Thank you all so much for your help, what a wonderful bunch of folks you are to take time to offer advice.
Goodhors you again hit the nail on the head.
Second here to CDE’s advice on the tail holder, to get horse over the habit of tail twirling. That is such a PITA to deal with.
I think I will take this advice, thank you. I need to break the habit is right.
Could be horse reaction to the two-hand rein hold and whip use. You say tail problem is increasing with more driving, then your hands are going up to artificial position. You still have problem with artifical hand position but getting worse. You may be in an non-winning situation, something else MUST change, so horse reacts a different way.
Yes yes, I didn’t realize they were related, but you are right! I drove yesterday before reading any of this and had an epiphany.
Having mounted the carriage and just getting sorted, my horse started in with the tail twirling immediately. I noticed my hands were low, causing the reins to basically sit on his bum and he could not get his tail over it in that position, just whisk side to side. Ah ha! So I drove that school with my hands low, nearly to my lap. I held my whip better, and my hands were steadier with better contact and I had a happier horse and less tail twirling!!
We had some nice stretching, our best bending and corners yet (circles still quite wobbly :lol:), most trusting and happy mouth yet, and enjoyed a lovely long cool down walk in the woods, a nice rhythmical forward stretchy walk and a happy relaxed pony.
There still was some twirling, but much much less.
When he first started with the tail twirling ages ago, I resorted to holding my hands higher, naturally. I didn’t realize until yesterday, and now reading your post, that this had set up a chain reaction of bad habits. His tail twirling is exasperated by my bad hands, and my hands are bad because of the unnatural height I had to hold them, it was tiring and made me stiff in my arms and lock my elbows.
Also second to the whip advice, MCR whips are very nice. I can’t do a thin sticked handle, my fingers are too long, cramps my hand. I don’t want a really fat handle, but not tiny either.
thank you and everyone for the advice on a new whip, having read their site I think mine is too short too, so a new whip is in order. Reasonable prices too! Thanks again!
Next is do you know HOW to get to or find the balance point on your whip?
That “perfect place” is almost never down in the handle part, unless you have modified that whip for changing the balance point. And the longer the whip and lash, the higher on the stick your hand will be if you want to be at the balance point.
We were taught that whip must literally, balance, on your outstretched thumb, handle and lash tip equal, not tipping either way. THAT is where your hand must be to take away the pull of the long stick from your hand and wrist, while carrying whip in the vehicle. Sometimes that balance point is WAY up the stick, so you may need to weight down the handle end, to change the balance point and be comfortable to hold in use.
This is so funny! I find as I drive that my hand creeps up the shaft of the whip and I always end up holding it at the very tip top of the handle/grip. I keep catching myself and correcting it, but thanks to you I now realize I was doing the correct thing all along. My hand was migrating to the balance point all on its own.
Thank you so very much!
And last point, is you should work towards driving one handed to be a better driver, able to use your whip effectively. With the two-hand rein hold, whip in right hand, you release the right rein tension each time you use the whip. You are dropping your horse, no support on the right side rein. Horse can’t be consistant if you are not helping him with your inconsistant rein signals. Seriously, you can’t use the whip, keep that right rein in place at the same time. With any one-hand rein hold, you ARE able to use the whip without affecting the horse and rein contact.
Thank you, this is the second time someone has suggested learning to drive one handed and its advice I’m going to take. I can clearly see the value now. I am still learning about contact with my horse, had another revelation yesterday about my level of contact.
When we first set out learning to drive, my horse was coming out of a bad riding history and one of his major vices was napping. He also had an extremely light mouth. Forgiving, but light. In our early work he essentially trained me to to drive with consistent but featherweight contact. In our very early work this was ok because we weren’t doing much, and mostly in straight lines and huge ovals.
Since moving on to a nimble 4wheeler, and graduating to driving figures, etc. as the patterns became more complex and turns smaller, I started loosing my horse in the corners. This has been frustrating for us both for the last few weeks.
The last couple of drives, and especially yesterday, I’ve been taking a bit of a firmer contact, which my horse has been relaxing into finally (not something he would have done 6 months ago, he would have taken the excuse to balk repeatedly). He’s finally becoming consistently responsive to my voice to go on, and the firmer contact is helping me realize that I had been throwing away my outside rein in turns!
Horse may be doing the tail thing BECAUSE you are using the whip AND throwing one side rein away.
Its amazing how right you are and how you picked up on something that I’d been struggling with and didn’t even realize it.
Have you been able to get any driving lessons with a trainer? Sounds like you may need some outside eyes to critque your form, catch problems you may not be aware of doing. It is HARD to do things on your own, so a few lessons now and again will catch us with incorrect posture, form or actions in driving. That rein release is a FRACTION of time, but horse sure feels it when you use the whip! Could be some other stuff happening as well, combination of little things, that affect the whole picture.
I have taken lessons on other people’s trained horses. I’ve had driving friends come help me, but nothing as advanced as contact and how to drive turns, etc. I’m now looking for a trainer that will come out to where I board since I don’t have a truck or trailer. I’ve gotten a few leads so hope to make some contacts soon.
I am guessing here, but have had the rein release demo’d many times with beginner drivers, drivers from breed showing using the two-handed method and carry the whip with the rein. Changing the rein hold to a one-hand method helps, whip only in other hand, even if it takes a while to get comfortable with using daily. Perhaps using the tail holder for awhile, as you modify the other stuff, will help break the habit as horse is not so frustrated.
Thank you so much. I’m going to start experimenting with a one handed rein hold on each drive and slowly work towards becoming comfortable with it.
I can’t thank you enough, I had no idea how related all these issues were and you saw right to the heart of it all. I can’t thank you enough!
