Last winter I asked about what to get my BFF who had just gotten into driving and look what ya did… went and got me hooked too.
And of course some pics to go along- feel free to please point out anything that doesn’t look right as I am still a newbie taking sporadic lessons as I can find them
Me with my friend’s Shetland pony after a trail drive
My Saddlebred mare being driven by my friend
And my first time driving my Morgan(grey mare) in a lesson at the trainer’s
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You look fantastic! Love love love the pictures.
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It is addicting!!
Photos look nice, certainly nothing glaringly incorrect. You and equines look good!!
You might look up some Utube video to look at rein handling. The several types of rein holds seen commonly will let you change from one to another, letting hand muscles rest. Especially helpful on longer drives where hands can get cold or tired in only one position.
Same with learning to use a whip and holding it while driving. This is an important aid in driving! Like your legs in riding. In your hand the whip is always ready to be used. Touches on horse/pony help move him forward, sideways, help with bending for turns and corners. You might need to encourage “forward” if equine is not listening to voice. Protect yourself from loose dogs!! Having a “proper whip” makes your hand and wrist comfortable holding it for long times during your recreational drives. Proper does NOT mean terribly expensive!! Nice, light whips of correct length lash and stick can be had fairly cheap. $25-$35 range and last for long times with a bit of care. Ask if you want to find such whips. You may need a couple size whips, since your equines are such different sizes.
You look very happy!!
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Love the pics! My only comment was already covered by @goodhors–you need a whip in your hand. I confess, I was lazy about it, and occasionally paid the price for it. I was capable of holding it, even with my wonky hands. I just got complacent.
Rebecca
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Do your horses enjoy it too? A friend had a little Welsh-cross pony who was far to small for an adult to ride. Whenever the pony was harnessed up she would then rush over to the waiting trap and almost put herself between the shafts. The enthusiasm continued when driving as she trotted along merrily. She loved getting out to see the world.
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You look great ! Love your pics ~ thanks for sharing !
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Thank you everyone- we’ve been having an absolute blast
@goodhors and @RMJacobs - I will definitely work on carrying a whip and rein handling. I do struggle a bit with the reins, but I hadn’t thought of looking at YouTube - there’s just so much compared to riding lol.
@Willesdon yes they all seem to be quite happy to work in harness esp on trail
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You all look great!
And add me to the “get used to holding the whip” team. Its important when you need it.
I hold my hands/reins like yours, but thumbs up! I have tried for years to hold the right line like your friend, the half halt feels funny and I am not as finessy with holding my rein like that.
I also like Achenbach for one handed driving.
Building a reining board is easy and cheap and good fun to practice with.
How close are we?
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Getting used to having soo much rein is definitely a thing lol. I know I’m so bad about the thumbs up part- for riding too. And I’m working on the whip part 
Is there a specific hand you’re supposed to have it in?
I’m in Maryland, right at Fair Hill
Why did I think you were in southern NY. 
Whip always goes in the right hand.
In most people their right hand is their dominate hand thus its easier to hold and use from the right hand.
There are other reasons why right hand, right side of the carriage, right side of the road, but I am at work and most of it boils down to tradition and how things started when horses were the mode of transportation ages and ages ago.
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I was afraid you’d say right hand lol. I injured my right biceps tendon in an Ultra in October and then again when my grey mare fell with me in November. It’s getting much better with PT but some things are still really hard, like holding a lunge whip or currying. My kinesiologist came up with a specific exercise to work on currying, I’ll have to be like now I need one to help whip holding lol
I am sorry to hear about your arm!
You are driving a pony, would a longer dressage whip reach pony if you needed it?
Get a carbon fiber whip. And I never held it at the “proper” handle. I found most whips comfortable if I held where the shaft of the whip and the handle met. A properly balanced whip should be weighless.
Sounds like you need a road trip to Dover to try out some Fleck carbon fiber whips 
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I’m spoiled here- Dover saddlery in DE is only a few mins away, Fair Hill Saddlery is next to my barn and I’ve got a ton of Amish carriage and harness shops within an hour.
I can definitely try dressage whip- although it’s the way I hold them more so than the weight. It hurts to hold anything if I do it a certain way but I still do deadlifts etc with no problem. It’s so frustrating!
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Right now, its more about getting used to having it. You are driving for fun. Keep it fun! If you were going to start to show pleasure and ladies to drive classes, it would matter.
We all want you safe and when you need a bit more, uumph in your pony, a whip is the communication device. Just a tickle will do most of the time, like riding.
I have beat off dogs more than I have touched a lash to my horses/ponies when I lived and worked in Middleburg and horsey places like that.
Try practicing Achenbach (left handed with both lines) and just use the right for your whip hand while you heal if you are driving often enough for it to matter.
https://coachmansdelight.com/build-your-own-reinboard-2/ no need to buy his instructions, its two pulleys, some weight (I like each line to have its own weight) a frame and some long lines. Its a fun winter thing to do. Keeps your hands in practice while its cold out.
I hope I didn’t sound like I don’t want to use or practice with the whip. I definitely do and will! I might just have to go left handed for a bit
The reinboard is cool. I remember there being something like that in the barn where my pony club was based out of in the 80’s
Edited to add: I really appreciate all the advice on here. It feels weird to be a newbie at something horse related lol.
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You need a whip long enough for lash to reach the horse shoulder. You may prefer a longer stick, shorter lash or a shorter stick with a longer lash.
