[drivingpairs] Leaning away from Pole - sorry long

It is always hard to diagnose and fix a problem just by e-mail, as there can 
be many causes, but here are some ideas: First make sure that the horses are 
hitched right and harness is adjusted properly.  If they are pulling away from 
the pole, try lenthening the pole straps as well as the coupling reins. Yes, a 
yoke is much better than pole straps as the horses can work straight much 
better.  Try switching the horses between left and right horse (keep doing that 
later anyways to not make  them one sided). Those are the first and easy steps, 
but then comes the really much more important stuff, the proper training and 
driving: 
Drive them STRAIGHT. Keep CONTACT on BOTH horses, make them BOTH do equal 
work.Use your whip on the outside of each to bring them to the pole. Do so at 
the 
WALK. Keep them RELAXED They need to learn to stay relaxed even when you 
touch them with the whip. That is important. Train for it if you can't. It may 
take some time. When you can walk relaxed and straight, then do large circles 
at 
the walk, and drive your INSIDE horse forward with the whip on the inside of 
the circle (so the whip not on the pole side in between the horses). Do large 
figure 8's with going STRAIGHT in the middle (don't make an X in the middle 
going on diagonals, the figure 8 are two perfectly round circles!). At the 
figure 
8 after each circle the direction changes, and since we want to drive the 
INSIDE horse forward, that means, in each circle the outside horse has time off 
and can relax, and the inside horse is driven, and after each circle it 
changes, who is inside and who is outside, so it changes who has to work and 
who has 
time off. With working the inside horse with the whip on the inside you want 
to get the inside horse to bend properly and NOT let him go counterbent and 
over the shoulder and pulling away from the pole. But you can do so only AFTER 
you first were able to drive them straight on a straight line!  If they pull 
away from the pole in the circle, then your circle is too small. Make it 
larger. 
With horses 40 meter circles to start, later 30 then 20 meters when they are 
good. With ponies or VSE's a bit smaller accordingly. So with VSE's I'd start 
with 20 meter circles.  When you can do all that well at the walk, only then 
work on the same at the trot!  Stay away from doing small corners in a dressage 
arena. That's too small a circle, they can't do that in the beginning. That 
makes them anxious and produces the counter bending of the inside horse and the 
pulling away from the pole. Same as do hazards with to tight and fast turns!  
Very counterproductive for a young pair, but great fun, when they have learned 
their stuff and always bend properly.  
It's work and it may take a few sessions, but it's badly needed and will 
produce results! 

I have posted before about Emil 8's and why to drive the inside horse. 
Perhaps you'll like to look it up in the archives, or somebody still has that 
post 
handy and can repost it.  Quickly in a nutshell (Can I ever do that? :-)

Why drive the inside horse? When I drive the inside horse, then the carriage 
is pulled on the inside, which makes the pole wanting to go to the outside = 
away from the circle, and that's great, because then I can take a little more 
inside rein and with that get my inside horse properly bent.  So using the whip 
on the inside of the inside horse does two things, it drives him forward 
which we want for the bending, and it also encourages him to bend at the same 
time 
already. The only exception to this is, when making a fast turn in a hazard, 
then  I drive the outside horse which brings the pole around quicker. But 
let's forget that for now, there is plenty of time to do that, when the horses 
are 
properly trained to bend properly all the time! Doing it before will produce 
counterbending and pulling away from the pole, exactly the problem so many 
lower level pair drivers are having. So all you beginning pair drivers, DRIVE 
THE 
INSIDE HORSE, that gives you the  bending of the inside horse, and don't 
worry about the outside horse, they usually lean over to the pole in the turn 
anyhow, besides, they don't need to bend as much as the inside horse since 
their 
turn is wider anyhow. Hardly ever do we see outside horses counterbent in turns 
when the inside horse is bending properly, so don't worry about the outside 
horse. You have a distinct advantage here over all the single drivers, because 
with the pair, and driving the inside horse, the carriage helps you to get the 
bending. That nice help you can't get when driving single.

Figure 8 benefits: One horse works while the other has time off. So we 
constantly switch and give one a little break and only work the other one. 
That's 
great already to keep them relaxed and happy in training. Next benefit: The 
inside horse needs to shorten stride a little as his distance is shorter and 
the 
outside horse needs to lengthen stride a little as his route is a little longer 
on the outside, so they learn to adjust their stride, which will result in 
the nice picture that everybody uhhs and ahhs about, when pairs are going in 
stride. Hey, they like to do that by themselves, same as we do. When two people 
take a walk together at the beach or in the woods, most try to be in stride 
automatically, most without even noticing (unless their strides are very 
different), it carries a conversation much better.  Horses are no different. 
They like 
to be in stride, and the figure 8 teaches them to adjust their strides, so 
that they later can do it much easier on their own. 

Now quickly to the last question that was asked here with horses of different 
length. No idea why somebody told you the butts should be even. I wouldn't do 
that. I like the heads - if possible also the chests, but for me, mainly the 
heads - to be even and adjust the traces and reins accordingly, but after that 
again comes the hard work: Driving them evenly, as almost no pair is equally 
eager in pulling, and you always have to go after the lazy one and make him do 
his fair share, constantly!  If you don't, it will make the eager one hotter 
and hotter and the problems bigger and bigger.
Good luck
Hardy




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