[drivingpairs] different standards

Dear friends: I am watching the recent exchange on checkreins from the 
sideline and just want to encourage all of our readers to always keep a very 
open 
mind as to what you read on this list and see out there, as we have a very wide 
spectrum of different backgrounds where our members are coming from, from 
Minis to Carriage Horses to Draft Hitches, from Recreational Driving, to Breed 
Show Ring Driving, to Pleasure Driving, to CDE Driving, to Commercial Driving, 
to 
Endurance Driving,  to Logging and Farming,  to Pulling Contests, (and I am 
sure there are more that I did not mention, how about Chuck Waggon Races, or 
Oil Drum Chariot Racing :-) and standards and terms in one area are often very 
different in another. With an open mind for each other we usually can learn 
from each and see why something is done that way there and differently here 
without condeming one or the other. Lets just try to understand first where 
somebody is coming from and why he is doing what he is doing, and then we'll 
often 
see why it may make sense in his area but perhaps not in ours.  I think that is 
the case in the discussion about the check reins, whose use can and was being 
overdone in light carriage horses with artificial neck sets, thus is outruled 
in most ADS style driving, as Noel explained, but which is quite different in 
it's use for a draft hitch as Ken pointed out. Both are right, only are coming 
from different sides.  Let me give you another example of different 
standards: When I grew up with a commercial hitch of drafthorses in East 
Germany after 
World War II doing pick-us and deliveries in a small city, it was absolutely 
customary, that one driver would do the job day in day out with his team (two 
drafthorses), would stand them in front of the store, would tie the reins to 
the dashboard, set the parking brake, take off one trace off the single tree on 
the evener, and the horses would stand there by themselves, for hours if 
necessary, while he was doing paperwork in the office inside, or loading or 
unloading the waggon etc etc. No groom ever, just one person always. Now folks 
with 
light high strung carriage horses from the show ring would have a fit if 
somebody would leave such a pair standing someplace without a groom in 
attendence, 
and rightfully so. So, must a pair always have a groom? Well, see above, it all 
depends, what we are talking about. Today most pairs that we see, yes, but 
don't condem the commercial driver whose draft horse is trained and used to the 
job day in day out and might stand very well by himself.
So let's keep our minds open and share our different methods and learn from 
each other, but let's also be VERY careful that it often does not work well to 
mix standards and what works in one area for one type of driving might not 
work at all in another area. See above groom example!
Hardy  

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