Karen, Glad you asked! Drop pole means that the pole "drops to the ground" when it is not attached to the horses/ponies/minis. Fixed pole (still has travel~up-down) but will stay up when attached to the carriage. Two wheel pair vehicles (use caution) they can work, but you need an auxiliary strap to hold the YOKE (DO NOT USE A CRAB) down. Otherwise, when you get in the vehicle, the pole will tip up! We used a Pole Cart for years for training. MOSTLY they were meant to be used with a Curricle harness (we never had one)! There are some good books, Max Pape for one, and a new Pairs book, I hope to have in stock shortly. You are the 2nd Mini Pair customer asking today! I do have some Mini books, not sure if they cover the pairs, but I will check. I will check on the videos too. I use a short tug pair harness, can be used single as well. Claudette Robinson COUNTRY CARRIAGES USA 373 Phillips Road Columbus NC 28722 828.863.4373 carriagesusa@xxxxxxxxxx www.CountryCarriagesUSA.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Karen Johnson To: drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 2:36 PM Subject: [drivingpairs] Re: Pole height I have a question so basic I didn't want to post it. I have been mostly lurking and learning; I only drive singles - What is the difference between dropped and fixed poles? Which would be better for steep hills (I assume one would allow the pole to "move" with the shoulders of the equines, on hills?) Can a pole be used on a two wheeled vehicle for a pair to pull? Is there a basic video or book that has elementary information like this in it? I have miniature horses that are trained to drive. Karen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: drivingpairs-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:drivingpairs-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Hzlax@xxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 11:21 AM To: drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [drivingpairs] Pole height In a message dated 2/15/2006 11:04:18 PM Pacific Standard Time, ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: What is the proper height for the pole (in relation to the animal)? Meaning, elbow height? Breastcollar height? Halfway in between? etc. I look at photos and it seems like the heights are all different. Also, would the height be different for a marathon vehicle vs. a pleasure vehicle? Thanks. Yes, height can be different with marathon and pleasure vehicles depending on the pole set up. For modern marathon vehicle with a sprung pole I like a short marathon yoke on the pole end with quick releases to snap directly into the breastcollar D rings. For that I like to pole to be just slightly below the D rings, so it rests with very little weight there. I don't want it entirely "floating" as then it tends to go up and down too much, so very little weight - like a pound or so - which means that it's not really "hanging" heavily on the brestcollars, but on te other hand doesn't come up too much and too high either. For a Pleasure vehicle we have basically two different set-ups: The American style Pleasure Vehicle has a drop pole and is also driven with a yoke. So basically the same applies - only since it's drop pole, it does have a little more weight hanging there in front, but it should also be used with a yoke - which would be slightly longer than the marathon yoke, but I would still like to have the yoke attached close to the center of the collars, which then automatically gives us the height. The other set up is the European fixed pole with pole straps or pole chains and no yoke. That pole should be longer so that the angle of the pole straps or pole chains is not too wide so that the pole straps or chains do not pull the horses into the pole. On antique vehicles we often see those poles extend beyond the heads of the horses, which for the angle is fine. Modern vehicles have the poles not quite as long, as folks use them in CDE's for dressage an cones, and for the cones don't want too long poles sticking out in front restricting tight turns, but still the poles is longer than short marathon poles. So then we need to make sure that these poles do not hit the horses in the noses when moving up and down with uneven terrain, thus they tend to be a little lower. In addition, since these often are fixed poles on antique vehicles, at times one has little choice and can't change their height easily. That's why you see different heights on different pictures, as different height horses were still using the same vehicle over the years. Hope this helps. Hardy
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