You guys are so great. Thank you so much for all the well thought out responses.
Really, I don’t know if I express clearly enough how grateful I am. You guys really put the wind in my sails some days and I wouldn’t have gotten this far without you.
In order of appearance
I ride with one hand a LOT, because I usually ride 2-3 times a week with my Deaf friend, so we need a free hand to “talk”. And when I’m not riding with her, I’m usually carrying my hunt whip (aka Stray Dog Deterrent ) - again, mostly riding one-handed.
Never considered what it must be like to be deaf and ride, what an extraordinary heightened awareness of the horse I must imagine? Imagine only knowing hoofbeats through the resonance of your body…
I kept wanting to do that while driving - and Driving Clinic Guy kept telling me to use both hands
I got the chance to take a lesson once with someone I really really admire. I brushed up reading before my lesson with her, and tried to impress her by holding the reins Achenbach style, and as I fuddled and fussed trying to get it right she saw right through me and said “just hold them like you were riding” :lol: and I’ve been doing that ever since.
I did notice that I was driving with my thumbs up, the way I (try to) ride. And the other woman in the clinic, who is an actual carriage driver, drove with what one of my dressage mentors used to call “damn piano hands” - palms facing down.
I am a novice as well, but I am finding there is a dividing line on this subject, as many pro piano hands as against. I get lulled into piano hands from the weight of my whip. Actually what happens is my right hand goes piano and I go “oh garsh darnit, I’ll have to just even up here” :lol:
Having experimented with both, thumbs up gets my thumbs up :D, I have greater range of motion with my wrists, but more importantly, like ridden dressage, I can connect my wrists to my elbows to my back much more effectively with thumbs up, which really helps me keep up on my HHs and keep my pony balanced when we’re doing tight fast twisty turny trails. Piano hands seem to cause me to need to swing my arms out far.
I suspect personal preference plays a big role in the debate too.
If your whip hand is getting that tired on distances, you may want to invest in a better whip.
[hangs head in shame for the second time today] I owe myself a new whip, you guys already gave me this advice ages ago too… I hope you don’t think of me as ungrateful or not listening… lets just say life has been getting in the way lately and I’ve been making due with what I have, but yes… I need a new whip.
Do you know the correct rein hold for Achenbach driving with a Single?
I have a book… (she says meekly)
Have you ever tried building a reinboard and had it for practicing?
nooooooo… (she says with her tail between her legs). You are right, this must be done. I have good intentions, even rounded up all the parts to build it, just never got to it and went out driving anyhow. I am intrigued though, especially having read this:
The first mistake that I see people make when they sit down at the reinboard is that they sit down, grab the reins, and pull the weight up off the ground an suspend it in midair. During this series of exercises that I’m going to give you I want to be perfectly clear that the weight should remain resting on the ground, preferably on a hard surface. … The purpose of this exercise is to train your hand to recognize the difference between contact vs. no contact.
http://www.coachmansdelight.com/CGuidePage.asp?pg=GUI52&k=57
I’d read this ages ago and said ‘yeah yeah yeah’. But I tell you, experimenting with one handed driving, I really felt what it was to be on contact or not. I guess because all the signals are going to one source and not getting quite the chance to get muddied by my brain trying to process the input… but I really started finding the line of when I’m there, or not.
One of the big problems I had end of last year was throwing my horse away and not realizing it. I thought I was releasing, when I was just pitching him away. It was he that insisted I stop doing this by putting his tail over my reins every time I made the mistake :lol: Clever boy, used the appendage closest to me to give me the finger :lol:
Anyhow, what I felt was “quite a firm hold” turned out to be just right for him. Bless him, his mouth is neither hard nor soft and so forgiving of my mistakes too.
So I am due a reinboard.
With you driving mileage on the Trails, out at least a couple hours, you may want to learn a couple reinholds, doing them correctly on your reinboard first.
Not to slight anyone else, not at all, but GH, you always seem to hit the nail on the head… Of course I can learn different reinholds! Why didn’t I think of that?? Why did I allow myself to be convinced that its Achenbach or nothing? I should learn as much as possible and discover for myself which is best per situation. There is no one perfect for all, just expand my vocabulary.
There seems to be much ado about Achenbach, so I guess thats where I got the notion that reinholds are more a religion than tool.
The main thing is to be doing rein holding properly, using your good body posture, keeping arms close to the body, sitting upright with feet firmly on the floor,
I had a poor start in my jog cart, though I will sing its praises to my grave, it taught me a LOT of bad habits, and poor/no posture is one of them. Posture tops my list of one of improvements I need to make in myself. I urge my pony on to be snappy and put forth effort, while I slouch… :no: I send the wrong message down the reins.
