Horse collar
A horse collar is a component of horse harness designed to distribute the force of a load evenly across a horse's shoulders and chest, enabling efficient pulling of a load while not interfering with a horse's windpipe. Unlike earlier harness systems such as the throat-and-girth arrangement that restricted breathing and limited pulling power, the horse collar revolutionized draft work by allowing horses to exert their full strength without choking. This innovation dramatically increased agricultural productivity and transformed transportation, particularly in medieval Europe.
The collar typically encircles the lower neck in an oval shape and is padded to conform to the horse's anatomy. It supports a pair of rigid curved bars known as [|hames], which serve as anchor points for the traces—the straps or chains that connect the horse to the vehicle or load being pulled. By shifting the load-bearing surface to the shoulders, the horse collar enabled horses to outperform yoked oxen, making them indispensable in farming, freight, and urban development.
The widespread adoption of the horse collar around the 10th–12th centuries marked a turning point in rural economies. Horses could plough fields faster, haul heavier loads, and work longer hours, leading to surplus production, population growth, and the rise of market towns. This seemingly simple piece of tack played a pivotal role in the agricultural revolution and remains a cornerstone of draft harness systems today.
Design
Horse collars are typically constructed from leather or synthetic materials and padded with straw, foam, horsehair, or other fibers. The collar's oval shape is designed to encircle the horse's neck, maximizing contact with the shoulders and chest, while avoiding pressure on the windpipe. This anatomical alignment allows the horse to push forward with its hindquarters, engaging its full body strength.The primary types of collars are full collars, breast collars, and hybrid collars.
- Full collars, also called traditional collars, are best suited for heavy loads. They distribute weight broadly across the shoulder blades.
- Breast collars are designed as a wide strap that crosses the chest. Breast collars are used for lighter loads and faster hitching. If improperly fitted, they can press on the windpipe and restrict breathing.
- Hybrid collars are modern designs that offer flexibility for lighter work. These collars—which go by such names as sport collar, Hungarian collar, comfy collar, or Euro collar—start their construction similar to a breastcollar but then encircle the neck like a full collar, but without any hames, rigidity, or thick padding. Hybrid collars are popular with modern sport carriage driving such as competitive combined driving.
Hames
Hames are the rigid curved bars—usually made of wood or metal—that sit in the front-facing groove of a full collar. The hames are the rigid structure which maintains the shape and position of the collar; the collar pads the hames. The hames are the attachment point for the load—through the traces—and distributes the load onto the collar, and hence onto the horse's shoulders.All full collars have hames unless the collar is constructed in a manner where the function is incorporated into the collar itself. Hames come as a pair which are connected at the bottom and top by a strap or metal links. Hames are usually made of wood, steel, or a combination. Steel hames can be solid or tubular, plated with brass or a white metal, painted, or left bare steel. Carriage hames typically lie flush along the collar, whereas farm harness hames often extend above the collar and end in "horns". Hames have terrets mounted on them—rings through which the reins pass. A false martingale is a strap which runs from the bottom of the collar, between the horse's legs, and attaches to the girth; it helps to hold down the collar and assists in holding the hames to the collar. In the US, collars for draft horse showing or parades often sport a tall pointy extension called hames covers or a Scotch top.
Properly fitted hames must match the length and curvature of the collar. If misaligned, they can dig into the horse's withers or cause discomfort when the horse lowers its head. Modern hames often include adjustable buckles and reinforced joints to accommodate different collar styles and horse sizes.
