[drivingpairs] Re: pairs without breeching and more...AND BRAKES



Well darn, I guess it won't work for me. Too hilly around here. 
And I'm not really good enough with my brakes yet.
But I love all the explanations that have been given.

It's also got me to wondering about finding a good explanation of how to use
brakes. I realize there's a time to use them when halting so that the horses
won't step back and so on, but I'm wondering about using them on hills. I
don't want to hold the brake all the way down, but it seems necessary. How
do I balance holding the carriage back for the ponies vs. making them do
some of the work and using their behinds to do it?
Could someone give a nice summary or suggest where to find one?
Thanks,
Rachel
(who was hoping for less harness to clean, especially when there are two!)


-----Original Message-----
From: drivingpairs-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:drivingpairs-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Merrie Morgan



Hi Rachel,

I have not seen the pictures, but I often drive with no breaching, or 
backstraps or cruppers.  It is simply for the ease of harnessing and having 
less equipment to clean.  Since pair breaching is not very effective, and I 
use my brakes, and I drive mostly on very flat ground, it works for 
me.  The braking effect goes into the neck strap, not into the saddle and I 
use the brake to try to completely control the carriage so that the ponies 
do not have to.  I only use this arrangement when schooling dressage, cones 
or schooling on mostly flat ground.  In a marathon or when driving over 
rolling terrain I use full breaching.   I'm sure there are many cons - if 
your brakes fail... but my ponies will not freak out if they get bumped by 
the carriage, and once again, I use this arrangement when working on mostly 
level ground.

Merrie

At 07:01 PM 11/27/2006 -0800, you wrote:



>I just noticed something in the new issue of Carriage Driving World which I
>don't think I've seen before. There are two pictures of Merrie Morgan
>Stevens' pair of Welsh ponies without breeching (which I do understand).
>However, they don't even seem to be wearing backstraps or cruppers. I like
>this look, as it seems so simple. Can someone (Merrie would be best of
>course) explain the pros and cons of this setup?
>Thanks,
>
>Rachel
>
>(On Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, where we are enjoying a rare snow dump!
>Snow day!)


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