# Just watch this



## rabbitsfizz (Dec 24, 2012)

...
Apologies I can't get it to direct link but it is WELL worth the effort of pasting if you have not, of course, already seen it- I was speechless, I really was, I watched it live and I was screaming at the TV!!


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## eagles ring farm (Dec 24, 2012)

wow!!!


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## hobbyhorse23 (Dec 24, 2012)

Boyd is awesome. Enough said.

Leia


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## michele80906 (Dec 24, 2012)

That was cool! Michele


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## Kendra (Dec 24, 2012)

Wow!


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## Renolizzie (Dec 24, 2012)

Wow!!! Just amazing.


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## susanne (Dec 25, 2012)

.

Brilliant!


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## Lil Eowyn (Dec 25, 2012)

Thats great! =)


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## paintponylvr (Dec 26, 2012)

Thanks for the link! That is awesome. He makes it look sooooo easy.

After my first lesson(s) with just two hazards with a pair - I now know how confusing and how much concentration and work it takes to do that. I have an even bigger appreciation of what he (and everyone else at those levels) does!!


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## hobbyhorse23 (Dec 28, 2012)

paintponylvr said:


> After my first lesson(s) with just two hazards with a pair - I now know how confusing and how much concentration and work it takes to do that. I have an even bigger appreciation of what he (and everyone else at those levels) does!!


Doing it with a four-in-hand or tandem is like playing that old arcade game "snake." You can't just drive the gates, you have to be driving two gates ahead with your leaders while simultaneously driving your current gate cleanly with your wheeler/s! It's insane and really takes a top-level driver. I'm pretty good at multi-tasking but currently find it a challenge just to navigate basic corners with my tandem. I need a lot more practice!

Leia


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## REO (Dec 29, 2012)

Got tears in my eyes, AWESOME!!

I made your link clickable Jane




All you do is after you paste an URL, just hit the spacebar once and it makes it lit up and working to click.


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## Performancemini (Dec 30, 2012)

Why don't they use breeching? Wouldn't it make manuvuering easier? Just asking.


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## susanne (Dec 30, 2012)

The 4-wheel carriage has brakes, which makes breeching is optional. I would imagine Boyd is a wizard at using them to his best advantage.


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## MajorClementine (Jan 3, 2013)

What an amazing team and great driver. This was so fun to watch. Thanks!


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## rabbitsfizz (Jan 4, 2013)

Thanks Robin, I did not know you could do that!!

I have never driven a four in hand, although of course you don't double up on the reins as they all sort of slot into one another- but I have enough trouble with a tandem- I just cannot imagine getting a team to do this- I quite literally had my mouth open the whole drive- if I had known they had this class I would have gone up to watch, just think what it would be like to watch live!!

I think a tandem is actually more difficult, on a basic level, than a four in hand, (so long as the horses are experienced, that is, think of a green team!!) as you have one horse stuck out in front with no moral support- horses don't like that at all, so you have to have the dominant animal in front. Unfortunately my dominant animal was the taller animal, so I was constantly pushing the little chap, who I did insist went in lead, to keep him going forward. For the actual pageant we led them, in the end, as I was NOT going past Her Majesty at 600mph with a person dressed as her great grandmother in the Victoria, trying to look as if I was in control. That was just two. Four and a course like this and I am happy to admit I would be at sea...


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## hobbyhorse23 (Jan 4, 2013)

LOL, Fizz! Yes, a tandem is harder as in a four-in-hand the lead pair pretty much keep each other from being able to wheel and face the driver and also serve to steady each other as you say. Driving a tandem through that sort of obstacle at speed is madness...a four-in-hand, merely challenging. LOL

I've driven a four-up but only once (in England the day after we met you, actually, Fizz) but I've also had the privilege of riding along with Breanna Sheahan as she did hazards at Shady Oaks with her Preliminary VSE tandem and good lord I wish I'd had a helmet cam! She's a highly experienced whip with both big and small horses and an accomplished Intermediate single driver but even she had to slam on the brakes and fix things a few times. It was pretty intense to be on that ride.

For an example, watch this!

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Leia


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## hobbyhorse23 (Jan 4, 2013)

Looks like the VSE-types are well represented there! [/media]
I want to run over that bridge SO. BAD.

Leia


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## rbrown (Jan 5, 2013)

Love those videos, Leia. Those tandems are awesome!


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## rabbitsfizz (Jan 5, 2013)

We so badly need to get a VSE team qualified for Olympia but it is NOT going to be me!! My Tandem skills are not up to it even if I knew how to prevent DC from biting Misty's bum, or vice versa, and there is no way of this earth I am EVER driving the four I have, no way, no how!


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