22 July 2010

Crupperless? Observations and thoughts

The midge season is easing up and so are the clegs (horse flies). They haven't been so bad this year as last year and the year before but poor Ruby still has a series of patches of bare skin where she has scratched horsefly bites over the past couple of weeks. She has two bare areas at the end of her dock as well - though they are mostly hidden by the rest of her luxuriant tail. I guess this is an area that isn't quite covered by her "fly knickers" ear-to-tail sheet. Anyway, since the flies _have_ been getting at her despite all my attempts to prevent them, which means her tail is itchy when we first put-to, the crupper became a small issue and one I didn't intend to make any bigger. Taking into account some of the discussions on here, and the fact that I needed to do some mending anyway on breeching hip straps and crupper, I got brave and took a sharp knife to several straps.

First I trimmed off the worn ends of the hip straps. The centre, the broad strap from which the two straps divide, is fine, so I kept that and trimmed the ends to a shallow V. I had a pair of tough single-strap hip straps that no longer fit any other harnesses, and have seen very little use, and don't fit either pony, so I cut them to size, skived the upper ends and made new ends for my hip strap out of them. Then I punched one hole in the centre by which I could rivet or lace the hip strap in a central position onto the crupper back strap, through a similar hole made where the hip strap normally lies, in its slot. That secured the breeching so it couldn't slide sideways in use - the crupper backstrap now having only the single attachment to the saddle, I didn't want it being dragged out of place accidentally. Though I wondered about the wisdom of fixing something that normally has a degree of slide, just as the sliding backband does. I trimmed the end of the crupper backstrap to make it look tidy, and put the crupper away among the spare straps.

The first fitting was interesting. I could see at once that the hip strap which has always sat directly over the top of Ruby's croup was not going to stay there now the crupper no longer held the backstrap in position. It looked, in fact, as though it would slide forward. That would put unacceptable stress on the rear hipstrap of the breeching so I lengthened the backstrap three holes to make the hip strap sit further behind her hip bones. Moving the hip strap behind the top of her croup lowered the breeching seat half an inch so I had to take up the hip straps by one hole all round.

I was very careful to adjust the tightness of the breeching straps on the shafts so there was just the right amount of slack in the breeching seat when the traces were taut. I didn't want the seat flapping about uncontrollably with any strong rhythmic motion like a good trot.

Then we went out for a drive.

It was a bit unnerving to watch the backstrap moving, but after a while I got used to the extra movement and was sure that the single rivet was enough to keep the whole thing centred. What I think I was seeing was the natural movement of the hip strap, that previously slid in the slot, shifting the backstrap. Ruby appeared unbothered by this extra bit of "flap" (more movement at trot of course), though I wondered how a green horse might have reacted!

We mostly walked that first time out, but today I've been observing again at both walk and trot. The hip strap wanted to lie forward at its normal place, since this was the right vertical position for its suspension of the breeching seat; and this shift forward inevitably slackened the backstrap. I think the only solution to that would be a shorter breeching seat, which would require longer breeching straps. I'm not ready to do all that.

I needed to shorten the hip straps by another hole all round, today. That made the breeching seat look a bit tight as it rose round Ruby's quarters, but on the move, walk or trot, it was fine.

Overall, the crupperless test has shown up how important it is to get the fit of the breeching correct. My harness which worked fine when both ends of the crupper backstrap were connected to saddle and under the tail, became far more obviously reactive to Ruby's big movement when the crupper was removed and the hipstrap fixed to the backstrap. The hip strap has a place where it's neutral, taking very little strain and holding the breeching seat at the correct height, but this doesn't coincide,on this harness and this pony, with the right place for working crupperless. It's also interesting that the usual "purpose" given for the use of a crupper, to steady the saddle when going downhill, appears not to hold true; the absence of the crupper had no bearing whatsoever on the behaviour of the saddle, which didn't move... because I had my breeching fitted correctly. And I now know two reasons why farm backstraps that are crupperless, have a padded lining underneath - one is to absorb the "flap" and the other is to hold the crupper more rigid along the back so that "flap" is minimised.

