Carriage Driving 101

2001 1-ton HD dually Chevrolet flatbed truck

Harnesses, harness parts, miscellaneous items

    Smuckers synthetic harness

    Full collars and hames

    Breeding hobble

    Leather reins

Carriages for Sale

    Restored Back-to-Back Village Cart

    Hilander 4

    Three G Hilander Carriages   

Carriage Repair, Tuneup, and Detailing

    Mary's marathon carriage

    Mary's Meadowbrook

    Rich's sleigh

Carriage Driving 101

in the winter months of 2009 and 2010, the staff at Three G Farms and Midwest Driving Company (Earl Morris, Jada Neubauer, Tad Morris and Mary Winter) presented a series of seminars entitled Carriage Driving, designed primarily for people who want to start driving horses or ponies.  The seminars covered the basics, from selecting horse, harness, and carriage, through training a horse to drive, and ending with a discussion of driving events and competitions. An important (perhaps THE most important) element of the seminar was safety, from ground manners of a safe driving horse, through maintenance of harness and carriage to prevent equipment failure, to safety first in competitions. PowerPoint presentations that contain both still photos and audio-video clips were used to present the material.

The seminars are now available for purchase on a DVD. The six topics are:

I.  Selecting Horse and Harness

II.  Carriage Selection, Maintenance and Safety

III.  Harnessing and Hitching Safely

IV.  Training Your Horse to Drive

V.  Driving Events and Competitions

VI.  Event Preparation for Horse and Human

    Smuckers synthetic harness, $400 plus shipping

    This harness was Earl's marathon harness for his 13-2 pony, Joe.  It has not been used since November, 2008.  It is in excellent condition. It is black with stainless hardware.  The lining of the saddle, breeching and breast collar is brown waffle weave.  There is neither bridle nor reins because Earl always used Joe's dressage bridle and reins with this harness, so the pony only needed to use a single bridle for everything.  The tugs are French tugs, not customary loops or quick-release tugs.  Both the breeching and the breast collar measure 35" when measured flat.

Full collars and hames, $40 for each collar, $50 for each set of hames plus shipping

We have five pony-sized full collars for sale, along with three sets of hames. 

• Two collars close with a brass clasp.  Their sizes are 17" x 7.75" and 18" x 8.25"
• Two collars close with a stainless buckle and strap.  Their sizes are 18" x 8.25" and 17" x 8".
• One collar closes with a black clasp.  It is 18" x 8"

The collars are all basic collars, not the fancy "K" collars.  They are in excellent condition. The hames are adjustable and will fit any of the collars.  All hames accept 1" traces.

Breeding Hobble, $10 plus shipping

The breeding hobble is used to keep the mare from kicking when being bred.  It consists of a soft, padded collar connected with a pulley to a cuff that is fastened around one of the mare's rear legs. It is very effective, protecting both mare and stallion. 

Leather reins, $30 plus shipping

Brown leather reins, brass buckles.  3/4 inch by 12 feet. 

Carriages for Sale

Restored Back-to-Back Village Cart  $4700

In the late 1990's, we purchased a back-to-back village cart at the Waverly Horse Sale.  Originally built in the 1890's, the cart was in tough shape, beginning with the ugly green and red paint.

The cart sat in the barn until the spring of 2010, when we began restoring it.  As you can tell from the "before" and "during" photos, the wooden parts of the carriage could not be used if we were to build a safe carriage.  The carriage was totally dismantled and rebuilt, using the original hardware (wheel hubs, spring hardware, brackets, foot rail, and latches), with new wooden parts.

The wheels were rebuilt by Steve Waddell of Chamberlain Hill Carriage Works in Buffalo, Minnesota, who kept the original staggered spoke design.

The body and basket were recreated by Earl, Tad, and Ron Morris (Ron is Earl's brother) with the craftsmanship techniques of earlier times, such as through-tenon joinery. 

The cart is painted a deep blue, with natural shafts and box.  All wood was finished by Tad using his signature marine finish.  The final touch is upholstered back-to-back seats with a unique rolled seat back between them created by Accurate Auto Trim of Ames.  Accurate Auto also sewed the black patent leather dash over the frame built by Tad. 

The cart is light weight (only 220 pounds) and is museum-, competition-, and parade-ready.  It fits a 11-13 hand pony.

Important measurements:

Wheels:  36" including rubber

Ground to top of the shafts when the shafts are parallel to the ground:  31"

Ground to seat:  42"

Width between the shafts at the singletree:  28"

Width between the shafts at narrowest point:  21"

Singletree to end of the shafts:  68"

Hilander 4  $2500

Hilander 4 is the fourth Hilander Carriage built by Three G Farms (see Three G Hilander Carriages, below, for a general description of the Hilander carriage).  Hilander 4 was built especially for Earl Morris and his 13-2 hand pony, Three G San Jose, now residing in central Pennsylvania.  When Mary Winter started driving Marek, her 14-2 pony, the carriage was modified with higher wheels and a higher seat to adjust for the taller pony.  The carriage has been lightly used (driven less than 10 times in the season) in 2008. 2009, and 2010.  It has always been stored inside with the shafts on a carriage stand.  It is in near-new condition.   The asking price is $2500.

