Carriage for 10-hand pony?

[eli anatolia]

My shetland has a draft conformation, he's a little over 10 hands and weighs around 150-160 kg. I've been to a carriage distributor and was recommended a Dominiakz marathon mix pony carriage(4 people), the seller had me pull it myself with 2 grown persons in it.
Still, i'm having doubts as the carriage weighs over 100 kg, maybe even as much as 140 kg. Additionally theres my weight, the groom and the occasional passenger. The carriage is easy to pull, but should i take the chance? A shetland can pull twice his weight, but is that on wheels or actual weight? How much of a hill can he take without it being abuse? I know he can pull a horse marathon with 3 grown men, he was broken in like that, and he joyfully pulls 200 kilos up a steep hill without asking (i've never even carried a whip), but im planning to use this carriage almost every day for the rest of my life and i want it to be perfect, not so heavy it'll give the pony problems.

So, is 260 kg(passengers included) acceptable for this pony, for daily use, if its a good quality carriage? How careful do i have to be with hills? The carriage looks so big for the little creature =(

 

[Darcie Y]

It should be alright. A healthy pony, (especially a shetland or draft) can pull twice their healthy body weight. So your pony should be able to pull 300 to 320 kgs. Since the cart with passengers included is 260, he should be able to pull it easily, and even up some hills, just make sure you're not always doing hills. It does get tiresome for them. And it is the weight on the wheels, i.e. the total weight of the cart and passengers combined.
If you really wanted to, you could use physics to calculate the angle of the hills he could pull the cart up using Force=Mass x Acceleration, and then Work = Force x Distance, and then use cos(theta)=(Work of Adjacent side) / (Work of hypotenuse side.) Given that he can pull no more than 320 pounds you can calculate the maximum angle of the hill that he should climb
Hope this helps!