Thomas is a pretty decent animal and works well for me. The wooden hames that he is wearing were made from ash. Bob Powell sent me a paper pattern of a hame from the Fenland, Cambridgeshire, England. He grew up in that area and has a great love for the working of heavy horses. Since my area of Western New York State was heavily influenced by English and German farmers, I decided to make Thomas that early style rope harness. Bob was a great help through the process. I still need to make a proper leather strap for the bottom of the hames, but they are working well for now.
J. Matthew Schofield, Manager of Historic Trades and Agriculture, Genesee Country Village and Museum mschofield@gcv.org
A reminder that harness making can be a “cottage industry” as long as skills and materials are available.
It is a little hard to say for sure from a single picture, but some people might feel that the collar is too small on this horse, because it doesn’t appear to be sitting in the “shoulder bed”. But the farmer/ author says that it is working fine. So the picture also reminds me that the ultimate way to judge harness fit is to assess how well the animal works while wearing it.