[drivingpairs] rein board

About the rein board: There are good descriptions of it in the books that 
were recommended: The Principles of Driving by the German National Equestrian 
Federation (page 53 -54), although they call it there the Driving Apparatus, 
as well as in Max Pape-The Art of Driving (can't give you the page as I have 
the German Edition) Pape goes into much greater details.  It its for all 
driving, singles and pairs, as well as tandems and four. 

Basically, it is two eye hooks (for singles and pairs) screwed into a wall 
next to each other, with a foot or so apart for a single, or about 2- 3 feet 
apart for a pair,  through which you then run your reins and attach some 
weights (a few pounds) at the bit end of the reins. Then you sit in front of 
it and practice your rein holds and "driving" turns and watch how your hands 
effect the weight on the end of the reins move up and down. For tandem or 4 
you add two more eye bolts and two more reins. For better results, instead of 
just eye bolts, you attach sailboat blocks to the eyebolts and run ropes 
through them, so that they run more freely, and then you attach old riding 
reins to the ropes for the ends in your hand to simulate the reins. You also 
hold a riding crop in your hand to simulate the whip, or better yet, you 
don't put the eyebolts into a wall, but just into a board, which you can set 
on a chair in front of you (but need to tie it down and anchor the chair, so 
it doesn't tople over), then you can use your real whip and keep that in 
hand. 

This all is a very German way of training, as they sit a row of students all 
next to each other into a classroom, each with their rein board, and then the 
teacher tells them which turns to do, and everybody has to use the exact 
proper handholds as described in the Achenbach system: Left turrns, right 
turns, U turns, lengthenings of reins, shortenings of reins, halts, 
shortening or lengthening of leader reins, and shortenings and lengthenings 
of wheeler reins, adjusting the length of individual reins, taking proper 
loops for turns including proper oppostitions etc etc, and for singles and 
pairs changing the hand holds between basic position, standard position and 
schooling position back and forth  and the teacher watches the execution and 
gives the proper corrections.  As I say, it's very German, the students are 
drilled until they can do all the positions and proper handholds in their 
sleep with closed eyes (and on their back - just kidding), just like people 
are drilled in the military, so that these things become second nature and go 
automatically, so that when stressful situations arise in the actual driving 
with the horses, the students don't need to think what to do with their 
hands, and don't need to look at the reins to find the proper one, but can 
concentrate on driving the horses. It is also done, so that the students 
develope the muscles in their hands and arms for handling the reins properly 
and don't cramp up and get stiff by being inexperienced or by using wrong 
hand holds. It is also done, so that they become SMOOTH (but quick) and 
correct with their hands, so that the horses are spared sharp jerks in the 
mouth alternating with loss of contact by inexperinced drivers, and it is 
done, to teach proper handholds while being able to use the whip properly, 
again, without disturbing the horses in the mouth when using the whip.  When 
learning all of this properly on the rein board, it spares the horses a lot 
of the jerks and mistakes of inexperienced drivers.

As with anything else in life, practice makes perfect. One can do many things 
without such extensive training, and most do, but if one wants to become real 
good at ones craft, whatever it might be, doing it the proper way helps. One 
can learn to ride on one's own, but I doubt that anybody ever won an upper 
level dressage class without having taken proper instructions, same for golf, 
tennis, gymnastics, dancing,  you name it. And with horse sports, it's not 
only us, it always also involves our partner, the horse, who often suffers 
when we make mistakes, and naturally even with proper training we still will 
make mistakes, we are human, but we need to make sure that we keep our 
mistakes to a minimum as much as possible. (I'm not worried about Cindy 
anymore after her further posts in the meantime)
Hardy

 


_________________________________________________________
To Unsubscribe, change to Digest or Vacation mode go to: 
http://www.drivingpairs.com/dpmem.html
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Other related posts: