Harness Equipment in Pictures

[Erica Olson]

The addition of the martingale this year got me wondering about what some of the harness equipment pieces actually look like when fitted on a Standardbred. I know some of you guys follow harness racing in real life, but I don't, so I'm a little shaky on the details.

The FAQ forum has an excellent description page about the function of each piece, but just for fun I thought I'd add some pictures here.

Blind Bridle - Model: Quarter Hops



Head Pole - Model: Devon Fancy



Shadow Roll - Model: Turning Into Stone



Boots
We train under the general category of 'boots,' but harness racers actually wear a variety of knee boots, shin boots, front tendon boots, and hind boots. Whew! I'm not clear if every horse wears all of those or if they just wear the particular ones they need. Tom? Joe? Do you know? Here's a horse with some knee boots and shin boots, and possibly some hind boots, although it's hard to tell with his dark legs.



Martingale - Model: RL mare Check Me Out



Tongue Tie - Harder to find something like this in the headshot rolls so I'll just repeat the image from the FAQ.

[Tom Lin]

Boots are generally used on an as needed basis in areas where they interfere or hit themselves. Trotters with high action up front may use elbow boots for example.