[drivingpairs] Leaning away from Pole - sorry long
- From: Hzlax@xxxxxxx
- To: drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 18:26:15 EDT
It is always hard to diagnose and fix a problem just by e-mail, as there can
be many causes, but here are some ideas: First make sure that the horses are
hitched right and harness is adjusted properly. If they are pulling away from
the pole, try lenthening the pole straps as well as the coupling reins. Yes, a
yoke is much better than pole straps as the horses can work straight much
better. Try switching the horses between left and right horse (keep doing that
later anyways to not make them one sided). Those are the first and easy steps,
but then comes the really much more important stuff, the proper training and
driving:
Drive them STRAIGHT. Keep CONTACT on BOTH horses, make them BOTH do equal
work.Use your whip on the outside of each to bring them to the pole. Do so at
the
WALK. Keep them RELAXED They need to learn to stay relaxed even when you
touch them with the whip. That is important. Train for it if you can't. It may
take some time. When you can walk relaxed and straight, then do large circles
at
the walk, and drive your INSIDE horse forward with the whip on the inside of
the circle (so the whip not on the pole side in between the horses). Do large
figure 8's with going STRAIGHT in the middle (don't make an X in the middle
going on diagonals, the figure 8 are two perfectly round circles!). At the
figure
8 after each circle the direction changes, and since we want to drive the
INSIDE horse forward, that means, in each circle the outside horse has time off
and can relax, and the inside horse is driven, and after each circle it
changes, who is inside and who is outside, so it changes who has to work and
who has
time off. With working the inside horse with the whip on the inside you want
to get the inside horse to bend properly and NOT let him go counterbent and
over the shoulder and pulling away from the pole. But you can do so only AFTER
you first were able to drive them straight on a straight line! If they pull
away from the pole in the circle, then your circle is too small. Make it
larger.
With horses 40 meter circles to start, later 30 then 20 meters when they are
good. With ponies or VSE's a bit smaller accordingly. So with VSE's I'd start
with 20 meter circles. When you can do all that well at the walk, only then
work on the same at the trot! Stay away from doing small corners in a dressage
arena. That's too small a circle, they can't do that in the beginning. That
makes them anxious and produces the counter bending of the inside horse and the
pulling away from the pole. Same as do hazards with to tight and fast turns!
Very counterproductive for a young pair, but great fun, when they have learned
their stuff and always bend properly.
It's work and it may take a few sessions, but it's badly needed and will
produce results!
I have posted before about Emil 8's and why to drive the inside horse.
Perhaps you'll like to look it up in the archives, or somebody still has that
post
handy and can repost it. Quickly in a nutshell (Can I ever do that? :-)
Why drive the inside horse? When I drive the inside horse, then the carriage
is pulled on the inside, which makes the pole wanting to go to the outside =
away from the circle, and that's great, because then I can take a little more
inside rein and with that get my inside horse properly bent. So using the whip
on the inside of the inside horse does two things, it drives him forward
which we want for the bending, and it also encourages him to bend at the same
time
already. The only exception to this is, when making a fast turn in a hazard,
then I drive the outside horse which brings the pole around quicker. But
let's forget that for now, there is plenty of time to do that, when the horses
are
properly trained to bend properly all the time! Doing it before will produce
counterbending and pulling away from the pole, exactly the problem so many
lower level pair drivers are having. So all you beginning pair drivers, DRIVE
THE
INSIDE HORSE, that gives you the bending of the inside horse, and don't
worry about the outside horse, they usually lean over to the pole in the turn
anyhow, besides, they don't need to bend as much as the inside horse since
their
turn is wider anyhow. Hardly ever do we see outside horses counterbent in turns
when the inside horse is bending properly, so don't worry about the outside
horse. You have a distinct advantage here over all the single drivers, because
with the pair, and driving the inside horse, the carriage helps you to get the
bending. That nice help you can't get when driving single.
Figure 8 benefits: One horse works while the other has time off. So we
constantly switch and give one a little break and only work the other one.
That's
great already to keep them relaxed and happy in training. Next benefit: The
inside horse needs to shorten stride a little as his distance is shorter and
the
outside horse needs to lengthen stride a little as his route is a little longer
on the outside, so they learn to adjust their stride, which will result in
the nice picture that everybody uhhs and ahhs about, when pairs are going in
stride. Hey, they like to do that by themselves, same as we do. When two people
take a walk together at the beach or in the woods, most try to be in stride
automatically, most without even noticing (unless their strides are very
different), it carries a conversation much better. Horses are no different.
They like
to be in stride, and the figure 8 teaches them to adjust their strides, so
that they later can do it much easier on their own.
Now quickly to the last question that was asked here with horses of different
length. No idea why somebody told you the butts should be even. I wouldn't do
that. I like the heads - if possible also the chests, but for me, mainly the
heads - to be even and adjust the traces and reins accordingly, but after that
again comes the hard work: Driving them evenly, as almost no pair is equally
eager in pulling, and you always have to go after the lazy one and make him do
his fair share, constantly! If you don't, it will make the eager one hotter
and hotter and the problems bigger and bigger.
Good luck
Hardy
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