# how to start right with cart training?



## ohiogoatgirl (Jan 31, 2010)

hello! i just posted about training to pack but i am also hoping to train my wethers to pull a cart and maybe even a garden culivator. so if i am starting with newborn boys what are some things to do to train them as they grow up? 
and does anyone use a travios? i use a little one i made (twine, a board, two metal fence posts) that i pull behind me from one barn to the other. so i can carry more loose hay, more efficiently. i'm not sure how one is supposed to fit on an animal... 
thanks!


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

There's a picture of my travois in Practical Goatpacking. I don't have the photo to post any more. It's two long poles that cross about the goat's wither's with a stabilizer right behind the hips. Then a box behind the stabilizer. I used a horse halter put on around the neck and body, it takes a draft horse size for a big goat, and just tied the cross braces to the halter. View from the top. Very basic but works well.


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## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

Note that normally you need the breaststrap for pulling. I left it off because it slid to high and constricted Nox' breathing.

I now add some padding to the breaststrap and make it loose enough that I can fix it with an additional strap like a "V" (the second strap running between his frontlegs to the girth).

If you use only a halter I would suggest that you use some padding for the spine because with a heavy load there can be signifikant pressure on the spine.


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