The crucial measurements for Hilander 4 are:

• 44" wheels

• 49" ground to bench seat

• 39" to top of shafts when shafts are parallel to the ground

• 34" between shafts at singletree

• 26" between shafts at narrowest point

• 70" from tip of shafts to singletree

For additional measurements or additional information, contact Mary Winter, mary@threegfarms.com, 515-450-104

Three G Hilander Carriages

Tad Morris, (tadm164@yahoo.com, 515-460-6298) the newest member of the Three G Farms staff, is working with his dad to design and custom-build the Three G Hilander, a front-entry road cart with carriage springs mounted parallel to the wheels .  The basic carriage is natural wood that is stained and then finished with several coats of a marine finish that is easy to maintain and stands up well over time.  The basic carriage has black-painted hardware and a bench seat covered with a heavy-duty vinyl.  When the carriage is ordered, the buyer selects the stain and the color of the upholstery.  Additional features available for an added cost are brass or chrome hardware and a painted (rather than natural) finish.

It's done! The very first Three G Hilander Carriage, designed and handcrafted by Tad J. Morris and Earl W. Morris, with the assistance of Brian Morris, Jada Neubauer, and Mary Winter! The carriage features:

After completing the carriage, Tad took it to the dressage arena for clear photos from different angles:

The Hilander was officially inaugurated at the Gayla Bluegrass CDE May 19-20, when both Jo Schumacher and Gene Rhinehart used it for dressage and cones.  (Creative carriage sharing let us get 6 competitors to the event in only three vehicles!  Click on "Where to Meet Us" tales of the event and more pictures.)

Photo by Randy Farwell.  Used with permission.

Photo by Randy Farwell.  Used with permission.

Photo by Katy Rhinehart.  Used with permission.

Photo by Randy Farwell.  Used with permission.

The welds were hardly cool on the first Hilander when the second was started, this time for Denise Loewe and her pony, Daisy.  Daisy is about the same height as Toby, but Denise has longer legs than Jo does, so adjustments had to be made.  In addition, the team revamped the design to put the drop heel of the shafts on top of the springs, for a better ride.  The carriage was delivered Wednesday, May 28.  It left on the moving truck headed for Loewes' new home in Florida the next day!  We will miss Denise, Mark, and Kyle.  But it is cool to know that a Three G Hilander will be driven at events in another part of the country!

For more information or to order your Hilander, contact Tad Morris, 515-460-6298, tadm164@yahoo.com.

Carriage Repair, Tuneup, and Detailing

Tad Morris  (tadm164@yahoo.com, 515-460-6298) ffers a safety tuneup service for marathon carriages that includes, packing wheel bearings, checking and adjusting brakes, a check of all moving parts, such as the fifth wheel on 4-wheeled carriages, tightening all bolts, and touch-up painting.  Also available is a complete repainting of the marathon carriage.  Tad also offers detailing for all carriages, including a thorough cleaning and minor paint/finish touchup.  Repairs for wooden carriages (Meadowbrooks and road carts) include the repair and strengthening of broken parts and refinishing or repainting where needed.  The cost of these services is based on parts and a per-hour shop charge.

Mary's marathon carriage

One of the first things Tad did was tune-up and paint Mary's marathon carriage.  The tuneup included checking all nuts and bolts, checking the brakes, greasing the wheels, and a new paint job.

Mary's Meadowbrook

Mary's competition carriage for dressage and cones is the very first carriage purchased by Three G Farms:  a cob-sized meadowbrook from Colonial Carriage, purchased in 1999. The carriage has served us well.  Hank competed in it, as did some of our earlier competition ponies:  Frieda, Fan, and SL Rey.  But the years of almost constant use had taken its toll, particularly on the shafts, the cross-piece, and the single tree.  The carriage needed to be taken down to the boards, stripped, refinished, and reassembled.  The idea was that refinishing her meadowbrook would be Mary's winter project (no pun intended!)  As soon as the 2007 competition season was over, she began the task of taking it apart.  She was done with the job (including removing the bazillion staples holding the shaft trim in place.  What a ghastly job!) shortly before Christmas.  She had just begun the task of stripping off the old finish when she broke a corner off the tibia plateau behind her left knee in a fall on the ice. 

So Tad took over the tasks of completing the stripping, restaining, refinishing, reassembly, and the addition of the shaft trim.  And what GREAT job he did!  The carriage looks like new!  Tad used the same marine finish that he uses on the Hilander, so it is tough and impervious to water.  As he was reassembling the carriage, he came into the house (where Mary was stuck in a chair for 12 long weeks as her bone break healed), and asked, "Did you know that the boards of the basket are numbered?"  Mary replied, "Uh . . yes . . . I'm the one who numbered them as I took the carriage apart!

Rich's sleigh

Rich Nelson brought a damaged sleigh to Three G Farms for repair.  Tad Finished and installed new shafts, repaired the broken wood on dash and dash supports, and  repainted the entire carriage.  Rich was very pleased with the result!