[drivingpairs] 2 Questions/Traces &rein rings /lines and stuff

I find it GREAT and quite excellent if somebody gets the books and studies 
them and works his way through. Very good and the way to go, but  let us also 
understand that there is only so much that we can learn from reading books and 
posts on the internet. Not all stuff can be self taught, so similar as with the 
previous post. Some time ago I made a tongue in cheek post - I think on CD-L, 
the other list, about my "flying plans" where I tried to illustrate that we 
don't attempt to learn flying an airplane either by just reading books and 
teaching ourselves. There are limits to the success of that, which is not to 
say 
that some haven't mastered it even that way. But you may find the bodies of 
others along the wayside. Some of the things described below I would not 
recommend: Don't ground drive a pair with just the bridles. You need the 
saddles for 
the rein terrets, as the poster found out himself too. Also don't ground drive 
a pair with a single rein to the outside and a strap in between. No good, even 
if all went ok this time. Don't be lazy, harness up porperly and use the 
proper equipment. Most will pay the prize otherwise sooner or later.
Now to the questions at hand:
The outside traces being 2 cm longer. Don't make too much of it. That's less 
than an inch, with a single tree you won't even see the difference in the 
angle, so don't really need it with a single tree, nor will you really with 
breast 
collars. This was meant for original roller bolt traces pulling of fixed 
splinter bars and full collars. There with equal length traces you have more 
pressure on the outside shoulder, for exactly the reason they do describe, the 
outside trace does not travel as straight back to the splinterbar as the inside 
trace and does take a litte extra room around the horses hindquarter, as also 
the horses do not absolutely travel straight. But for single trees and breast 
collar harness one can neglect this. But yes, I see that in Book 5 they have it 
in the breastcollars chapter, but that's just because the German's carry these 
things through to the end.

The leaning onto the pole in Bev's case I think is much more than Pape had in 
mind there, as in Bev's case this is extreme and a training or harness / rein 
set up or driving  issue, or perhaps a combination of any of these three 
items, and it's not an issue of travelling on a road that has not a flat 
surface.

The rein rings on the inside of the neck strap and if to use them or not: 
There are pro's and con's on both sides.  When the book suggests not to use 
them, 
the idea is, that with breastcollars and neck straps, the reins through the 
inside neck strap rings can pull the neckstraps over a bit to the inside. But 
on full collars they would always use them, as the full collar is stable enough 
with it's own weight plus the hames. Most use them also with breast collars 
as the disadvantage of pulling neck streps over seems to be small, and the 
advantage of keeping the horses better together and the reins running properly 
through the terrets and rings greater. So both ways work, only if you don't use 
the rings, then you need to adjust the reins for that (coupling reins then need 
to be slightly shorter, as the way they travel then from the saddle terret 
directly to the mouth of the other horse is a shorter way then if they have to 
make the detour via the neck strap ring), and in addition, you then should have 
a harness, which doesn't have any rings there, or have the rings removed, as 
otherwise it looks bad (not an issue for just driving at home, but don't do it 
for presentation or in the show ring, then you'll be marked down).  As most 
pair harnesses do come with those rings, at least in this country, it seems 
that most harness makers and / or their customers seem to prefer using the 
rings.

Keep up the good reading work, and ask, when you have questions, but also do 
understand the limits of reading studies.
Hardy

 
In a message dated 4/10/2004 12:15:34 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

> 2 Questions/Traces &rein rings /lines and stuff
> 
> Hi all,
> The two books I've been studying are the German Fed. Driving - book 5 and 
> Max 
> Pape.
> 
> 1st question: About Traces --  page 34 in the German Driving book - last 
> paragraph - it says the outside trace should be 2cm longer than the 
> inside...due 
> to the horse being wider in the back than the front.     I just can't see 
> how 
> the single tree will stay straight then or why it won't pull the breast 
> collar unevevly. Max Pape says the same thing on page126 with pictures on 
> page 
> 118....the square end on the inside / shorter trace....CAN SOMEONE RE-WORD  
> SO 
> MAYBE I CAN PICTURE IN MY MIND HOW THIS IS A GOOD IDEA?
> 
> For Bev, leaning against the pole, the German book seemed to think it was 
> the 
> road conditions  and Max Pape agrees mainly but says to shorten the inside 
> reins and drive without the brake to make them try to lean out. --- page 77 
> in 
> Max Pape.
> 
> I don't understand a lot of what I am reading but at least I am finally 
> getting to the point of knowing some of what I don't know...if that makes 
> any sense.
> 
> Progress for me and the ponies (Haflingers). They are healed and back to 
> work 
> after the pitt bll dog attach. They will now both lead from my 4 wheeler or 
> golf cart with a little wagon on behind now - so I can haul a bunch of stuff 
> to 
> or from the barn or truck and lead them at the same time.
> 
> I messed up yesterday being lazy - tried to drive them as a pair with just 
> bridles - no harness /  rein rings - and got tangled and the reins stepped 
> on - 
> now have to put them back together. Luckily they didn't break just pulled 
> apart and lost two keepers. Which leads to QUESTION 2: The books say not to 
> use 
> the rein rings on the inside of the neck straps....just the outside and both 
> 
> saddle rings....yet the pictures/ drawings show using all rings. SO WHAT IS 
> THE 
> RIGHT WAY?
> 
> Still being lazy and still wanting to ground drive as a pair - I acted like 
> a 
> dumb kid again and put single reins to the outside on just their halters 
> with 
> a rope that could slip off if pulled hard between the two on their halters.  
> 
> The moved off evenly and ground drove really well like they really liked it- 
> 
> and matched stride for stride -straight and with level heads.  The younger 
> is 
> teething still so maybe I will continue with just the halters in the indoor 
> arena.  He dosen't fight the bit or shake his head but just seemed happier. 
> They 
> also seemed to obey the voice commands better - even the stand after the 
> whoa. 
> It did seem more like a game with everything just "rigged" and maybe they 
> just read my mood. It was fun:)
> 
> 



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