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:—

"Curricle." 1. That known as Curricle, in which a bar passing from one horse to the other over the pads supports the pole by means of a strap or brace.

"Cape-cart." 2. The system employed in what is generally known as the Cape-cart, in which the supporting bar passes through a ring near the end of the pole, and is held up by straps passing over the horses’ necks.

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.

"Cost of curricle." An ordinary dog-cart which has removable shafts can be fitted with the requisite gear, including the curricle bar and the pole chains, for about £10. The necessary alterations were made to my own dog-cart by Messrs. Heath of Aldershot, who had originally built it, but with no idea at the time it was made of having a pole eventually fitted to it. I found that it worked admirably from the first, and no subsequent alterations or repairs were necessary, there being in fact nothing at all likely to get out of order.

"How to fit dog-cart with a pole." To adapt the cart for pole draught, a large square iron loop must be fixed under the front of the cart, and a smaller one under the centre. The latter loop must be very strong and firmly fixed, as it has to take the extreme end of the pole, which at times puts on it a very great amount of strain.

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.

"Bars for attaching traces." For the attachment of the traces two bars must be provided for, and as the front of the cart will be too narrow for these to be fixed to it direct, iron stays projecting about six inches to either side can be screwed on underneath each end of the front of the cart. The bars can then be fixed to these stays by bolts passing through their centres. The bars will then revolve on their centres and give the horses’ shoulders plenty of play, enabling them to do their work with much comfort.

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

"Difference between curricle and ordinary double harness." With regard to the harness, the chief difference between curricle and ordinary double harness is in the pads.

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.

"Curricle bar." The bar should be made of steel, and must be long enough to give at least six inches play to the outside of each pad when the horses are standing square in their places. It has a small screw at each end, on which are screwed flat circular nuts to prevent the bar dropping out of the bolts and off the rollers. These are put on immediately the bar has been passed through the bolts, and are themselves secured and prevented from coming unscrewed by V-shaped steel ties, which pass through slits at the extreme ends of the bar. In the centre of the bar is a long-shaped loop or slit, through which the brace or supporting strap is passed (fig. 12).

"Supporting strap or brace." This brace should be a strong leather strap about three inches wide. It passes under the spring below the pole, through the slit in the bar, and is fastened by a large double buckle.

The traces are the same as for single harness.

"How to prevent pole tipping up." To prevent the pole from tipping up when the weight is on the back of the cart, a light strap, with a double buckle at each end of it, can be fastened to the end of the girth-strap of one of the pads under the horse, passed over the pole, and again buckled at the other end to the other horse’s girth-strap. This is an effectual remedy for the tilting up of the pole, even when a heavy man mounts suddenly on to the back seat. In all other respects the harness is the same as ordinary double 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.

"Cape-cart." In the Cape-cart, about eighteen inches from the end of the pole, comes a supporting bar or yoke, sometimes called a bugle, the use of which is to prevent the pole from falling to the ground. This bar, usually made of lance wood, about an inch in diameter, and five feet long, can be attached to the pole in several ways, but it is best so to arrange it that it can slide up and down the pole as well as from side to side. Perhaps the best and simplest attachment is obtained by passing a short strap with brass rings at each end of it round the pole, and then putting the yoke through the rings. The middle of the yoke ought to be covered with leather, to prevent it being chafed by the pole.

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.

"Makers of Cape harness." Messrs. Atkinson and Philipson of Newcastle-on-Tyne make a speciality of this kind of harness.

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.