[drivingpairs] rein board
- From: Hzlax@xxxxxxx
- To: drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 13:55:34 EDT
About the rein board: There are good descriptions of it in the books that
were recommended: The Principles of Driving by the German National Equestrian
Federation (page 53 -54), although they call it there the Driving Apparatus,
as well as in Max Pape-The Art of Driving (can't give you the page as I have
the German Edition) Pape goes into much greater details. It its for all
driving, singles and pairs, as well as tandems and four.
Basically, it is two eye hooks (for singles and pairs) screwed into a wall
next to each other, with a foot or so apart for a single, or about 2- 3 feet
apart for a pair, through which you then run your reins and attach some
weights (a few pounds) at the bit end of the reins. Then you sit in front of
it and practice your rein holds and "driving" turns and watch how your hands
effect the weight on the end of the reins move up and down. For tandem or 4
you add two more eye bolts and two more reins. For better results, instead of
just eye bolts, you attach sailboat blocks to the eyebolts and run ropes
through them, so that they run more freely, and then you attach old riding
reins to the ropes for the ends in your hand to simulate the reins. You also
hold a riding crop in your hand to simulate the whip, or better yet, you
don't put the eyebolts into a wall, but just into a board, which you can set
on a chair in front of you (but need to tie it down and anchor the chair, so
it doesn't tople over), then you can use your real whip and keep that in
hand.
This all is a very German way of training, as they sit a row of students all
next to each other into a classroom, each with their rein board, and then the
teacher tells them which turns to do, and everybody has to use the exact
proper handholds as described in the Achenbach system: Left turrns, right
turns, U turns, lengthenings of reins, shortenings of reins, halts,
shortening or lengthening of leader reins, and shortenings and lengthenings
of wheeler reins, adjusting the length of individual reins, taking proper
loops for turns including proper oppostitions etc etc, and for singles and
pairs changing the hand holds between basic position, standard position and
schooling position back and forth and the teacher watches the execution and
gives the proper corrections. As I say, it's very German, the students are
drilled until they can do all the positions and proper handholds in their
sleep with closed eyes (and on their back - just kidding), just like people
are drilled in the military, so that these things become second nature and go
automatically, so that when stressful situations arise in the actual driving
with the horses, the students don't need to think what to do with their
hands, and don't need to look at the reins to find the proper one, but can
concentrate on driving the horses. It is also done, so that the students
develope the muscles in their hands and arms for handling the reins properly
and don't cramp up and get stiff by being inexperienced or by using wrong
hand holds. It is also done, so that they become SMOOTH (but quick) and
correct with their hands, so that the horses are spared sharp jerks in the
mouth alternating with loss of contact by inexperinced drivers, and it is
done, to teach proper handholds while being able to use the whip properly,
again, without disturbing the horses in the mouth when using the whip. When
learning all of this properly on the rein board, it spares the horses a lot
of the jerks and mistakes of inexperienced drivers.
As with anything else in life, practice makes perfect. One can do many things
without such extensive training, and most do, but if one wants to become real
good at ones craft, whatever it might be, doing it the proper way helps. One
can learn to ride on one's own, but I doubt that anybody ever won an upper
level dressage class without having taken proper instructions, same for golf,
tennis, gymnastics, dancing, you name it. And with horse sports, it's not
only us, it always also involves our partner, the horse, who often suffers
when we make mistakes, and naturally even with proper training we still will
make mistakes, we are human, but we need to make sure that we keep our
mistakes to a minimum as much as possible. (I'm not worried about Cindy
anymore after her further posts in the meantime)
Hardy
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