Shorty Harnesses

    First, some pictures:

Tyler, with a shorty harness (Red Harness). Kanuti has a regular X-Back style harness.

Top view of different harness styles.

    Until coming here, I'd heard about different harness types, but never used them. After becoming a bit more familiar with the other styles, I'm more convinced that the standard X-back harness is the way to go.

    The philosophy behind the "shorty" harness is that hard-charging dogs work twice as hard as their teammates and are prone to more injuries. Also, these dogs will get in shape faster and drive the rest of the team into the ground. The shorty harness basically teaches the dogs NOT to pull so hard. 

    My feeling is that it seems counterproductive to reduce your power and teach your dogs not to pull - after all, that's what they are bred to do! Also, as mushers, it is our job to keep each of our teams from hurting themselves and the best way to do this is to drive/train the team to your slowest dogs ability.

    There may be a few instances when it is beneficial to switch harness styles - for healing an injury or harness rub, for example - but overall it makes the most sense, to me at least, to stick to the X-back harness which continues to be the most popular harness available.

    I am aware that some kennels use shorty harnesses just in training or on only a few dogs. However, if the first rule of running sled dogs is, "Never let go of the sled," and the second is, "Take care of yourself...so you can take care of your dogs," then the third, and perhaps most important, is, "Race like you train." To do otherwise will only confuse the dogs and frustrate the musher.