History
Throat-and-girth harness
Long before the horse collar harness, there was the less efficient throat-and-girth harness. This, it was claimed, could be found in many ancient civilizations, according to early 20th century French cavalry officer Richard Lefebvre des Noëttes. This type of collar was supposedly used in ancient Chaldea, both Sumeria and Assyria, ancient Egypt during the New Kingdom, Shang dynasty China, Minoan Crete, Classical Greece, and ancient Rome. With this "ancient harness", ploughs and carts were pulled using harnesses that had flat straps across the neck and chest of the animal, with the load attached at the top of the collar, above the neck, in a manner similar to an oxen's yoke. These straps pressed against the horse's sterno-cephalicus muscle and trachea which restricted its breathing and reduced the pulling power of the horse. Thus, the harder a horse pulled, the more strongly it choked off its own breathing. Because of these supposed physical constraints, oxen were preferred over horses for heavy work, as ox anatomy doesn't have this problem; standard yokes don't choke oxen.In the 1970s, French riding teacher and carriage driver Jean Spruytte wrote that there were at least three early traction systems depicted in art, none of which choked the horses. Shoulder traction and breast traction artwork had been misinterpreted in a way that combined both systems but matched neither. This he sought to demonstrate by building reproduction chariots and harness, and testing with actual horses.
Breastcollar harness
The throat-girth design was not improved until the Chinese breast-strap or "breastcollar" harness developed during the Warring States era in China. The Chinese breast harness became known throughout Central Asia by the 7th century, and was introduced to Europe by the 8th century.Its first depiction in artwork was on lacquer-ware boxes from the ancient State of Chu. This type of harness put pressure upon the sternum, where the line of traction is directly linked with the skeletal system of the horse, allowing for nearly full exertion. It was in universal use by the time of the Chinese Han dynasty, depicted in artwork of hundreds of different carvings, stone reliefs, and stamped bricks showing it featured on horses pulling chariots. This type of breast-strap harness became known in Central Asia and elsewhere with the Avars, Magyars, Bohemians, Poles, and Russians during the 7th to 10th centuries. After Central Asia, the first breast-strap harness was spread to Europe by the 8th century, and became more widespread by the following 9th century.
The problem with a breastcollar harness was that the actual shafts of the cart, chariot, or other vehicle are attached to a surcingle around the barrel of the horse. The breastplate primarily kept the surcingle from slipping back, not as the primary pushing object. This results in the horse literally pulling the load, a less efficient use of the animal. The modern breastcollar has traces which transfer the pull directly from the breastcollar, but a horse collar still is more effective for pulling heavy loads.
China
After the breastcollar harness, the next and final evolutionary stage was the collar harness. The collar allows a horse to use its full strength when pulling, essentially allowing the horse to push forward with its hindquarters into the collar. The fully developed collar harness was developed in Southern and Northern dynasties China during the 5th century AD. The first questionable depiction of it in art appears on painted moulded-bricks in the Three Kingdoms era tomb of Bao Sanniang at Zhaohua, Sichuan province, China. These paintings display an amply padded horse collar with no sign of a yoke. However, the earliest legitimate depiction of it in art is on a Dunhuang cave mural from the Chinese Northern Wei dynasty, the painting dated to 477–499 AD. In this painting the arching cross bar is clear, but the artist failed to clearly show the cushioned collar behind it, without which the whole design would have been rendered useless.The same basic design is seen in other painted Chinese frescoes, one from 520 to 524 AD, and another circa 600 AD. This Sui dynasty depiction is of particular interest, since its depiction of the horse collar is not only more accurate, but it is used for a camel, not a horse. The Chinese had used camels often from the 2nd century BC onwards during the Han dynasty, and there was even a Camel Corps serving the military on the frontier of the Tarim Basin. However, the adapted horse collar for camels would not have been common until the 6th century. In cave 156, there is a panorama painting of the Tang dynasty Chinese general and provincial governor Zhang Yichao riding triumphantly after the recapture and conquest of the Dunhuang region from the Tibetan Empire in 834 AD. According to evidence provided by Dr. Chang Shuhong, the date of the painting is precisely 851 AD, yet Needham points out that there is universal consensus amongst historians that it was painted anytime between roughly 840 and 860 AD. This latter painting accurately depicts the horse collar, with a well-padded collar coming low on the chest and rising behind the cross-bar.