# When to start ground driving?



## Blackwater Farm (Jun 2, 2011)

I was wondering what would be the best age to start ground driving? I have a yearling filly that I do EVERYTHING with in preparation for her driving career. I take her all over, do alot of desensitizing and so forth. I was wondering if it would be too early to hook some lines on her halter, deffinatly NO bridle, and just get her used to me walking behind her. Just walking, no trotting or anything. Thanks!


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## hobbyhorse23 (Jun 2, 2011)

Whenever she tells you she's ready.




I wait until they "bring it up themselves" and then just follow their lead....

Leia


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## Molly's Run Minis (Jun 8, 2011)

i, personally, start ground driving with a bit at age 2.

if you wanted to ground drive at age 1 with no bit then i say go for it if you think she's ready!


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## paintponylvr (Jul 16, 2011)

Why does everyone say no bit with a young horse? Please explain as I come from a different background and I see no problem with introducing a bit at this age...

I had a shetland/arab x that was extremely mouthy as a weanling. He was already gelded so studdyness was ruled out. A mini bit put on him from a "bit hanger" (not a real bridle - since didn't have any that would fit his TINY head!) worked real well for the mouthiness. Later, he was one of the easiest ponies to ground drive and back that I've ever had.

I'm currently working with several yearlings and 2 yr olds. At feeding time, while they are tied at their feed buckets, I work with their heads and ears and then slip a headstall w/ a browband and throatlatch and bit on them. If I had 2 more right now (working on that one - both the headstalls which I'm making & purchasing the bits) - all of my youngsters over 1 yr of age would be getting acclimated to a bit. Then when we do leading and loading in the trailer lessons - they are experiencing the feel of the halter along with the bit/headstall.

If this filly is already used to going on "round-a-bouts" and doing things - I don't see a problem at all with introducing a bit while doing these things. For that matter, go on and then start bitting her up a little or actually teach her to give to your hands from the bit. I've seen plenty of yearlings started this way. Then when you do your round-a-bouts, graduate to ground driving her and getting her used to you following rather than leading. I used to have many pictures of yearling Welsh, Hafflingers & Fjords being grounddriven out on trails - navigating grass, hills, ditches and water and learning to move forward thru whatever environment they are introduced to.

I didn't realize that a pony shouldn't have "heavy" weight when pulling - so when introduced to training w/ a driving sled and getting our young filly going - we just naturally moved from pulling a drag to actually hitching and driving (but it was over a 6 month time period). Honestly - we spent more time ground driving that filly than I've had trainers suggest i do now. AND I'm glad that I learned to start them slower - and when they were younger... That filly was pulling a light weight (& compared to the mini sized Jerald - IT"S LIGHT!) sulky cart meant to be pulled by a much larger Hackney pony w/ both myself and our 4 yr old daughter. AS a full 2 yr old she was started under saddle and wasn't driven after that for the next two years at all. Then I started leasing her out and it would be 10 years before I got her back to put into our own program. Last spring 2010 was the first time she was driven since 1998 as a long yearling! She had picked up a lot of bad habits from little riders - we are working on those...

Back to the young horse - as my "babies" get used to wearing bits - and giving to a rein/line, I have every intention of starting to line drive them. Will I attach the lines to a halter first - well, that might just depend on the pony... Some might be closer to 3 yrs while others will be only about a yr old... Then will go to full ground driving - around my property, off our property, taken to other riding areas where I can safely ground drive some trails. They will be getting used to ground driving - by themselves, with at least one other pony and also standing at the horse trailer - hopefully quietly. Last year, GG went every week to my driving lessons w/ her dam and aunt. She was only 3 weeks old during our first lesson - she was turned loose to run for part of it (she wasn't trained to stand tied yet) and then attached to her dam when she started consistently getting in the way... Those were probably the best lessons I could have done with her! Wish I'd done more of that with my driving ponies this year (but 3 of the foals - all stud colts - are out of mares not even trained to drive yet). Instead, I was concentrating on getting Bell/Bit going as a team. I still have time, later, to drive a finished pony w/ a foal alongside (once I have the foals all leading better, LOL). GG is used to going across pavement (quietly), hearing a wagon rattle, seeing and hearing dragging equipment (a board, a chainlink pasture drag, a tire, a heavy board drag) on different ground surfaces. And responds to walk, walk-on, ter-rot & WHOA. She turned a yr old on June 10, and is now one of the ponies wearing a bit. She was a little surprised when I started her first work alone lesson in lounging a couple of weeks ago but took to it easily once she understood what was wanted - no crazy haring around. Just a different way of doing things she'd already been doing - and doing it now alone... She's not working hard, nor long - nor am I expecting her to.

