In a message dated 5/26/04 3:17:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time, goodhors@xxxxxxxxx writes: << Next question for pair, "Is the evener tied down?" Until horses/ponies can walk off smoothly TOGETHER, you don't want the evener working. One animal a step or two behind is NOT together. Working evener makes the animals work against each other, jerking at starts. More work as a single, is never time wasted. >> OK - I have a question. The evener straps prevent the evener from moving too much, but allow some movement, so are you saying fix them tight so there is little or no motion when starting the new pair? I'm asking b/c I had this problem with my sleigh, but I didn't even have straps, so they pretty much could get slapped in the hocks. Not knowing that I needed or could use the straps, I just put the neck collars on that I use to cross tie them while harnessing with the coupler b/t them to keep them together. That worked! I really could not understand why it was a stupid setup in my mind ;-P Of course I don't run into this problem with the newer carriages with separate single trees or roller bolts. Karen Wilkin Star Cross Stable Friesian Horses 47 Yellowbrook Rd. Freehold, NJ 07728 Ph: 732-919-3827 Fax: 732-919-3828 e-mail: FriesianPrDriver@xxxxxxx _________________________________________________________ To Unsubscribe, change to Digest or Vacation mode go to: http://www.drivingpairs.com/dpmem.html `````````````````````````````````````````````````````````