A hopple for horses to maintain the pacing gait of the horse. Hopples of this type comprising four ovate hopple members each of which is adapted to surround one leg of a horse to which the hopple is fitted, each of which hopple members is provided at each end with a riser strap carrying a buckle used to connect the riser strap to a supporting strap passing over the horse. The present invention is characterized in that at least some of the supporting straps are bifurcated at their ends and the corresponding riser straps are provided with a pair of buckles. The bifurcated supporting strap substantially eliminates the problem of a hopple member breaking free from its associated supporting strap and falling down thereby tripping the horse.

The present invention relates to a hopple for pacing horses, and more 
particularly to a hopple used on a pacer horse to maintain the pacing gait 
of the horse. 
Hopples conventionally comprise four horizontally disposed, spaced, hopple 
members lying in a common plane. Each hopple member is adapted to surround 
and fetter one leg of the horse. The hopple members on the left side of 
the animal are connected together by an adjustment strap and similarly the 
hopple members on the right side of the animal are interconnected. It is 
customary to suspend the hopple members by supporting straps passing over 
the body of the horse. Such a hopple is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,174,261 
and 1,455,341. 
Such hopples may be subjected to very great strains in use if the horse 
"breaks" and tries to change its gait. It has been found that if one of 
the supporting straps breaks the hopple member can slip down around the 
pastern or common of the leg and trip the horse up. If a horse is so 
tripped the animal will almost always break a leg and have to be 
destroyed. It is also very dangerous for the driver of the horse as he can 
be thrown from his sulky and injured in the event of the horse falling. 
This danger is increased in a racing situation where both horse and driver 
could be run over and trampled by a following horse. 
The present invention is designed to substantially reduce the danger of one 
of the hopple members being allowed to drop around the lower part of the 
horses leg. It should be realised that it is imperative that the hopple 
should not interfere with the free movement of the horse so long as it 
maintains a pacing gait, should not be too heavy, and should not chafe or 
otherwise hurt the horse. The arrangement according to the present 
invention can satisfy all three of the foregoing requirements while 
substantially reducing the danger to horse and driver outlined above. 
The present invention consists in a hopple for a horse comprising four 
ovate hopple members each of which is adapted to surround one leg of a 
horse and is provided at or adjacent each end with a riser strap having 
connector means to connect the hopple member to supporting strap means 
adapted to be positioned about the horse and to support the hopple member 
in a substantially horizontal plane about one of the animals legs, the 
hopple being characterised in that at least one of the hopple supporting 
strap means is longitudinally bifurcated and the or each corresponding 
riser strap is provided with a second and independent connector means, one 
of the bifurcated portions of the strap means being connected to each of 
the connector means. 
It is preferable that both supporting straps connected to each hopple 
member are bifurcated and that both of the riser straps on each hopple 
member are provided with two buckles for connection to the two portions of 
the corresponding supporting strap. 
Considerable advantage can still be obtained, however, if only the front 
supporting strap for the front hopple members and the rear supporting 
straps for the rear hopple members are bifurcated. This is because there 
is less chance of the ends of the hopple member which are connected 
together by the adjustment strap dropping sufficiently to trip the horse. 
While for simplicity and recognised security it is preferable to connect 
the supporting strap to the hopple members through conventional tongued 
buckles other connection means could be provided. The other connection 
means could include tongueless buckles, press studs, and the like. 
The bifurcation of the supporting strap is preferably brought about by 
sewing or riveting onto a conventional strap an additional tail such that 
the end portion of the strap and the tail lie in parallel overlapping 
relationship. As the buckles on the riser strap of the hopple member will 
be spaced apart vertically it is preferable to have one portion of the 
supporting strap longer than the other. It is desirable to connect the 
main or continuous portion of the strap to the upper buckle of the riser 
strap and to connect the added-on tail portion of the strap to the lower 
buckle. The tail portion may be so connected that it does not carry any of 
the weight of the hopple member unless the main portion of the supporting 
strap breaks or comes undone from the buckle. In an alternative embodiment 
of the invention a single supporting strap may be slit longitudinally at 
its end to provide the bifurcation. 
The hopple according to this invention may be made of any suitable 
material. Traditionally hopples have been made of leather, however, more 
recently webbing of a woven synthetic plastics material has been used. 
Either of these materials may advantageously be used in constructing the 
invention according to the present invention.

The hopple 10 comprises four hopple members 11, each of which is adapted to 
surround one leg of a horse, and four sets of supporting straps 12. 
Each set of supporting straps comprises a main strap 13 to which are sewn 
two supplementary straps 14. Each supplementary strap 14 extends 
longitudinally of the main strap 13 and overlies one end thereof. 
Each of the hopple members 11 is ovate and has in its mid-line at one end a 
single upstanding riser strap 15 and at its other end has a bridging strap 
16 and a pair of riser straps 17 which converge and are joined together at 
their upper end. 
The riser strap 15 carries a conventional tongued buckle 18 at its upper 
end and a 1/2 buckle 19 spaced slightly below the upper buckle. Similarly 
the riser straps 17 carry at their upper end a tongued buckle 21 and on 
the straps 17 which in use will be further from the body of the horse a 
further 1/2 buckle 22 disposed below the buckle 21. A conventional keeper 
is disposed below each of the 1/2 buckles 19 and 22. 
In use a strap 12 is buckled to each of the buckles 18 and 21 while a 
supplementary strap 14 is buckled to each of the 1/2 buckles 19 and 22. 
As is seen in FIG. 1 the front and rear hopple members 11 on each side of 
the animal are connected together by conventional, adjustable connecting 
straps 23.