[drivingpairs] Poles, etc

I get the list in digest form, so am not sure if Don may have answered this 
already, and if not, he probably will. But just so that nobody thinks I'm just 
using the list for my wanted ad, am happy to give some explanations here:
When you have a drop pole, that means the horses have to carry the weight of 
the pole with their necks. If you would use that without a yoke, but just with 
pole straps, then the weight of the pole would pull the horses at an angle 
into the pole, and in order to overcome that inward pull, they would have to 
lean outwards and not travel straight anymore. To prevent that, when using a 
drop 
pole, one uses a yoke in front, and then the pull of the pole weight is going 
straight downwards to the yoke. The horses still must carry the pole weight 
on their necks, but now at least they can do so STRAIGHT.

Our beginner who asked said his "crab" was 12 inches wide or so with rings 
welded to the end. That sounds much like a small yoke, as used these days on 
marathon carriages, and those then can snap directly into the harness "D"'s at 
the breastcollars, best with quick releases. For big horses the 12' may be a 
bit 
narrow, but for ponies that's fine.  Any poles with yokes can be short with 
the yokes just in front of the chests of the horses. Whereas poles without 
yokes need to be longer, as when the horses need to hold back the carriage, 
they 
do that via the pole (with or without beeching, it still comes via the 
polehead), so then the same happens as I described above with the pole weight, 
without 
a yoke, that pull to hold back will come at an angle towards the pole. If the 
pole is short, then that pull is directly over to the pole, pulling the 
horses in. If the pole is long, that pull is less inward, keeping the horses 
straighter.  For marathons and cones we want short poles, so we don't get hung 
up 
with long pole heads sticking out, thus many of us use yokes there, especially 
on marathons. For cones, some of us find a compromise, when we want to keep the 
traditional look of Continental carriages (which were not driven with yokes, 
the yoke and drop pole is an American tradition), and use a fairly short pole, 
so not to get hung up, but still no yoke, because of the style. But then, we 
do realise that we shouldn't ask the horses for much holding back there, but 
should do so wity the brake.

Let me also ad a few thoughts to the evener question: Never start out new 
horses in their early training for driving or for pair driving with an evener, 
as 
that will give you a see-saw motion and not straight starts. The eager one 
jumps forward, which, with an evener, gives the lazy one a slap into his chest, 
so telling the lazy one NOT to go. Usually the beginner pair driver will then 
try to keep the eager one back, in order to get his hitch under control, which 
again is the completely wrong thing to do, after all, the eager one did obey 
the comand to go forward when asked to. So in such a case, the correct answer 
is, to get after the lazy slow one to also make him go, and then everything 
will settle and straighten out. But it's a bit unfair to urge him forward, when 
he just got a slap on his chest from the harness through the evener. 

Further: Eveners originate from heavy draft work, where they had their use 
and made sure that everybody pulls his fair share. But with most light 
carriages 
that's not such a big issue, and with light carriages one should try to share 
the work properly through proper rein adjustments (give the lazy horse more 
rein, and bring the eager one back in your reins) as well as good whip work on 
the lazy one, without upsetting the eager one. But for long straight road 
work, yes, an evener can help to share the burden, but for dressage, cones, and 
hazards one is better off setting the evener fixed, as otherwise the distance 
from the drivers hand to the horses' mouths changes too much when the inside 
horse pulls forward in the turns and has more room to do so with the evener. 
Hardy

In a message dated 12/2/2003 12:07:36 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

> Hi Don,
> 
> You wrote: "You didn't mention this, but I do hope you intend to
> use a neck yoke with the drop pole, and not try to use a crab with
> pole straps!"
> 
> Could you please explain to me (and the rest of the pairs rookies)
> why this is important.
> 
> Thanks a lot,



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