Some Things We "Learned" About Driving Pairs

[RhineStone]

This last week, we have been working on putting a pair together. We started line driving last weekend, and put them to this weekend. Here are some things that we knew from reading books and articles, and hearing other people's experiences, but now we fully experienced ourselves:

• Have a buddy. There is NO WAY we could have either line drove or put the horses to the vehicle safely by ourselves. It helps to have a buddy "with a clue". I can see how two people with no clue would be a disaster.
• Make sure your horses are fairly well broke as singles first. This made our job a WHOLE lot easier. Moving from a cart to a four-wheeler wasn't a hard "transition" for the horses, which is why we only needed to line drive them a few times before putting them to the vehicle. If we did this with green horses, we can see how a wreck could be easily had. They seemed to actually enjoy the company while working.
• Both horses should have a solid foundation of WHOA and STAND. It makes life a whole lot easier when they will stand to be put to instead of wiggling around. If one walks off while the other is in the middle of hitching, the vehicle may slam the standing one in the heels. (Ours stood great!)
• Binder twine is a good thing for new pairs. We tied our horses together with a quick release knot of binder twine for line driving. Thankfully, we didn't have to cut it, but we also...
• Have a knife in case you need it.
• Driving two horses is WAY more difficult than one. (It isn't nearly as hard as driving a tandem, though...
  
  ) I wouldn't have wanted to be a "new driver" and try this without already having a good bit of driving knowledge, especially line driving where there really isn't anything to keep them both from spinning toward each other and facing you. (See the first bullet....
  
  ) Also, to keep them from spinning toward you.....
• Forward is good! If we are going forward, we are not going back or sideways. This also applies even more so when driving a tandem.
• Have a whip and know how to use it. Invariably, one horse will lag behind the other horse. To paraphrase an old (I think) Chinese saying, "There are two kinds of [horses]. One willing to work, and the other willing to let him." If you don't have a whip to get after the lazy horse, the lazy horse will have the pole bumping them all the time as it swings away from the horse who does pull. (See above bullet...) Aim to have the pole be in the middle at all times.
• Mechanical brakes are good! Make sure the brakes work! Initially, we didn't have the pole straps tight enough, but didn't figure that out until we went to stop. We were able to stop the vehicle with the brakes to keep it from running up on the horses. We eventually want to get harnesses that use the breeching straps to stop the vehicle. Right now, we have jury-rigged our single harnesses.
• Understand how the harnesses work. I can't imagine trying to put a pair together without a good understanding of what each piece of harness does.
• Understand how the vehicle works. We needed to adjust the pole so that it was lower. In the process, we also put it on correctly, which meant that the horses didn't need to hold up the pole. If someone would put the pole on that vehicle upside down, then the pole would have hung on the horse's necks.
• Horses, even mini horses, have WAY more power as a pair than a single. I couldn't believe how strong they were, especially line driving! They hauled my butt around the arena at a trot! And you could even feel how much power they had when put to the vehicle! I can see how having a vehicle that was too light would cause major problems, especially in a turn. Oh, my, I would NEVER put a pair to a cart! I would be whipped around like an innertube pulled by a boat!
  
  There isn't enough weight back there for them. At no time did they look "strained" by pulling that bigger four-wheeler. Granted, they are a big 37" and 39". It even felt better for me to have Chad on the back of the vehicle vs. just driving it by myself. Which leads to....
• Unless you are driving in an enclosed area, always take someone with you to drive a pair. You can't possibly handle all that vehicle and horses by yourself if something went wrong say out on the trail.

Now for that pair harness. We are shopping and will take any suggestions! We are primarily looking at doing CDEs with the pair, so we need a harness that will satisfy that. We can get parts to make our single leather ones work (we are actually using parts off my mom's pair harness right now), but we are not sure if we want to get leather parts or get a whole synthetic harness we can practice with or ?.

Open to suggestions!

Myrna

 

[ClickMini]

Chimacum tack!!! Really nice harness.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Great post Myrna, thank you! I was very interested to read your experiences and it dovetailed nicely with what I've found in my limited pair work. I knew the harness inside and out, read like a maniac about adjusting the pole and the reins, and still had about a million questions when we put them to!

