Sulky
Encyclopedia
Cart
A cart is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people...
having two wheels and a seat for the driver only but usually without a body, generally pulled by horses or dogs, and is used for harness races
Harness racing
Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait . They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, although racing under saddle is also conducted in Europe.-Breeds:...
. The term is also used for a light stroller, an arch mounted on wheels or crawler tracks and used in logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
, or other types of vehicle
Vehicle
A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....
having wheels and usually a seat for the driver, such as a plough
Plough
The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...
, lister or cultivator
Cultivator
A cultivator is any of several types of farm implement used for secondary tillage. One sense of the name refers to frames with teeth that pierce the soil as they are dragged through it linearly. Another sense refers to machines that use rotary motion of disks or teeth to accomplish a similar result...
.
Horse sulky
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s is a lightweight two-wheeled, single-seat cart that is used as a form of rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
transport in many parts of the world. A special development of this is now used in most forms of harness racing
Harness racing
Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait . They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, although racing under saddle is also conducted in Europe.-Breeds:...
in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, including both trot
Trot (horse gait)
The trot is a two-beat diagonal gait of the horse, where the diagonal pairs of legs move forward at the same time. There is a moment of suspension between each beat....
ting and pacing
Horse gait
Horse gaits are the various ways in which a horse can move, either naturally or as a result of specialized training by humans.-Classification:...
races. They are called "sulkies" because the driver must prefer to be alone
Race sulkies come in two categories,
- Traditional symmetrical sulkies
- Asymmetric or "offset" sulkies
The asymmetric sulky was patented in Australia in the 1980s and came to prominence in 1987 when a two-year-old gelding
Gelding
A gelding is a castrated horse or other equine such as a donkey or a mule. Castration, and the elimination of hormonally driven behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male horse to be calmer and better-behaved, making the animal quieter, gentler and potentially more suitable as an everyday...
named Rowleyalla used one to break the then world record for his category, at 3.4 seconds under the existing mark.
In 1990 the asymmetric sulky was introduced into North America, winning seven of its first nine starts at Freehold, NJ
Freehold Raceway
Freehold Raceway is a half-mile racetrack in Freehold Borough, New Jersey. Established in 1853, it is the oldest harness racetrack in the United States and is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 9 and Business Route 33 in Freehold....
. Today the great majority of sulky manufacturers in North America are producing asymmetric sulkies.
An additional sulky type is the "team-to-pole" or "pairs" sulky, a lightweight single seat sulky designed for draft by two horses abreast.
These may also be split into two types:
- Traditional pole and yoke with draft by traces.
- Dorsal hitch with draft direct from the saddle to the yoke and, via the pole, to the sulky.
Of the two, the dorsal hitch pairs sulky is the most recent, holding all current world pairs speed records over the mile to July 31, 2005.
Sulkies used in harness racing
Harness racing
Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait . They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, although racing under saddle is also conducted in Europe.-Breeds:...
.
- Jog Carts, used only for training, are bigger and bulkier than a racing cart. These may sometimes be known as Roadcarts. The shafts are normally made out of wood, but may be aluminum, steel or stainless steel. They have bigger seats which requires less athleticism to sit upon. The most modern styles provide full independent suspension by hydraulic dampers and progressive rate coil springs. These give both a smoother ride and higher speed than traditional types. They are also lighter.
- Race Bikes are the only style allowed to be used in races or qualifying heats. They are more compact and aerodynamic than a jog cart, have smaller seats that reduce weight, but require more athleticism for the driver to sit upon. Shafts may be of carbon fibre, aluminum, titanium, stainless steel or, less often, wood.
When it rains, or the track has excessive moisture, trainers and drivers are required to put plastic mud flaps on the back of the wheels. All race bikes must comply with the relevant procedures and standards in order to be approved. In no way can a race bike have any component that will directly interfere with another horse or driver.
Dog sulky
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
s, both for racing and as transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
ation.
The dog driving sulkies can be divided into two main types:
- Conventional two-shaft carts attaching to harness on either side of the dog or dogs.
- Single-shaft dorsal hitch carts, which attach to a single point on top of the dog's shoulders.
A further distinction may be made between sulkies with the axles rigidly connected to the vehicle, and those with the axles insulated from the vehicle by springs and dampers. Those with springs and dampers may be further divided into single-axle sprung carts and "independent suspension" sprung and damped carts. Needless to say, those with independent suspension by coil springs and dampers tend to be both more expensive and smoother riding.
Driving sulky construction materials run the full gamut from timber, through powder-coated steel tube, aluminum tube, and stainless steel tube. The very latest types (currently undergoing field tests in California) use nanotechnology-based stainless steels of prodigious strength-to-weight ratio.
The great majority of driving sulkies available have the wheel axles rigidly affixed to the frames. This makes for a rough ride on anything but smooth surfaces such as pavement. But in recent years lightweight, single shaft, independent suspension, driving sulkies have been introduced. These allow safe high speed use in off-road conditions.
The most recent designs are of the single shaft type, as proponents believe that this type gives the dog(s) greater freedom, less possibility of injury, and a quicker and easier training regime. A single shaft dog sulky, made of stainless steel tube and fitted with independent suspension and disc brakes, weighs a little under 18 kg. The highest speed so far recorded in one of these sulkies being 64.8 kilometers per hour (February 22, 2007, Australia).
However, as at August 2005, multiple shaft types are still the most common.
For off-road use, dog sulkies with sprung and damped independent suspension systems offer greatly improved comfort and safety over traditional unsprung types.