straps so maybe that was the issue and next time it will work better.
When I bought the harness a couple of years ago it didn't come with any instructions. It was fully assembled when I unpacked it and I had no idea what all the extra straps were for (e.g. shaft wraps, holdback straps). We might be progressing at a glacial pace but at least I'm learning what all the bits are for
. It's great to read about everything from a theoretical perspective in books but for me it doesn't come together in my head until I'm actually using the equipment and asking questions to you guys. As always, any suggestions as to how to improve this set-up would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Happiness is a baby goat snoring in your lap