Dear friends: I am watching the recent exchange on checkreins from the sideline and just want to encourage all of our readers to always keep a very open mind as to what you read on this list and see out there, as we have a very wide spectrum of different backgrounds where our members are coming from, from Minis to Carriage Horses to Draft Hitches, from Recreational Driving, to Breed Show Ring Driving, to Pleasure Driving, to CDE Driving, to Commercial Driving, to Endurance Driving, to Logging and Farming, to Pulling Contests, (and I am sure there are more that I did not mention, how about Chuck Waggon Races, or Oil Drum Chariot Racing :-) and standards and terms in one area are often very different in another. With an open mind for each other we usually can learn from each and see why something is done that way there and differently here without condeming one or the other. Lets just try to understand first where somebody is coming from and why he is doing what he is doing, and then we'll often see why it may make sense in his area but perhaps not in ours. I think that is the case in the discussion about the check reins, whose use can and was being overdone in light carriage horses with artificial neck sets, thus is outruled in most ADS style driving, as Noel explained, but which is quite different in it's use for a draft hitch as Ken pointed out. Both are right, only are coming from different sides. Let me give you another example of different standards: When I grew up with a commercial hitch of drafthorses in East Germany after World War II doing pick-us and deliveries in a small city, it was absolutely customary, that one driver would do the job day in day out with his team (two drafthorses), would stand them in front of the store, would tie the reins to the dashboard, set the parking brake, take off one trace off the single tree on the evener, and the horses would stand there by themselves, for hours if necessary, while he was doing paperwork in the office inside, or loading or unloading the waggon etc etc. No groom ever, just one person always. Now folks with light high strung carriage horses from the show ring would have a fit if somebody would leave such a pair standing someplace without a groom in attendence, and rightfully so. So, must a pair always have a groom? Well, see above, it all depends, what we are talking about. Today most pairs that we see, yes, but don't condem the commercial driver whose draft horse is trained and used to the job day in day out and might stand very well by himself. So let's keep our minds open and share our different methods and learn from each other, but let's also be VERY careful that it often does not work well to mix standards and what works in one area for one type of driving might not work at all in another area. See above groom example! Hardy _________________________________________________________ To Unsubscribe, change to Digest or Vacation mode go to: http://www.drivingpairs.com/dpmem.html `````````````````````````````````````````````````````````