Percy being driven off a headcollar and working with a young horse in a pair

[acidworld]

May be a silly question, but how do you get them to turn left and right? Looks like the two reins you do have split so you'd have to open your left or right arm really wide, or do you use voice commands?

[barryhook2]

@acidworld Pair reins are split (the rein crossing over is called the coupling rein which "joins" the two horses), the left rein in your hand works on the left hand side of each horse's mouth, and the right rein in your hand works on the right side of each horse's mouth. It is the same when driving a single horse (i.e. you still have a left and right rein) but the rein has to control both horses in a pair.

[barryhook2]

@barryhook2 So when you want to turn left, you give a gentle feel on the left rein, which is felt by both horses - they both get the message to turn left, but you only need one rein in your left hand. You don't have to open your arms wide (its more of a backwards movement to make contact with the horse's mouth), and you can use voice commands too, as demonstrated when we put the reins on Percy's head collar, but pair reins enable you to control both horses with just 2 reins.

[NamihaTaiga]

what a beautiful horse! he really stands out..

[Juniorsmummy]

Omg it did make me laugh when you said maybe leave them facing out cos there push against his face and come off then were have no f**king stearing we ain't that good lol :) btw your horses are all brillant &bombproff!!! If i ever had my horse broken to drive i know who I'd want to brake it!

[Youliveyouride]

If you were putting a pair together, how high would both of them have to be?

Would they have to be exsactly the same size or could they be different to an exstent.

This is a very good video, it shows how good the horses are. I like your methods.

Very sweet horses.

[barryhook2]

Thank you for your comment. A pair of horses does not have to be the same height; it is more important that they go together well pace-wise. If one is forward-going with a long stride, and the other has a short stride, they might find it difficult to work well with each other due to the difference in their paces. If there is a difference between horses, people tend to disguise this by putting the larger horse on the nearside (due to the camber of the road) so that they look the same height.

[barryhook2]

For appearances it is nice if the horses look similar, and it is perhaps easier to find 2 horses with similar paces if they are a similar height. However, alongside one of our 16.2hh horses, we have driven a 13hh pony - although they do not look like "a well-matched pair" they still worked well together whilst the pony underwent his training.

[jukka2311]

OMG OMG OMG OMG ITS SANTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[barryhook2]

@jukka2311 We do have a horse-drawn sleigh and reindeer for commercial and promotional work - see our Christmas Promotion video for some old footage of Barry as Santa and driving our old sleigh.

[jukka2311]

@barryhook2 no i was talking about the guy inn the beginning, so you, right?

[barryhook2]

@jukka2311 Yes!

[jukka2311]

@barryhook2 hahaha, you must enjoy the sleigh rides with the reindeer and horses.

do you do a thing around christmas fro your twon, like give rides and stuff?

[EverythingEquine01]

Are the horses you break/train broke to ride aswell? Or is it just driving?

[barryhook2]

@EverythingEquine01 We do back horses for riding although we are primarily a driving yard. We can do basic training under saddle but more advanced schooling would have to be done by the owner! So although most horses come here to be broken to drive, if the owner requests that we back it for riding while it is here then we can do that too. Also if you watch our other video "A true ride and drive horse - Bobby the shire", we broke him to ride while being driven.

[Alishondra]

Percy is just gorgeous

[horselover4l1fe]

hey i love the bay is he for sale??

[appleooza]

I realise this video is about the bay (gorgeus), but that little black trotter has come on millions, if it's the same one! well done, u do get results.