Many farm horses are "started" by following their dams in the field, then being attached to them. As yearlings they are introduced to equipment and can still go out with their dams - though they aren't hooked into the arrangement for pulling. Not every trainer/farmer does this of course. I watched yesterday as two older mules were worked that have had some problems - they are draft xs and HUGE... They would have benefitted from this kind of learning early in their lives. LOL. Trust me, they would have been easier to work with if they'd had more handling as youngstock.

I guess my main ? is why not put a bridle/bit on and then teach them to ground drive at one year of age? something else to do, something else to introduce them to & gives them the ever important job and chance to bond with the driver. Also, since it might be understood that the youngster isn't mature enough to pull weight - there's no pressure to get on with that & you can develop a repoir w/ your youngster much earlier at a slower, enjoyable pace.

I do have to admit - the first time I saw someone show up with a weanling w/ a saddle on - my sensiblities were offended... But truly no differnt and I learned that that trainer/handler wasn't putting riders on the weanlings - just introducing them to tiheir future "job" - at an early age. They quietly & quickly learned that a saddle blanket and saddle w/ flopping stirrups and girth were just another part of their immense environment. They also were turned out into much larger pastures than I've ever had access to for many months and then later pulled back in as yearlings and ground driven, in a similar way. Then turned out again until they were old enought to graduate to pulling objects... And then brought back up as long 2s to start riding. Those were the some of the most well mannered, well rounded riding horses I've ever seen!


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## paintponylvr (Jul 16, 2011)

OH - Hey girl!!

Ask Doc how they used to watch me take the ponies up and down that drive way (the one two miles from the current vet clinic) where I used to lease the property... In 99/2000, I often rode from the then vet clinic up to the main barn - pony-ing saddled yearlings & 2 yr olds, I want to say I'd have a string of 4 at a time w/ a weanling or two at the tail end, from the mare I was riding at that time. Carrying driving lines and then they'd all stand tied around the roundpen while one at a time, I'd ground drive them. Since didn't have harness - I just strapped the stirrups down and ran the lines thru them. After the first few times of ground driving in the roundpen, we'd head out and drive all over NSE's 50+ acres. Down the long aisle way of the barn, thru the grooming area and out the door to the back (no covered wash rack at the time), into and out of the arena, between and around the backside of the pastures (there was not inbetween pasture in the back). Then back to roundpen for the next one... and repeat it all again! Didn't ground drive the weanlings - but did pony them off of the mare I was riding (Sioux - I think). No-one that Iknow of ever got pics of me taking the whole group down the road and it was before it became a busy thoroughfare (just 1 1/2 yrs later - I wouldn't be caught dead doing that!)... but then that was also when I could pony both my shetland stallion & 2 shetland mares, saddled, down that 2 mile "lane" to the barn - from a truck... They were used for lessons & that was how I got them to the barn.

Rascal 1 Rascal 2 Hmm, don't have any pics of Vixen grounddriving - nor of the two weanlings that year that also used to go...



on line. Will have to search thru the other computer to find those. Rascal was born in April 98 so would have been 20 months old here. Vixen was born in May 98 - after ground driving for a time over the winter, she was started riding and on her 15th ride was shown in a show put on at NSE Stables. Out of 16 riders, Vixen packed Sierra to a 2nd place ribbon just before she turned 2 yrs of age. she was never worked hard or gotten upset - and she did great... another day in the enjoyable job of her life. After I ground drove all of them - sierra was the "baby pony jockey"... Stuffy, Shado, Vixen, Rascal (Skye did him more than Sierra did), Blizzard, Apache... Will have to remember the others we still had at 2 or 3 yrs of age to start under saddle. Were they ground driven on full contact and asked to collect - NO. 1 - I didn't know how to get that response then from these "babies" and 2 - that was more work than I was interested in introducing them to. That came later - after they muscled up and the girls' also learned how to get the responses (not until they quit riding under "the mom").

When I ground drove Stuffy w/ the drag - Tyler H. often rode on the drag along w/ Amber (?) - the daughter of Jimmy - whom Doc was dating at the time... OK - that's part of the "wayback machine..."



Since I didn't have larger harness for the larger shetland crosses at that time, I don't remember actually having any of them pulling the drag before they became riding ponies.

Nor did any of the other kids ever ride any of these ponies...


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## hobbyhorse23 (Jul 17, 2011)

Phew! Long posts.





The short answer to your main question is "because of their changing teeth." Minis especially are prone to tooth problems and with them being so difficult to find good bits and dentists for, it's just easier to wait until their mouths settle down before throwing a bit into the mix.

For many of us in more urban areas there's nowhere to simply turn the horse out to grow up after a brief start so for me at least it was easier to do all his liberty and ground-work training and save the bit for when his mouth stabilized a little. There was so much else for him to be learning it seemed sort of unnecessary! I wouldn't have had any problem with him simply carrying a bit and did start introducing it during his two year old year but I wanted to concentrate on educating his mouth another time.

