Thursday, January 8, 2009
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A Blog designed for discussion of topics related to, but not limited to, Circus, Zoos, Animal Training, and Animal Welfare/Husbandry. Sometimes opening up the dialog is the best starting point of all. And if for nothing else when people who agree and don't agree, get together and start discussing it, it will open up a lot of peoples minds. Debate and discussion even amongst themselves opens a window where there wasn't one before.
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6 comments:
Knie's friesian's-I know because I love this harness. :)
Chris
Chris,
Nothing away from Knie's for sure, but the most beautiful Fresian harness is the red, white, and gold, with the tasseled hip drops, and the crown on the breast collars that Krone has. Rivaled only by the baby blue, patent leather with rhinestones, harness for the Palominos.
Wade
I definitely agree with you-they are one of a kind! I think Fredy Knie Sr. had a harness for his lippizans that had something like a small crown on top of the surcingle/ backpad--that was unique as well. Looking at this pic again, I wonder if this is Knie-don't they have a large awning above the backdoor?
Chris
Chris,
Ringling made beautiful harness for the 4 Belgiums for the 4 big and 4 little liberty act I trained. They were black patent leather with silver trim on the edges, and patent martingales with silver trim, and on the back was a silver ornament of a running horse, that spin around as the horses jogged, with matching black with silver trim headstalls. The minis were naked. But no feathers, as I don't care much for them.
Wade
I remember--they were beautiful. Didn't Tina Gebel and later Christina Moraru (Gebel) present that act? Wade, do you know the company who made those harnesses? The Col. kindly gave me the name of a place in Mexico, but i never got their contact info. I did find a place here in the USA that does custom show headstalls, but not full harness.
Thanks,
Chris
Chris,
Yes, they presented the act later. Two of the horses, brothers Tom and Jerry, the strawberry roans with the bob tails were originally purchased for Daniel Suskow, for the riding lions.
Harness making is truly a lost art in America Chris. That's why shows like Krone, Knie, employ a harness maker on the show who has been there for dozens of years and do nothing but make harness.
I fellow who made the draft harness has died. I found a fellow named Leroy Shockley in Missouri who made me beautiful harness for the white minis I trained for Raul Rodriques, but he has since died. I then found a fellow in Delevan, Wis. who made the harness for the National Show horses, and he has since died. If you can find a custom saddle maker, you will have to beg, plead, and grovel to get him to do a set. They are very time consuming for him, thus extremely expensive, and you will have to "supervise" almost daily to make sure they are done right, as they want to make them like a standard training surcingle, which they are not. Cruppers, check reins, over checks, martingales, all have to measured and made pretty exacting. The most beautiful sight in the world, surpassing the Louvre or the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, in my opinion is the harness room at the Krone Bau. Dozens and dozens of sets of old harness, polished and oiled, used for past liberty acts hanging in act/groups of 12 ready in case they are put back into service for a new group of horses.
The Mexican harness are just as the name describes. Like most Mexican leather, inferior but cheap. Mexican harness is a rhinestone, and good quality hand made harness is a diamond.
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