Fire Department Harness Part 3: Harness Design

My latest model harness is a fire department team for a steam pumper, circa 1900.  There was no standardized "fire department harness", although they usually had the following parts:

Historic fire department harness with pumper engine, photo from http://www.bakersfieldcity.us/fire/bfd_history/HistoricalHORSES.htm

• "Quick hitch" collar.  These were invented by a firefighter and greatly reduced harnessing time.  The hames are permanently attached; the collar opens with a latch at the bottom and has a hinge at the top (over the withers).  As far as I can tell, they were only used for fire horses.  This collar and the bridles used are the main differences between fire harness and regular harness.
• "Express" harness.  This was a standard streamlined style of work harness used by expressmen/deliverymen, made for easy harnessing but without sacrificing pulling power.  Girths are optional (they attach to dees on the traces) and cruppers are not used.
• Reins (and girths, if used) clipped on instead of buckled.
• Bridles were often some kind of halter-bridle, or had clip-on bits.  Some fire departments' horses wore more normal bridles around the clock; they had to be taken off when the horses were fed grain, which could cause problems if there was an alarm during mealtime.
• NO blinkers.  This was a safety concern.  Horses had to be able to see to navigate through traffic at high speeds on their own.
• If more than two horses were needed to pull a vehicle, the usual hitch was three horses abreast to keep the hitch compact for city driving.  The reins buckled together so that the driver only had one right and left rein to hold.
• Brass hardware and black leather seems to be standard.  Firefighters took great pride in keeping their horses, harnesses, and vehicles polished and in top shape.  Vehicles were usually ornately pinstriped and gold leafed.  

Fire harness with clip on girth and halter style bridle.  Photo from an online auction.

 Optional items include leather fly fringe browbands, and leather fly fringe "blankets" or wool blankets could be brought along to keep the horses comfortable once they were at the fire.  Lead ropes were probably stowed in the vehicle.  Dogs (any breed, not just Dalmatians) were sometimes used, as companions and mascots or to clear stray dogs out of the path of the horses.

So, after looking at various fire harnesses, I chose some of the most common features.  Most of the photos I found had similar harnesses; there was more variation in the bridles.  I chose a simple halter-bridle where the bit clipped directly to the halter rings.

The harness was made with leather and buckles from Rio Rondo; jump rings, wire for the buckle tongues, and chain from the craft store; brass strips from a local hobby shop; twine and cardboard found around the house; and bits and clips from twmhc ebay store, which I hadn't used before.  The fire engine is a Jim Beam bottle from ebay, with some wool fluffed up for the steam and a removable wood tongue made by myself.

Next week, the final post in the fire horse series will cover some of the history of fire horses.