I'm already planning to sew a dee or a ring onto the end of my own crupper backstrap, round which I can put a pair of straps to hold the crupper, once I've replaced its single rather small buckle with two wider ones. This will give me the option of working crupperless when Ruby's got an itchy tail or dock - and it happens annually, so she needs this option - but of replacing the crupper for the rest of the year. I might do some testing with a shorter breeching seat that's hanging on one of the harness racks, too. I could swop that in for the crupperless periods and go back to the main harness once the fly season is over.

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23 July 2010

Did another test today - and took photos. I'm not sure I'm quite happy with the new position of the breeching hip straps; setting them well back keeps the crupper backstrap in position, but although I've shortened the hipstraps to lift the breeching seat back to its normal level, something's still not quite right. I feel the seat may ride up if Ruby does her big trot. When we passed a neighbour who turned on his weed sprayer quite close to us, Ruby startled and the seat rose a bit high, which it doesn't do in its normal position - this may be due to the trace carriers lying that bit further back, ie the breeching seat ring where they attach is now further away from the traces as they run down to the swingletree. This might be tipping the breeching seat down at front and up at back when the traces are taut. Another run needed, perhaps, with longer trace carriers, to see if that makes a difference.

I'm definitely going to replace the crupper this weekend, on a detachable basis.

Photos in my Sue Millard folder, and two videos on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjNnNsOX5jU and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jgE96nGUXg

I know you all need pictures of a horse's ass to study over the weekend!

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25 July 2010

Decided in the end, though, to go back to the crupper. If I were to go down the crupperless route, I'd probably make a new set of breeching hip straps and backstrap on the spider pattern, that divides from a ring right at the backstrap and can sit fore-and-aft of the hip bone. I think mine divide too far down and flap too much without the extra anchorage of the crupper. But my rebuild has given me a few more holes to play with for adjustment during fitting, so it's not all bad :)

25 Sept 2009

Be wary of simply removing the crupper-dock from a standard setup. If you have a hip strap that slides through the crupper backstrap you'll also need to fix that centrally to the backstrap in some way to stop the breeching seat slipping sideways, one side high and the other low. Spider breeching is fixed to a central ring (I believe - have not seen anything other than side view photos) so it should always hang level.

Someone said cruppers were a hangover from work harness - that depends, as always, what kind of work harness. Plough and logging harness in England doesn't have a breeching to support, or shafts to carry, or any way of braking, so it doesn't need a backstrap or a crupper; it only has a strap over the back at the girthline, to check the the trace-chains. Some heavy cart harnesses only had a padded short strap carrying the breeching and hip straps; it didn't extend to the tail.

When I'm judging light carriage classes over here, I expect the girth to be snug, but not tight, and the backband and tugs should allow the shafts to float easily. I lift the shaft tip to see that this is possible, and to gauge how much weight is on the horse's back. Single horses/ponies here in the UK, with 2 wheeled vehicles, use the sliding backband and oval open tugs - we don't wrap our shafts or tie them down. I saw one small Shetland having to put up with tight backband and slack girth at a show this summer and the whole harness moved sideways when he turned or trotted, poor fellow. I did offer advice to his driver afterwards! The crupper-length fit for our English turnouts is just to be able to turn your hand's width under the strap, from saddle to tail, over the croup. A bit less for smaller ponies, obviously. You don't want the strap tight, but equally the crupper should not "hang" under the tail.

The breeching seat and straps should be fitted to act as brake before the crupper and the backband and tugs come into play. That usually means relatively high, round the fattest bit of the quarters. It also means the traces are best a tiny bit longer than you think is right, so that when the pony is in draught, the tugs lie a bit forward of the tug-stops on the shafts. Webbing traces are friendly in this respect because they can look spot-on for fit when standing, but will stretch a little under tension so that gives you the play you need in the breeching seat to allow movement, but still permit the breeching to act as brake before the other bits of the harness are affected.

But again, this kind of adjustment is only possible with the loose backband and SBB saddle. The American wrap strap setup is much more difficult to adjust to be horse friendly, IMO.

Rambling, now, sorry.