Reinsmanship for a tandem

[pluvinel]

I am looking for someone in the Brandywine Driving Club general area who drives tandems, or who exercises their 4-in-hand horses under saddle, to help me with my reinsmanship.

I am a rider who is interested in doing a ridden tandem. I have driven a single horse (long time ago and briefly) and am experienced trainer for putting horses to work in long-lines.

For my ridden tandem, I have a leader who is a brave bold forward horse who is well used to ground driving and doing dressage on the long-lines. For the “wheeler” (ridden horse) I have a horse who will willingly follow the leader and is light to the bridle. I have ridden the two as a tandem at a walk in the indoor, no problem.

But it has become patently obvious that my reinsmanship needs to improve (a lot) to manage 2 horses and 4 reins at anything other than a walk.

I know there is the 2-handed method, and the one handed 4-reins, and variations of that. I have a rein board that i have practiced in, but I need adult supervision here.

Here is a link to the Reprise des Tandems by the French honor guard, the Garde Republicaine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDFpmHL8PJQ

Below is an image of the Garde Republicaine showing a ridden tandem.

[goodhors]

You might look up Clay Maier, who is an excellent horse trainer. He used to do demos with Fresians as a ridden Tandem. He put out training DVDs, has Utube videos. Not sure where or what he is doing presently, to give a site or place ro buy his DVDs. He sure put on a good show! Maybe you could find them used on Amazon or other seller.

Good luck with your project, Tandem work is exciting, everything happens so fast!! We have only done driven Tandems, used the one-handed rein grip most of the time. Driving, we found Leader liked the traces connected so she could “feel” her limits, stay centered in front. We had a lot of problems trying to start them without using traces as recommended by some trainers and books. Leader had no idea where she belonged, came back around to be by the wheeler!

Do have ground people to help untangle things as you start training. They are absolutely needed so no one gets hurt.

NEVER buckle the Leader reins together!! Very important! If things go bad you can drop Leader reins, not tied together, stop the Wheeler and keep control. With Tandems, things happen in a heartbeat, good or bad. A twitch of Leader reins has her coming back around much faster than you would believe. Driven, that can pull the Wheeler off his feet as the shaft pull sweeps him sideways, knocking him over!

I do not know anyone in that area to help you with a rIdden Tandem.

[goodhors]

I did find his DVD on Tandem Riding available on Wild Horse Books and Art. It is pricy, but you get two DVDs for $67 plus shipping and handling. It was the third in the Clay Maier DVDs they sell under Carriage Driving books.

[pluvinel]

Thank you! I had forgotten about the Clay Maier videos. Once a long time ago, I had phone conversations with him.

I agree about things changing in the blink of an eye. I believe that the reinsmanship for the ridden work is the same as the driven tandem. My interest is more in finding a driver that can provide practical hints for handling the reins.

In France, the rider uses a full bridle (snaffle and curb) on the ridden horse, so the rider deals with 6 reins…I long-line with reins in one-hand and whip in the other, so that one-handed muscle memory is pretty hard wired.

I intend to use a simple snaffle bridle on both horses, and have been using the one-handed approach with a variant shown in the Paul Doliveux’s book.

My leader is a steady-eddy, very used to working in long lines and is very attentive to the voice…especially the “Whoa”…but I agree that a stand-by person is essential.

[PalmPony]

I have nothing to input other than how exciting!

how did you make your reinboard? I would be interested if you dont mind sharing just for something fun and different to practice.

[pluvinel]

@PalmPony

I have nothing to input other than how exciting!

how did you make your reinboard? I would be interested if you dont mind sharing just for something fun and different to practice.

In my search for improving my handling multiple reins, and improving my long-lining skills, I found out about rein boards, like these.

So, for 4 reins you can bolt 4 pulleys to a board that I can clamp down with a C-clamp and play with the reins while I sit down. It is eminently portable.
[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“height”:“275”,“width”:“275”,“src”:"https://images.homedepot-static.com/productImages/099a64c2-163a-4ebf-a966-7485e05d543e/svn/whites-everbilt-rope-72817-64_1000.jpg)

They are clothesline pulleys that you can get at Home Depot.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt…2817/206094310

I hang a water bottle from the bottom loop to provide weight and clip the reins to the top loop.

[PalmPony]

@pluvinel

In my search for improving my handling multiple reins, and improving my long-lining skills, I found out about rein boards, like these.

So, for 4 reins you can bolt 4 pulleys to a board that I can clamp down with a C-clamp and play with the reins while I sit down. It is eminently portable.
[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“height”:“275”,“width”:“275”,“src”:"https://images.homedepot-static.com/productImages/099a64c2-163a-4ebf-a966-7485e05d543e/svn/whites-everbilt-rope-72817-64_1000.jpg)

They are clothesline pulleys that you can get at Home Depot.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt…2817/206094310

I hang a water bottle from the bottom loop to provide weight and clip the reins to the top loop.

Thank you so much!!! Iwill be making one asap! I am imagining it will also be wonderful for teaching my students to hold a curb rein properly as well!!!

[CERT]

I have all of Clay Maier’s videos and will say the tandem one is well worth it (get the whole set if you can, really) and they cover rein handling and how to best introduce the stages of tandem riding. Much of it applies to tandem driving as well.

We are getting ready to start playing with both riding and driving tandem as well.

[pluvinel]

Just an update…I managed to ride/drive the tandem in the indoor…at a walk…and was able to make serpentines and changes of direction.

However, the need for improved reinsmanship is evident.

I will look into the Clay Maier videos…thanks for the suggestions!

[DiamondJubilee]

Oh how fun!! Thats awesome and huge congrats to you!!

We have driven our older pair as a tandem once for fun. Super challenging for sure but tons of fun

Enjoy!