For balancing to find the correct location to hold the stick, you lay stick across your right thumb. Then move stick up or down until it lays there without tipping down on either end. You will notice the balance point is NOWHERE near the hand hold! Funny how that is!! With long sticks you might remove the cap at the butt end and add a washer or two to move balance point closer to the butt end of whip. You don’t want 2ft of stick below your hand, very awkward! You will want to carry the whip at that balance point. Mark it with a piece of tape to easily find it during a drive. The balance point makes it easy on your hand and wrist, so whip top is not trying to droop down pulling on you all the time. Aim whip tip at horse’s left ear during a drive to be ready for use. Keeps stick out of any passenger’s face! Ha ha
There are some very light weight whips, but they are more expensive. Probably better to get the cheap ones first, see how you like them as you learn to manage everything in your hands. Learning Achenbach one-hand rein holding will free up your right hand for rein adjusting and whip holding. There is another one-hand method where you cross the reins in your left hand. One rein in the top, one in from the bottom of closed hand/fist, even rein lengths from horse mouth. You then do adjustments, take up a little rein to turn, then let it back out as you straighten horse, with the right hand for turns in both one-handed methods. Then let reins go back to even after finishing the turn. Sort of Hungarian style with the crossed reins in your palm, fist horizintal to the horse, except you are only driving one horse, not 2-3-4 horses.
Difference in the two methods is Achenbach has reins between fingers from top of fist, while second method has reins in the palm, not fingers. Learning both methods lets you rest the hand by holding reins differently, using other muscles.
Need to ask if reins are comfortable as you fold fingers around them? I see a lot of people using reins too wide, which can be hard to hold, cut into finger joints if you tighten fingers. Others with bigger hands, long fingers have reins too narrow, hard to grasp so they don’t slide out longer. Husband likes his 5/8inch wide reins with his shorter fingers. Anything wider is not comfortable. We have modified some reins by making the handhold length narrower. They work well for him now. Having comfortable width reins keeps your hands happy on drives!
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@goodhors Thank you- I will practice with some whips this weekend. My friend in the photos has a few different ones so I can try hers. Right now I don’t have any of my own equipment (everything in the photos belongs to the trainer or my friend) but at least riding-wise I prefer wide/ heavy reins because my hands eventually get crampy holding thinner ones (but that’s also endurance riding so it of course could be completely different for driving).
Honestly, go straight to IVC carriage and make sure you know with the distance between the box and the saddle. Then talk to Myrna about what size whip you need. Then order a Ledó whip. They are just insanely good, so light and balanced, so much better than MCR or fleck and about half the price. A couple years ago Chad was trying to carry a bunch of them from stabling to their shop tent at live oak and I’m pretty sure he sold out before he made it to the tent because we kept stopping him and fondling whips as he made his way over there 
Drivers are suckers for a good whip!
I also had a serious hand injury and wasn’t at all certain that I would be able to hold a whip and reins in my right hand and I did ask if there was a prohibition/rule against using it in the left hand, and all anyone could come up with is… “It’s not traditional”.
But still, my right is dominant so more likely to be accurate with my whip, so I started out with it in the right hand and would switch to the left or set it in the whip stock when my right hand needs a break. It took a while but almost without realizing it my right hand got stronger. Now I can carry it for the 2 hours we are in the carriage for marathon without noticing it. But I still don’t carry it all or even most of the time when I’m driving out of competition, but it’s always in the stock.
However, I can’t stress how important a good whip is. Get a balanced appropriate weight whip and comfortable reins with the appropriate grip for the horse you are driving otherwise you will just be uncomfortable. I mean you wouldn’t ride in a saddle that actively makes you a worse rider, but I see so many people making budget choices on reins and whips to no good end when it comes to their development as a driver.
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I never showed, and I have severe RA and neuropathy. So I gave myself accommodations for wonky hands. I had fairly wide lines (biothane), drove two handed and switched off which hand I used for the whip. All that helped a lot. And I’ve definitely aimed my whip at dogs far more than I’d like. Neither of my ponies would tolerate dogs. My Hackney would try to bolt, and my grade pony tried to stomp the dog that was bugging him. A neighbor had a border collie that they just let run loose, and he always tried to herd my grade pony. I told the owner that the dog was likely to end up in orbit. She didn’t care. But I did–I didn’t want my pony thinking it was OK to stomp or kick my dog.
Rebecca
A friend said we could drive to a local pub for lunch. First, though, I had to spend the entire previous evening cleaning a full set of harness. There was a lot of leather! Next day we put the grey Welsh pony to the trap and set off. It was all very pleasant until we came to the point where a familiar track joined the road. Here, the pony stopped dead and stared, looking for his stable mates which he presumed were being ridden out along the familiar path. And then at the next bridleway. And then at a third junction. He had only ever lived and worked in a herd so he was certain he would eventually find his friends in a familiar place. At the first unplanned stop we realized we had forgotten the driving whip. Whoops. My friend had the reins so my job was to lean over the pony and poke him with a finger on his rump to encourage him forward. We travelled slower and slower, the pony stopping, staring… Eventually, after an hour, we reached the pub. We took him out of the trap and tied him up to one side. Just as we were ordering our food inside, a couple of ridden horses passed by on the road. The pony started to scream at them, complaining at the top of his voice that he had been abandoned, left alone, was unloved, needed to be saved… We cancelled the food as the continuous and very loud noise was just too embarrassing! Then we set off homewards. Which the pony knew. And I didn’t need to poke his rump at all. The pony became a magnificent 16 mph trotter, a full-on Welsh flyer, and we were back home in ten minutes.
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