If we hadn't had lots of experience as singles drivers and the horses weren't well-trained...wow.

Things can get out of hand really fast. I had the harness well-adjusted for the horses but questions of how far to put them from the pole, whether the pole straps would be better longer or shorter or if we should adjust the pole instead...all those sorts of things required an expert.

Binder twine is a wonderful thing. Breanna and I have discussed this and we think we'd use binder twine between the breeching when ground-driving as well to keep the horses from being able to spin as you describe. Attach each set of breeching to the tugs if you're jury-rigging single harness, then connect the two inside breeching rings.

The most helpful thing anyone can do before starting a multiple IMO is drive a finished one under experienced tutelage. I learned SO MUCH by driving Breanna's upper-level tandem, things you just can't successfully learn from a book even though the same information is in there. It made all the difference when starting a green one. I drove several mini pairs and a Friesian pair before helping Amy start hers and knowing how to start them off evenly, what to watch for, and to always be riding the lazier horse to move forward helped a lot. I didn't personally find it any harder than driving a single, easier in some ways as I wasn't worried at that point about getting them to bend or flex properly, but it was definitely a different set of skills and a lot more risk if you didn't know how to head off problems early.

I think the most I've ever felt that "exponential power increase" was from ground-driving a four-in-hand of minis in England last summer. Oh my Lord, it was like having an entire herd in one hand!

What a power trip.

Although he drove them coaching style he didn't give us a whip when we worked them and the horses didn't respond to their individual names so I felt strangely handicapped because I couldn't get after one particular horse to move up without setting off the leaders. And trust me, when they went...they went.

They were quite impressive with their owner driving.

I may very well end up putting my boys to a cart this summer but I'm unhappy about doing so and will be doing my best to compensate for the risk factors. I will buy a wider axle to go with the pair pole, definitely have someone else sit with me to increase the weight, and we'll only do it in the arena or out on the beach where we can put in lots of miles without making any turns. I simply don't have $5,000 right now to buy a pair carriage.

We'll see! Mine are both smaller minis so it's not quite as bad as with maxi-minis like yours. If I had another experienced driver I'd just drive them both single but I don't and Kody could use some help pulling through that deep sand with his back so Turbo may get to help out.

I was suddenly aware last year, ponying him off the back of Kody's cart, how much horsepower I had going to waste back there!

As for your harness- yes, for a pair I am very fond of a ComfyFit sport-style harness with Freedom Collars. I love the look of a Driving Essentials leather pair harness, but since I'm only doing CDE's and not pleasure driving shows and we live in wet country I'm better off with the synthetic harness. I have not found one of those I like for minis except the ComfyFit.

Leia

 

[RhineStone]

I didn't personally find it any harder than driving a single, easier in some ways as I wasn't worried at that point about getting them to bend or flex properly, but it was definitely a different set of skills and a lot more risk if you didn't know how to head off problems early.

That's probably more what I was trying to say. Yes, it is not harder for an accomplished single driver, but Chad and I talked about that if we would have tried this when we were still novice drivers, how much more difficult and dangerous it would have been. It is a breeze compared to tandem.

Chad drove someone else's pony four at a show last year, and a tandem at a clinic a few years ago, so yes, it is a good idea to drive a finished multiple before you try it on your own. Just like a single, too.

Thanks for the harness suggestion. I have gotten other recommendations for that.

Myrna

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Thanks for sharing those pointers and experiences, Myrna.

Good luck with your tandem project, Leia!

I was disappointed that it didn't work for me. I was beginning to get the hang of the reins when I had to give up. My Dapper Dan is not a team player. He is not brilliant enough for a leader and too bossy for a wheeler. I think Dusty would work as a wheeler, but I guess I'll never know for sure. And they are too different in size to work as a pair. It sure would be fun to take them out together--a fantasy! But I doubt I would try it again, as I came very close to a serious accident. I had to admit that even though a horse will work single, he might not be suitable for tandem work.

Love to see pairs and tandems at work!!

 

[keely2682]

•Horses, even mini horses, have WAY more power as a pair than a single. I couldn't believe how strong they were, especially line driving! They hauled my butt around the arena at a trot! And you could even feel how much power they had when put to the vehicle!

this shocked me too!

i see why pairs often use liverpool bits