Building Your Own Chariot: Part II

SubMissAnn (Beauty) inherits Lucky Pony's chariot

Sassypony saw the chariot in my living room, and, being a woman who loves to work with her tools, scooped it up. The improvements Sassy made were:

* Smoothing all the lines into rounded edges.
* Adding axe handles to lengthen the poles that the pony grips to pull the chariot.
* Strengthening the base with brackets.
* Undercoat painting the chariot front red and the handles brown.

Sassypony also gave me some metal decorations to add after I had finished decorating the chariot.

Lucky Pony came back to assist me in filling the gap between the skins of the chariot with caulk. We immediately covered that with the black foam tubing one uses to insulate water pipes. We had pre-cut the foam to fit the chariot, notching the corners for a smoother fit.

When that was dry, Lucky Pony returned to assist me in covering the foam with leather pieces made from a big pair of clearance sale priced leather pants I had bought at Wilson's House of Suede and cut up. These pieces were held in place with rubber cement. Lucky Pony drilled holes through the chariot skin and I laced the pieces of leather down with leather suede cord.

I painted the chariot with a dark red enamel paint and the wheels and handles with a chocolate brown enamel paint. The decorative metal pieces were screwed into the outside skin of the chariot.

Dalton, of SeriousBondage.com, assisted me in cutting a non-skid rubber mat to fit the bottom of the chariot. I poured an all-purpose glue on the bottom of the chariot and pressed the mat in place.

Since the skin of the inside of the chariot is thin, Lady Robin, of The Farm, selected a handle that had six screws for more staying power and support. I found the screws pretty easy to hand screw into the wood.

I selected circle hooks to screw into the inside of the chariot to hold a cloth draw string purse to hold do-dads and attached two water bottles with carbineer hooks. Both the hooks and water bottles could be opened with one hand.

I took a small cardboard box that used to hold business cards, painted it red on three sides, and attached it to the front inside of the chariot with Velcro strips.

Lucky Pony likes to be close to his Rider, preferring to carry Riders on his back. He is taller than me and stronger. He carried a woman weighing less than 100 pounds and a man who weighed about 150 pounds in the Pride Parades while choked up against the cross piece of the handles. His superior strength and height and our different preferences make for different requirements in a chariot.

If I was to make this chariot for myself, I would make the angle of the arms less severe and lengthen the handles, placing me at least two to three more feet from the chariot. It comes down to physics: it takes less power from my arms to pull the chariot if I'm farther away from it. Also, given that my Rider is at least two times my weight, I might have sacrificed the look of the wheels for something more like a bicycle wheel.

That being said, it is a very cool chariot and completely pimped out at this point! I look forward to playing with it again and we are going to try strapping me in a waist harness belt that attaches to the chariot handles to take some of the weight off my arms when pulling.