When I did start teaching him to give to the bit and ground-drive off it as a three year old he picked it up very quickly because all I was doing was translating things he'd already learned from body-language and lead-line cues to ones off the reins. It wasn't a whole new thing.

I think the way you're raising your babies (working beside their moms) is an excellent, excellent way to do things and tried to do some of that with my colt. As a yearling he started going to shows, getting ponied along behind my driving gelding on trails and at the ocean, desensitized to straps around his legs and the touch of a whip, had full harnesses tried on him just for kicks, played "dressup" on Halloween...anything and everything I could think of introducing. It helped a lot! What I did NOT do was anything that could stress his body. I was raised with Arabians and the idea that you do NOT rush a young horse was drilled into my head from an early age. I took him as far as he wanted mentally since it was all a game to him, but no repetitive circles, no jumping, no pulling weight, no weight on his back. Nothing that could torque his joints at all. What he did loose in the field was one thing and I encouraged him to play as much as possible there to strengthen himself but no forced exercise in a roundpen or on a lunge line. I've had older horses with joint problems and scars from being pushed too early and never want to do that to my own horse! That's the other reason I didn't put the bit on sooner- my smart boy was starting to wonder what the point of that annoying metal was and since I wasn't ready to have him working yet, I couldn't show him. It was easier to wait!





Leia


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## Melinda Dean (Jul 17, 2011)

I agree with... let them tell you when they are ready.

Another long post!!!

Chester was around 10 months old in this pic taken last summer. He is now going on 2. (Please excuse the rough clip hair cut.) He was used to going on " walk abouts" down my trails behind or in front of the other geldings as they were long lined. I simply started teaching him to walk in front of me next to a fence line. He picked it up right away because he likes to be the lead guy on trail walks. He already knew to lead, whoa , halt, stand, and back by then. He acted like a pro from the start! I have not introduced a bit and will not until after his fall vet visit to get okay on teeth. He moved right out to go on solo long- lining walks, with never a look back to his buddies. Very forward sort of little fella. Has even dragged swimming pool noodles tied in a triangle looked over his harness saddle and dragging behind him down a gravel road. All before 1 yr. He enjoys working! He is now learning to walk on lounge line, stop and reverse.

He is the exception around here. My other mini that I trained took a long time to teach to walk ahead of me. I tried him as a 2 yr., then as a 3 yr. old. He finally got it. He is more docile and needed to become more confident. Did not hitch him until he was 4, long lined for a long time, finally rode in cart when he was 5. He is very confident 9 yr. old now, but he required a lot of encouragement, in small blocks.

As I said, I agree. Each is a little different. Gently try new things and see how comfortable they are. I try not to push too hard, but I am not a trainer and do not have to meet anyone else's time frame or expectations.. I treat every thing I do with the minis like a fun game. So far, it is working for us.


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## paintponylvr (Aug 6, 2011)

Leia - how did you "pony" a horse from your cart? You speak of an apparatus attachment in another post... Do you have pics? I'm very curious as to how this is done! I'd love to do more and be safe at the same time - for both my ponies and myself. I was talking to a couple of people about how to do an attachment to our wagon so that while driving a pair, I can have a future pair

"ponied" frm the back of it...

Melinda - thank you for showing and explaining how you did your training of your two very different guys. I'm not a pro-trainer either and have a family and a part time job I work w/ my ponies around. IT's been interesting! I love working with and training my own youngsters - bringing them along and then finding them good homes w/ a family fit to go on with them. (OR keeping them as I see the need due to current markets).

I apologize for my Long, long posts...


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## hobbyhorse23 (Aug 8, 2011)

paintponylvr said:


> Leia - how did you "pony" a horse from your cart? You speak of an apparatus attachment in another post... Do you have pics? I'm very curious as to how this is done! I'd love to do more and be safe at the same time - for both my ponies and myself.


I'm not sure what I did could be called "safe" by any stretch of the imagination. I only tried it out of desperation!





I just used some PVC to build a removable projection off the back of my EE that I could run the lead through so my stud colt could not come up on the cart and get any stupid ideas like rearing on it or biting the back of my head or coming alongside and harassing the horse pulling the cart. The actual lead was tied to the seat back where I could reach the quick release knot and was set up so in an emergency I could pull the end of the rope and free him completely; I did not want him getting dragged if the harnessed horse bolted or something! He already knew his voice commands and was both sensible and laid-back so it worked pretty well as he was happy to follow the other horse and was too busy moving to cause trouble. I was very glad the horse ponying him was extremely experienced however as the cart did get bumped around every time the colt wanted to try and graze or go somewhere else and once or twice he got the lead loose of the beta version of the apparatus and ran up alongside Kody. Could have been a bad situation if Kody hadn't trusted me so much and known to listen to his driver no matter what he hears racing alongside him!





If you have a passenger who can hold the lead it would be much better for all concerned.

Leia


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