[drivingpairs] Tandem Moments
- From: "Ansley" <anewton@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 09:02:38 -0500
I couldn't agree more with getting someone experienced to help you start in
Tandem. I was very fortunate to have Camptown Dave as my groom and Sterling
Graburn as my instructor. My STB girls had pretty much only been driven single
before we hooked them. We used a marathon vehicle in an indoor with Sterling as
the whip, I was the passenger and Dave was the able bodied groom standing on
the back. I have to give lots of Kudos to all the Tandem instructors who are
willing to take the reins and drive two horses that they don't know Tandem and
to people like Dave who are very knowledgeable and willing to assist. I was
quite surprised at how well they caught on to what they needed to do. I did
find riding my wheeler and longlining the leader before we hooked very
helpful.It was quite challenging to drive two long strided STB in a small
indoor. My brain went to mush quite a few times and Katie the leader would stop
stand cock her foot shake her head and look back at me as if to say "please let
Sterling drive".
A memorable Tandem moment: I am driving the STB girls around a race track at a
fairly good clip. I am practicing Achenbach rein handling. Sterling suggests I
shorten two of my reins and I give a large pull to the wrong two reins. The
girlies go East -West very quickly and I almost sit the leader on her butt. The
leader was not happy but stood her ground, just shaking her head. Sterling
stays completely calm throughout and explains how corrections need to be done
in small increments with Tandems and which reins to shorten next time. We
continue around the racetrack without further incident.
Camptown Dave and Wendy Ying also did a superb job of driving the STB girlies.
I think these horses needed an experienced person driving them first so they
could learn what was expected of them. I have both trace carriers and a trace
holder on my leader's harness. The trace carriers are traditional , but the
trace holders are behind the carriers and actually snap into a ring sewn into
the traces farther back to keep them held up a little higher. I have to date
not had a problem even in tight turns with the horses stepping on or under the
traces but I also have never done an HDT or CDE with them.
Camptown Dave makes a great Tandem harness.
Ansley
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