Reshaping Harness Collars
Kristi Kingma
www.teamdonk.org

It seems I’m always finding something I would like to fix. Bugging me for some time has been the way the hames fit around the collars; they seem to gap instead of seating into the groove, hence the hames were wider than the collars. One solution would be to have the hames bent to custom fit. The only problem with that is I have not been satisfied with the way the collars fit the donkeys. To me they look to long and narrow. One morning I happened to notice how tight Luc’s collar fit against his shoulder, almost pinching it. I also noticed some white hairs in that spot. Another clue was he was not pulling his share of the load all the time. I knew he must be sore and that something had to be done right then and there.

Harnessing Galahad I also noticed how tight the collar fit against his shoulder. It was not as tight as Luc’s and yet it was way too snug. Because he has so much extra length to his collar I was using a neck pad to help with the fit. The next smaller collar size was too small.

These are half sweeney, all purpose collars. While at the Sandpoint, Idaho Draft Horse Show I purchased a collar from the Big Sky Harness Shop out of Billings, Montana. The gentleman in the booth told me how to reshape my new collar to help it fit better. That stored information suddenly down loaded into my thoughts.

This is how I was able to change the shape of my non fitting collars. Run boiling water into a tub large enough to almost submerge the collar, the top of the neck did not need to change so I kept it above the water line. Out of the water heater our water temperature is around 140 degrees. Soak your collar for 10 to 15 minutes. When you bring it out of the tub measure from the bottom of the neck leather insert that runs underneath the top of the collar down the side 8 inches, then measure across to get your before measurement. Place the bottom of the collar on the floor and sit or it or push down on the top. You will see it expand and flatten out on the bottom. Keep it in this shape for a few minutes. Take another measurement in the same place and you should see about a one inch width improvement. Ideally you should place the collar on the neck, hitch and go to let it conform to the neck while still hot. Since I had just been out on my drive and the pours of the leather were open I oiled the collars and hung them upside down to dry. The collar reshaping took 45 minutes to do 3 collars.

The result was the collar Galahad had been wearing with the neck pad fit him perfectly and the pad was no longer needed. Luc’s collar expanded enough to give him more neck width room; this is the one I widen out one and a half inches making it the perfect length.

After the collars had cooled and were set I was able to see how the hames were going to fit the newly reshaped collars. By setting up the harness on a sawhorse I could simply adjust the top hames strap to seat the hames into the grooves of the collar. Perfect fit!

If you are unhappy with your hamess or collars you might try this solution, it certainly worked for Teamdonk!