One Harness, Two Horses

Every once in a while, we get asked if someone can use one harness on two different horses.  The short answer is “sometimes”.  The long answer comes next in this article.

Obviously, the closer the horses are in body style and measurements, the more likely you can use one harness with both horses.  As much as some people would like, you can’t use a pony harness on a draft horse or a horse harness on a mini. It’s not even good to try to use a pony harness on a mini!  I’ve seen it attempted, but not only does it look ridiculous, it isn’t safe to do, either! 

The horses don’t need to be the same height, just similar body measurements to use the same harness.  We have Welsh Ponies of Cob Type (Section C).  We can use the same harness on our 12.2 hand gelding as well as a 13.2 hand mare.  Their body measurements are very similar.  The gelding is a little shorter bodied, so we have to shorten the turnback (backstrap) on the harness, but it works.

With full size horses and above, inches matter.  With small ponies and minis, quarter inches matter.  The difference of one or two inches on a full horse’s breeching, for example, isn’t going to matter that much.  With a mini, two inches smaller or larger can mean not fitting at all!  There is only so much room on the little ones!  Our Welsh ponies I describe above are four inches apart in height. We just got a weanling Section A Welsh colt. He will probably finish out at 11.2 or so.  He will be about four inches shorter than my 12.2 Section C gelding.  However, the Section C is so much thicker than the Section A will be, that they will definitely need different harnesses.

Our Section C 12.2 gelding is considered "Medium Pony".

This is the half-brother of my new Section A colt.  He is a Small Pony. He won't fit in my Section C's harness.  His girth, chest, and especially his rear end is much smaller.  The head measurements are similar, but the bay above has a smaller head compared to his mother.

Let’s say you have two minis that are four inches apart in height, maybe 32” and 36”.  Unless that 37” mini has a 32” body with stilts for legs, you may definitely need two separate harnesses!  On the other hand, we had two 37” minis a number of years ago.  One was built more like a Thoroughbred, and the other a Morgan.  The finer mare took what would be considered an A-size harness.  The larger bodied gelding used a B-size harness.  It’s the body measurements that matter most.

Our larger-bodied 37" mini (black) wore a B-size mini harness.  The sorrel mare wore an A-size harness because she was finer bodied (and a lot less forward than the black gelding!).

One advantage of working with a reputable harness retailer, such as ourselves, is that you can generally mix and match parts.  You don’t need to purchase an entirely different harness if the measurements are close.  Let’s say that you have two horses, but one likes his hay a little more than the other.  You can just purchase a longer girth to go with the larger girthed horse.  Living in the north with cold winters, our ponies get the winters off, and to tell you the truth, I enjoy the break, too.  This means that we actually have longer early spring girths, and change over to shorter girths as they get fitter over the course of the summer.

There are some harness brands that have longer adjustment straps and more holes than other brands.  They are made to fit a larger variety of horses.  However, then you will have to accept the tails of the straps hanging down on harnesses that are just slightly “too big”.  They are not going to be “perfect” for a perfect showring turnout.  In some shows, that won’t matter at all, or very little compared to other shows.  Not having a perfect fit with every strap not on a middle hole may be a small sacrifice to make to not have to purchase a separate harness for each horse.  (For more on what constitutes a perfect turnout, see this article: The Mysterious Turnout Class.)  Once you get more invested in the sport of carriage driving, you can always upgrade your harnesses later. 

Changing out or adjusting parts of the harness on the body of the horse is generally easy enough.  However, I HIGHLY suggest that if you want to use one harness with two horses, get each horse their own bridle.  Adjusting the harness bridle is a pain, and you will find that you just won’t drive one horse so that you don’t have to adjust the bridle to drive it.  Ask me how I know!

Each horse may have a preference for a different bit, as well as a different sized mouth, too.  I don’t think that we have two ponies in the same bit right now!  It is also highly important that the bridle fits each horse extremely well.  If the bridle is too small, it could cause some major irritation to the horse.  If the bridle is too big, it risks falling off!

Each of our ponies has their own bridle for that reason.  We have enough pieces around that when we get a new pony or start working with a young one, we can change out the browband or noseband to fit.  We actually keep a number of lengths of jaw straps in the tack room to make double buckle nosebands fit different size heads.  (That is one advantage of the double buckle noseband vs. a single buckle one, which you have to replace entirely for a different size.)

If you eventually plan on driving those horses together as a pair, be sure to order the breast collar with pair rings to eventually be hooked to the carriage pole.  You can’t add those later.  They need to be sewn in.  We have a number of single harnesses that have pair rings on the breast collars so that we could purchase a second harness to match up with the first.

All in all, yes, you can use one harness with two horses, as long as they are similar in body measurements.  And you can get additional parts to make one harness work.  However, do yourself a really big favor and get a bridle that fits for each horse.