I never really learned how to use my brakes in my marathon carriage.
Normally I used them only for “extreme” moments, a short steep downhill, or when my horse is attempting to ignore my request and rudely barges through my hands. I don’t for a moment think I can stop my horse with my brakes, brakes stop the carriage, not the horse, I just weigh him down with drag when he decides to get rude.
What I have noticed though is that since going to the heavier 4 wheeler from the teeny tiny light jog cart, our down transitions pretty much suck. He rocked in the jog cart, crisp down transitions (up was another story back then :lol:) square every time. Now, he sort of crumples and is rather strung out.
Thinking its just strength and balance, I’ve been timing my down transitions so we’re on good footing and often slightly uphill so he can stop effectively and build muscle memory of a good stop. I don’t know how to fix the poor down transitions so I just minimize them. :lol: Try not to practice mistakes is my motto.
Anyhow, reading one of my books, I think it was Heike’s, I read something to the effect of “if you have brakes use them in your down transitions every time, why make your horse do all the work when you can help and get a better down transition”.
Ah, lightbulb! So for the last few weeks I’ve been using my brakes for down transitions, and at first it was great. Immediately better, more organized down transitions. Thought I was on the road to recovery.
But then very quickly a new problem arose. Crafty pony apparently likes the ‘help’ so much, he waits for me to apply brake before making the attempt to down shift. :rolleyes: So now we have the same problem in reverse, still strung out, no power or squareness, but being drug from front to back.
Looking for information on half halts (for such a hugely important tool there is not a lot of discussion on it :(), I found this article and the part about not using brakes for the exercise really resonated with me
http://www.coachmansdelight.com/CGuidePage.asp?pg=GUI21&k=21
I strongly discourage the use of brakes during this exercise for several reasons.
First, your horse should be able to stop the carriage without any trouble on any flat, or moderately down hill surface. If he is slipping at all from the weight of the carriage, check that he is shod correctly for the surface he is working on. I use a thin layer or “wash” of medium grit borrium or Drill Tech on all horses for driving. This is plenty to keep them from slipping, even in hazards, but not so much that it effects the weight or give of the shoe.
Second, making the horse responsible for stopping the weight of the carriage has the added benefit of demanding a higher level engagement. A horse has to lean into the breeching to slow and stop a carriage, the way he would use his hind quarters to carry himself down a steep hill, or perform movements of greater collection.
Third, and certainly not the least reason I discourage the use of brakes is operator error. The most frequent mistake I see made in this regard is the driver using the carriage to stop the horse. This happens when the driver brakes the carriage before the horse has made, or often even begun to make the halt. The traces tighten, and the horse stops from the weight in the breast collar. There are several pitfalls in this scenario. From the prospective of dressage and engagement, the horse is learning to use his front end, and the breast collar to stop. This sends the balance of his weight forward, over his front legs leaving him “on the forehand”. Horses that halt on the forehand often are heavy in the reins (especially if the brake isn’t applied). They halt over many many strides, do not halt square, and move off from the halt crooked, with their head in the air. From a more practical standpoint, using the brake to stop a horse trains him not to pull the carriage when it gets heavy. The next time you are at a rainy CDE listen to how many people complain “my horse wouldn’t go forward because dressage ring was too deep.” Often times those are the very same people who use the brake to slow or stop their horse. It’s only natural for the horse to back off if they encounter heavy going with the carriage. The horse has no way of understanding if the carriage is harder to pull because of mud, or because the driver is riding the brake.
So, now I question to what degree I should be using my brakes, if at all in normal circumstances. When he started his little trick, I realized my timing was off, so tried to wait for him to make the attempt to stop before I helped… but he’s clever and stubborn and literally waits for me to help, he goes hollow and kind of skitters along waiting for me. Rotten lazy pony.
Working on HH’s will go a long way to solve this, we obviously have much work to do, and in the end we will figure out what amount of braking and when, etc, works best for us. There is no hard and fast I’m sure.
But I would love is to hear anyone else’s advice, or really just your philosophy on brakes and braking.
As with a lot of things, there are many roads to Rome on this. What I really value about CoTH the most is that its a central meeting point for so many great horsemen from completely different backgrounds, with completely different POV. I get a lot of lightbulb moments reading what everyone has to say.
Thank you!
and at one point he became really agitated and kept breaking to trot… which is super strange as this horse has discovered he LOVES to canter (and his canter is lovely & slow, he’s not rushed or running).
