[drivingpairs] Re: Leaning Away from the Pole

A few months ago I started having a leaning in problem with the pair that I
started in November.  They would start tummy bumping and then start leaning
a little.  I bumped into Hardy at the Martin's auction here in CA and asked
him how to fix it - he told me he didn't know.  I was dismayed!  My guru did
not have a quick answer that would fix my problem, what was I to do?!  I
went home and started to really think about the problem and got an e-mail
from Hardy that he also was studying the problem.  We followed with some
theoretical discussion and some driving experiments.

Here is what I tried:  The underlying problem is that the horses are not
traveling straight.  The only equipment change I made was to  lengthen the
coupling reins to give the ponies more room.  I hear that European drivers
often drive their horses out more and then bring them in closer for shows,
especially a marathon.  To get the ponies to travel straight I sent them
more forward - not faster just more from back to front.  So I used my whip
on the inside of the ponies, both to push their ribs out and to send them
more forward.  I switch my ponies from side to side daily to work their
muscles more evenly,  they wanted to lean more when Rimfire was the near
pony, so when I set them up that way, I would pay extra attention to keeping
them straight.  Some pretty simple exercises seem to have fixed the problem
and now they are both pulling very nicely and not leaning.

One thing to consider, is that horses will get crooked when they are being
held too much in the mouth.  It's like braking a car on ice, if you stop the
front wheels the back end of the car will just start to swerve around the
front.  If you have to hold the horses in all the time, if they are not
balanced and in self carriage, they may become crooked.

Your whip should help you a great deal if your horses know how to move over
from it.  Just tap their bottoms or shoulders over where they belong.  It
takes constant observation and a deft use of the whip, but is very
effective - as long as there are no equipment problems that are making the
horses uncomfortable.

The one thing that helped me the most was making sure that my ponies were
working properly forward and in balance.

Now, that's one pair down and one pair to start -- I've ordered my 4-in-hand
harness!  I'm so excited!

Please keep us posted on how you deal with this problem.

Merrie Morgan Stevens

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