Driving 3abreast for the first time

Today was a great day.  We had temps in the 70s with some cloud cover.  It was the kind of day where I knew I needed to work the horses.  I decided that I wasn't just going to work the horses, I was going to drive Pam, Nellie, and Rachael together in the 3-abreast hitch.


There are a few ways you can hitch up your lines.  One way is to buy a set of 3-up lines, this is like normal team lines but with 2 cross-check lines.  This leaves one set of lines in your hands, and those are hooked to each horses bit.

This is Doc Hammil adjusting a set of 3-up lines

Another way is to use your team lines on the outside horses, with both cross checks going to the center horse.  You then have to create your own cross-check lines that hook from the inside bit of each outside horse, to the hame of the inside horse.

This picture shows the team lines hooked.  A and B point to the extra cross-check lines added from the outside horses to the inside horse

Another way it to use the team lines on two horses side by side, and then use a jockey stick.  The jockey stick attaches to the outside bit of the lone outside horse, and then another line hooks to both bits, and to the belly band of the center horse.  The picture below and the writings with it are from the Rural Heritage forum.  Check out the discussion at:  Rural Heritage Forum on jockey stick

I finally understand better about a jockey stick. It's a bar that has two flattened ends with snaps attached to both ends. The purpose is to keep 2 horses at the distance from each other that the driver wants them to be. That's the bar that is going from B to C. It's snapped into the bit ring (F) on the side farthest away from the horse next to him. The other end (C) is snapped into the hames of the horse near him. In that shot of the 5 from the front, you'll see the driver's used one between the stallion and mare, and on the other side of the tongue, there are 2 jockey sticks, keeping distance between all 3.

That bale string has a purpose, too. Tying it between the bit ring (E) and the hames chain (D) keeps that stallion from turning his head toward the mare next to him.

Besides those two things, he had a tie back that isn't visible in any of the pictures. Note the additional ring (A) that you can see at the bit ring closest to the camera. It is the end of one of two straps, going from either side of the bit, back to a ring on the mare's harness. The purpose of that was to keep that stallion just a little behind the mare.

I don't have 3-up lines, so that eliminated the first option.  My pal Pat gave me a jockey stick and the strap needed for that, but for a first time running the girls 3-abreast, I just didn't feel good about it.  I really wanted something where I felt like I had control over each horse.  This made me decide to try the second option.  Also, I decided that I was going to put my good team (Pam and Rachael) on the outsides as they normally line up, and the new "trainee" (Nellie) on the inside. 

For the cross-check lines from horse to horse, I had heard that lead ropes could be used.  I was going to use that method, however, then I had an even better idea.  I noticed the nice tie straps on the sides of my team harness (you know, the pretty straps on the side that never get used for anything).  I used these straps as cross checks.  So I hooked the team lines up like you normally would, and I took each tie strap, and I looped it through the hame ring on the inside horse and hooked both snaps on the horses bit.  It happened to be the perfect length.  What a great little hidden trick I discovered there.

Since this was the first time doing this, I decided that I really wanted the horses hooked together in the front and back.  For the front, I hooked the horses as pairs with 2 yokes.  This can be seen in later pictures.  For the rear, I also hooked the horses as pairs using the tugs.  (I discussed this trick previously in the blog.  It's where you hook the two outside tugs of a team together in back to keep their butts together.  For 3 horses, the inside horse just had both tugs used and was teamed up with each outside horse).  The rear view picture below will show this pretty good.

With the lines hooked up, and the horses front and rear ends hooked together, it was time to drive.  I decided that I was only going to ground drive the girls today.  I want to make sure that we have a good time before I move to a sled.  I untied the girls, and with a single set of lines in my hands, away we went.

The girls did GREAT!  Well, at first Pam was being lazy, but a little slap of the line to her butt got her up even with the other two.  They were VERY easy to drive.  I was surprised.  I stopped and started randomly to help make sure the girls knew what we were doing.

Pam, Nellie, and Rachel.  This was one of our stops.  If you look close, you can see how I hooked the tugs together to keep their rear ends together.

 I did find one problem with this setup while ground driving.  When starting out one time, Nellie, my center horse, didn't step out.  This caused Rachel and P am, both outside horses, to turn inward and come face to face with each other.  Not good.  We had a few prancy horses as they got confused, but a few slaps to Nellies butt got her stepping forward and solving the problem.  I think if I had the horses hooked to the sled this wouldn't have happened because the tugs would have all been connected to the triple tree.  This would have kept Rachel and Pam from being able to walk too far ahead and turn into each other.

Rachel, Nellie, Pam, and the teamster.  See that grin on my face!  :)  This was just way fun. 

My 3 pretty ladies.  Rachel, Nellie, and Pam.  (Note the two yokes hooking each horse together in front)

What a great day!  The horses did great and I was very pleased with them.  I am very excited to know that from this time forward, I can use all 3 girls when I do farm work.  This will make the job just that much easier on my girls.  WOO HOO!  I can now check off another thing off my "to do" list with the horses.  I'm on cloud 9.

Here are the 3 girls parked after an afternoon of ground driving.  I really have some well behaved girls.

Next time we do this, I'll be hooking up the pioneer forecart and then hooking the sled to the back of that.  It's gonna be fun!