roger rings or tandem rosettes?

[buck22]

I’m shopping around making sure I have the odds and ends I need for tandem. I was just going to duct tape some rings on the side of my wheeler’s bridle, but I discovered tandem terrets which does seem very handy, so as I’m placing an order anyhow (including Driving a Tandem) figured I’d invest in some proper rein rings too.

My leader will be 15h and naturally travels on the bit, with a tendency to go btv. My wheeler is 14.3 and tends to travel with a longer flatter outline and poke his nose out. http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c54/buck1173/c5cc42a9.png

Any suggestion on which to get?

And how on earth do you attach these? http://www.advancedequine.com/Roger-Rings-p/920-432530.htm I read “Can be buckled above blinker or at throatlash”

Throatlatch I get, but then what do you do with the bight? And, “above blinker”… to what??

Thank you!

[goodhors]

Those ring’s straps come in from the bottom of keepers, thru keepers and buckle onto the side buckle above blinker, on cheek pieces. There is a hole in the strap which goes over buckle tongue, then the strap from bridle crown comes into buckle and everything is held down when the strap end goes down thru the keepers or boxing.

Ring itself usually ends up by the blinker. Strap length allows trimming to shorten for fit to various size heads, so ring ends where you want it on the side of the horse’s head.

You can do a search on here, find old Tandem posts. I bumped up a couple I found which might have details you will find informative.

Carriage tandems usually have a roller in the Wheeler terrets. There are newer terret designs appearing, we haven’t used them. You do want terrets large enough, (Roger rings also should be big, open) so that reins moving fast don’t get hung up with a twist or too wide for small openings.

I strongly suggest you get some Tandem lessons from a professional before you endeavor to put your two animals together. You need to learn how to “pull a loop”, handle 4 reins at once, develop hand strength for all those reins, along with being able to give signals to each individual animal.

A reinboard setup, would be immensely helpful to you. You can build your own and practice rein handling, whip handling, in the house on cold days. Watching the weights move about when you move a rein, may help you get a better vision of what your horse is hearing with that rein tweak. Tandems out of all the Multiples, “over-respond” the most and the fastest. Rein length and weight to the Leader, can feel like you are shouting the signal by just moving your fingers tighter! You NEED to be able to do all the rein work without looking down to adjust things. You will wreck if you need to be looking down to drive your Tandem, no time to look and adjust hands, with their reaction time and length of turnout.

Do remember that a Tandem is considered a Multiple in Driving, with two animals out front. This means you ALWAYS have an able bodied person to ride with you, be handy when you drive them. Things can go so bad, so FAST you can’t imagine it. Driver can’t fix things by herself then. Nice horses are great to have, but this is all new to them as well, so they may not be at their best for a while. Even VERY experienced Drivers don’t EVER take the Tandem out alone. This includes RING WORK or down the driveway. Have someone at hand or riding in the carriage when you get two animals out to drive.

[buck22]

I really can’t thank you enough, you are tremendously helpful and generous with your time and advice, and I really deeply appreciate your guidance towards safety. I do tend to get a little excited about new endeavors and easily get ahead of myself.

I do have a friend with tandem experience to help me, but you’re right, tandem lessons with a professional would be best. Its a good time coming into winter as hopefully everyone is winding down from show seasons.

And I do owe my animals the respect of spending time at the reinboard. Very easy to improvise one up.

Question, when you use a reinboard, do you sit at the distance you would when driving? For tandem, should I have two? Would it be that much more accurate?

and thank you for being so helpful bumping those posts! Thank you so much for everything.

[goodhors]

Husband who is the experienced reinboard user, suggests you seat yourself the same distance from the pullies as you would be in the carriage seat. He also says that he has a double pully, for practicing Tandem with. You want your reinboard set up just like it would be coming back from the horse harness saddle. Same width as Wheeler terrets and with Tandem, one rein above the other but not wider.

Reinboard should be adaptable for various configurations, you don’t need two reinboards to work Tandem or Fours. You just run the weights and rein width settings differently to practice Pairs or Singles. Only have two reins for either kind of hitch! Tandems and Fours, both will have four reins in your hands, but the Fours will be quite wide with one pair of reins, and the second set will be rather narrow, coming back to your hands from the center terret on the Wheeler’s saddles. Tandems will have both pairs of reins the same width, since they run above each other thru the same rein terrets, not wide at all.

Weights at the reinboards are not terribly heavy, but you do feel the pull of them. You want to build up hand strength, finger strengh to hold reins firmly between your fingers in keeping them apart. Practice being nimble in your adjustments. If you buy one of the Tandem books, you should find the correct rein order to lay them in your hand for best results.

Husband also suggests leaving the Leader reins unbuckled behind your hands, done for both Tandem and Fours. This is an old time safety measure we were taught, in case the Leader/s need to be let go for some reason. Usually would be broken equipment in the Leader Bars attachment. With reins unbuckled, Driver can let Leader/s go and not have the reins snag on Wheeler terrets or have the bridle/s pulled off when the Leader reins hang up. He doesn’t use any of the rein clamp devices to hold the reins together, finds it too limiting in his rein adjustments and gets in your way.

[equinedriver]

I didn’t take time to read the posts above to be honest, but don’t use the rosette ones, they break very easily and they pull the rein over the blinker by the eye.

[buck22]

Thank you thank you thank you!

Actually, I’m envisioning a fairly simple idea for a mock but to scale reinboard. I have some free standing saddle stands that I can hang my pulleys from and I can place them at more or less accurate distances. I can place hay bales for my horses’ barrels, and put their harness saddles on and run the reins properly through the terrets.

This will give me a chance to practice with my whip too. The neighborhood is going to think I’ve gone nuts playing w/ pretend horses. :lol: Hiyahh! :lol:

I opted for the larger (and therefore seemingly ammy friendly) figure 8 tandem terrets too, rather than the smaller one cut in half. Couldn’t find a roller type.

Oh squee! this is going to be fun! Now for some decent weather and to be caught up on my work so I can play.

The old man (the leader) just had his harness fit to him this weekend and boy was he ever thrilled. Went out for a 10 minute walk long lining and it was as if he’d never stopped working, he was SO happy to have a small job to do. He is going to love tandem when we finally get to it.

Equinedriver, thank you! I was curious about precisely that about the rosette rings.

Thank you!!!