7 June 2005
Line from bit to hand
Erika, this is a topic that is more complex in driving than it is in riding.
In English traditional road vehicles (as opposed to farming and working vehicles where the driver may well have been walking, using levers on implements, and opening and shutting gates) the driver sat high. This is particularly obvious with tandem and coaching vehicles. Why? So he could see where the leaders were going! The angles of the reins therefore came sharply down over his forefinger, and at the terrets they made another sharp angle forwards. The lines of the reins never were really straight from hand to mouth. You didn't want to carry all that length of leather, nor to have it rest on the horse's mouth at the other end. You carried the part from hand to terret, and the horse carried the part from hame ring to bit. Rein directions of course added to this weight, as necessary.
Achenbach style helps you to use your arms, wrists and hands flexibly, which is what the riding edict is really about: feel. It helps to make rein lengthening and shortening quicker and more effective, whether with two reins or four. This is more important in driving than in riding as your position, or distance, re the horse's mouth varies with the terrain, as well as with his activity.
Also, those angles at hand and terret gave you some friction to hold the reins. I believe that this is one reason why the high-seated English style uses reins running OVER the fingers, and the American style with much lower seating often uses a style with reins running UNDER the fingers, as in riding. You need the change of direction to help you "get a grip". (I know this is not universally the case as some drivers run the reins over the top of their fingers even in lower vehicles, though not necessarily in Achenbach / English coachman style.)
Achenbach / English coachman style is very much the more comfortable style. You don't need to hold your arms nearly as high as in a lower American vehicle; you can drive with your arms in a natural and relaxed, yet instantly "available" position. "Hands at the third waistcoat button" ... or as a middle aged lady instructor I know says to other middle aged lady drivers, "hands at tit-height!" But in a low vehicle this may mean the reins run onto the horse's backside.
However, I'd rather see a driver being sensitive to the action of the bit, and looking where s/he is going, than getting the rein angles or rein holds "absolutely perfectly right". I once judged a mixed driving class at a show in south Cumbria and one lady driver was so focussed on showing me how she could drive with one hand (misunderstanding what Achenbach / coachman style means) that she drove her pony into a show jump.
(BTW Yes, you spelt Achenbach correctly. In England we often call it "coachman style" - Benno von Achenbach learnt it here <VBG>)