Knowing more than one reinhold, is going to add more “tricks” to your knowledge base. Sometimes one thing works when the NORMAL stuff isn’t. You can change around, work back to your NORMAL in time. Better to be able to change reinholds, do them RIGHT, than have hands go into a spaz from not moving in so long!! Achenbach is a great reinhold, but not the ONLY one around. The issue I have with some of the more casual reinholds is that they create other issues. Like having a rein in your right hand along with the whip, will cause you to lose contact on horse right while USING the whip. You drop the horse, he may fade left FAST. Not HIS FAULT, but yours and the reinhold you were using. Those darn secondary issues with using “other” less universal methods and ideas. The popular methods are most common for good reasons, usually are the easiest, once you are familiar with it.
You are SO right, and I am SO grateful that you take the time, over and over and over :lol: to be so thorough and thoughtful. Thank you so much.
Not sure how close you looked at the CD Hungarian, but the green rein comes in from the BOTTOM of the hand, with red in between the thumb and forefinger. That green bit between forefinger and second finger, is the green rein end exiting to the floor. Not the steering part of rein. Red and green reins cross in the Drivers palm. Hand is steering from top and bottom of the palm with sideways twisting action. Hand is always held horizontally to drive, not thumbs up.
I managed to get close :lol: its in the video I posted earlier for just a second (I glanced to my hand to show my reinhold, but then was quickly ashamed as I assumed I was doing it wrong). I learned over a year ago when long lining that hand horizontally with this reinhold had the best communication. Though, I don’t do it completely right, and on Thursday when I drive again, I’ll be trying it out properly now that I’m more informed.
I always drove coachman’s style/Achenbach. It feels better to me, there is less fatigue on your forearm/wrist and more control. (I feel there is more control) Since you are holding your arm at a 90* angle and your wrist straight with your forearm.
I have played, and there is definitely more control. I guess the issue I had with Achenbach was two fold. First I tried it too early and was sending more messages than my horse and I understood so we got confuddled and I declared it wasn’t for me… and two, going from one hand to two, there is a giving and taking of the slack that would throw me for a loop for a stride or three and I never manged to make it seamless with whip in hand. The pseudo-Hungarian style I have is instant transition from one hand to two. I literally take the right rein and put it in my left with no loss of contact, or pick it up with my right with no beat skipped. No futzing with the whip. Its just natural to me so I gravitated there.
But when I go back to two hands I do have to make the conscious choice to go thumbs up from the puppy-dog paw of the not-quite-Hungarian style.
(goodness this response is getting epic so I’m posting now so I don’t loose it :lol:)
When I drive with 2 hands, which I only do when I am training a younger horse or zipping though tight turns. I hold them in a ‘thumbs up’ position like ridden dressage I use my pinkies as levelers of pressure (give and take) for the settle half halts and what not. If I need to make the communication louder I can (by activating my wrists) and even louder by activating my elbows/shoulder.
Yes yes yes! I do the same. I find thumbs up I can HH at just the right moment and keep my boy from collapsing and slithering around a tight turn. Of course, we’re just rank rank beginners at this, I feel a lot more support with thumbs up.
There is no left and right (steering wheel riding) with driving. The reins go though turrets and allow for only forward (give) and back (take) communication. Sure when you take your hand way to the left or right you are actually taking so you are picking up slack and the horse goes left or right respectively.
YES YES YES! I’m a Slyvia Loch devotee. One of the key things I took from her was think of turning as not restricting the inside to make the turn, but lengthening the outside. I applied this to my riding, I started from day one driving with this in mind.
Personally I would learn to drive one handed and coachman/achenbach and I know there will be nay sayers but think about it. If you have the reins in each hand and every time you have to use the whip to help with a turn or encourage your horse to go forward you are also activating that right rein which can cause miss-communication with that rein.
This is one of the key reasons I’m suddenly finding so much value in one handed driving… I’m finally learning how to use my whip… Yes its heavy not quite right, but mainly by virtue that I was either sending messages or dropping my horse every time I went to use it. I went for months holding the thing stationery and rarely using it like a dummy. One handed, I’m discovering my dexterity with it and able to start cuing him at certain points of his body. Making much more sense to him. Its been a bit of a revelation for me frankly.
Thank you all so much, clearly the answer is to keep on keepin’ on and learn a variety of reinholds (with the assistance of my reinboard!!!) and learn what suits what situation best. And invest in a better whip.
THANK YOU!
- unable to shout any helpful instructions. She & Prozac Pony have a “thing”. Sometimes, she tells ME that a car is coming up behind us. How does she know? She watches PP’s ears, then turns to look at what he’s listening to. :yes:)