CHAPTER IV. Curricle and Cape-Cart.

CURRICLE AND CAPE-CART.

WHEN it is desired to drive a pair, but owing to the expense, lack of carriage accommodation, or other reasons, the purchase of an extra carriage is inconvenient, an ordinary dog-cart can be fitted with a pole and adapted for a pair of ponies or horses at a very small cost. In such a case however the pole of the dog-cart, having nothing to support it with the ordinary double harness, would fall to the ground, and it would therefore be necessary to adopt one of the two following methods of draught:—

The first of these systems is the smarter in appearance, while the other is more suitable for rough work. I will begin by discussing the Curricle.

An extra board will therefore probably have to be fitted right across the bottom of the cart, the ordinary boarding of which the bottom of a dog-cart is usually made being too thin and flimsy to resist the strain which the pole loop will put on it. Should this loop tear out, or the board to which it is fixed give way, a very serious accident may occur.

The pole must of course fit both loops accurately, and it must be secured in them by a bolt passing through it and preventing it from being drawn out.

Underneath the pole at the point where the supporting strap will come there should be a strong spring (fig. 11), which will do away with much of the jar on the pole itself, and also on the backs of the horses; and if it is likely that a team of four will be driven, the pole should be made with a hook at the end to take the swingle bars.

To the dog-cart itself no other alterations are necessary. The addition of the pole does not affect the balance to any appreciable extent.

These must be strong and heavy, and fitted with special roller bolts, on which the steel curricle bar rests (fig. 12). They require to be heavy and strong, because at times the pole will put a considerable weight on them, more particularly when going down hill.

On each side they have a leather loop like those on a tandem pad, and through these the traces are passed. In the bolts on the top of the pads is pivoted a small steel roller. The curricle bar rests on the rollers, and by their action is enabled to work freely from side to side, or from one horse towards the other, without any friction or noise. The rollers can be raised or lowered about a couple of inches, so that should the horses be of unequal height the bar can be levelled by raising or dropping one end of it.

The traces are the same as for single harness.

If the cart is fitted with a swingle bar for single harness, the steel chains which connect the bar to the axle can perfectly well be used as pole chains, in which case it would be unnecessary to purchase new ones.

Ponies of fourteen hands or upwards, which would look too small for a full-sized dog-cart in single harness, and would be unable owing to its weight to draw it, look extremely well and make little of the weight when driven as a pair, and can thus be utilized in curricle when perhaps their services in harness would otherwise be lost.

A team of horses, or better still of ponies, can also be driven in the poled dog-cart, provided that the pole has the hook referred to before at the end of it.

Four horses look altogether too big, and the team is too long for the short cart behind it; but a team of ponies, although they also look rather too long, are very much better; and the slight disadvantage of appearance is well counterbalanced by the pleasure of driving them, and by the ease with which long distances can be covered without distress.

Given a good, comfortable, roomy dog-cart and four fairly-trained ponies which are really fit, and no more enjoyable way of travelling about a country can be found for two, three, or even four people. The weight to be drawn is so small compared to the horse-power employed, that all hills can be surmounted at a rapid pace, and long distances can be covered in a single day, without placing any undue strain on the cattle.

The bars, though considerably lighter, are exactly like the bars of a coach, while the leaders’ harness, it is hardly necessary to remark, is precisely the same.

Though collars can be used, breast harness is nearly always employed, and is much to be preferred on account of the breeching being much more effective than with collars; without a breeching the horses are apt to come back on to the splinter bar.

Neither cruppers nor pads are essential.

The breast harness is held up by straps which pass through the same pads as the yoke straps.

These latter are fixed near the middle of the yoke, and pass through pads on the horses’ withers to short buckling pieces attached near the outer ends of the bar.

A dog-cart can be adapted for the Cape-cart draught in exactly the same manner as previously described for curricle; the pole, however, should be rather longer.

Advocates of the Cape-cart claim the following advantages for it over the Curricle: that specially constructed heavy pads are not required, and that should one horse fall, there is very slight chance of his bringing down the other with him.

These two styles of draught are much used abroad, the latter in India, where it is known as “Tonga,” the former in South Africa, whence it derives its name. As far as utility goes there appears to be little between them.

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