[drivingpairs] which side do you put him on?

In a message dated 12/19/2002 11:20:22 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:


> 
> Noel wrote:
> Experienced on the near (left) side, that way you have your whip and 
> yourself
> on the side of the green horse....
> 
> Peter Eldred wrote:
> 
> > How do you pairs drivers decide which side to put a horse on? When you're
> > putting a green horse with an experienced one, is there a preferred side 
> to
> > put the experienced one on?
> > Thanks for your suggestions,
> > Rachel
> 

Noel's answer makes good sense, except if it's a very green horse, I rather 
do not have him in front of me just in case heels are starting to fly, I 
don't want them around my nose. I have done some work with a professional in 
Germany who starts many horses every year, and he has shown me all the 
hoofprints on his dashboard, and said, those are only the ones that left 
marks :-). But yes, he also would put the green horse on the right, but then 
sit himself on the left!  The reason he put the green on the right, is that 
on the very first day, he would take them out into traffic, right through the 
middle of the small town, cars, trucks, and all. When I questioned if it 
wouldn't be safer on the first day to just hook him up in the back pasture, 
he grinned, and told me, on the contrary, Hardy. In the back pasture the 
youngster knows his way around, there he will be more inclinded to get fresh 
with us.  But out in town and traffic, he will be so scared of it all, he 
will just duck and make himself small and hope that his partner will protect 
him, and that's why he is on the right, so that other traffic passes on the 
left next to the experienced horse. AND as added benefit, I was told, hey, 
the youngster gets traffic safe from day one, and it worked. As I say, that 
driver was a professional and VERY experienced. He knew what he was doing and 
it works for him. I don't do it likewise though. So then he invited ME to sit 
on the right. No thank you very much, I rather stood on the back step, but he 
was right, the two youngsters we drove that day both went through traffic 
fine as he had predicted.  So when I start a youngster, I do a compromise, I 
don't go in his pasture where he is at home, but I don't go out in traffic 
either. I do it in a large enclosed arena.  I sit on the right where I have 
my wedge seat and brake pedals and am comfortable, and have the youngster on 
the left, so his hindfeet or not in front of me, and my whip reaches pretty 
good to the left too if needed.  So you take your pick, there are good 
reasons for each side.

But this answers only the question what to do with a green horse. But what 
later, which side does which horse go? Traditionally when horses were driven 
on the roads all the time, the taller of the two would go on the right, since 
the road of course is higher in the middle and lower on the sides, so then a) 
it would even out the hight difference and they would both look like a closer 
match hightwise and  b) assuming that the taller horse would be the stronger 
one too, when starting the load leaving the curb from the right side, the 
right horse would have to do more pulling to bring the load onto the center 
of the road. So if you want to be traditional, that's what you do. But the 
way I think most people these days do it, is to see which side each horses 
work better on.Usually they have a better and a not so good side. I like to 
have the horse on that side to which he bends better, as the inside horse in 
a turn needs to make a smaller turn, thus needs to bend more. So the one that 
bends better to the right goes on the right. Of course that only works if 
both have a different side to which they bend better. And also, I switch them 
almost every time I hitch so that they don't get one sided. Yes, I have a 
preferred side which I use in shows, but at home, we always switch sides.
Hardy 


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