How Old is Too Old to train to Drive

[Shortpig]

I have a friend who has an older mare. She is gorgeous but about 14 or 15yrs old. Awesome movement and very loving and sweet. Is this mare too old to train to drive at her age. All opinions greatly appreciated.

 

[disneyhorse]

All you can do is try. It totally depends on the horse's previous experiences and their temperament.

There are no "rules" with training animals, just guidelines. The trainer's ability and experience will also make a difference.

Andrea

 

[Joyce]

I certainly would give it a try as I know of many oder horses that have made driving horses. You won't know unless you give it a try.

Joyce

 

[Marsha Cassada]

That doesn't seem to old to me! I fully expect my two driving horses to be still working at age 20+. When you watch the world dressage events, many of those horses do not reach the highest level till they are 14 or so.

I'll bet their mare would enjoy working with them, since she is so responsive. They might want to be sure her teeth are checked before they introduce the bit.

 

[MiniHGal]

It all depends on the horse and how interested she is in learning a new job.

I think we hold the record for the oldest horse being trained to drive--25 years old! He was a retired eventing horse that was very sad that he never got to go out and work....but riding was too tough on his body. So he drove! And took to it like he'd been doing it all his life (of course, when he was 5 and saw carriage horses in the distance, he would panic and try to run....so obviously some maturity helped).

However, I have also heard of horses trained when they were older(past 6-8 or so) that were always unreliable because they never quite 'took' to driving and felt their ideas of running away were much more important than listening to the driver. So....it depends on the horse. But I would say, no she is not too old to at least try to train her to drive. If she wants to drive, she can definitely be trained to drive.

 

[Magic]

It all depends on the horse and how interested she is in learning a new job.

Exactly!!

I trained a ten year old broodmare to drive, and though she had her own ideas sometimes about what and how we should be doing things, she was a natural and Hall of Famed in Country Pleasure Driving very quickly. I even had judges exclaim "Now THAT's the perfect Country horse!"

Earlier this year I sent an eight year old mare out to be trained to drive and she's a really nice driving horse. She needs more miles on her, but she was wonderfully behaved at the one show we showed her at. Hoping to do a lot more showing with her next year.

Good luck, I hope your friend succeeds in getting her horse driving!

 

[carlenehorse]

My mare is 13 years old and I taught her to drive and she is doing wonderful. I took it slow at first as she was not conditioned or used to working. She has been driving for a year now. Good luck.

Carlene

 

[Genie]

We had an 11 year old stallion trained and he was excellent.

He was not getting much other use here and we decided it may be something a buyer may like in addition to his being an under 30 inch stallion.

He was great on the cart once trained but the man training him said that had he been a full sized horse he may not have managed the training of him, because he was the type of stallion who did not like to be given directions and had a mind of his own.

Once trained though, he loved to pull the cart and was quite "zippy". The training took 30 days, then home to us and we worked him every day for a short period until he was "a natural"

He has a new home now and a small herd (3 mares) that are "ALL his".

 

[Rebecca]

I don't think that's too old at all. I'm currently training my 13 year old to drive and she's doing very well. Although yes, it depends on their willingness to learn, temperament, etc.

 

[Brandi*]

LoL I don't think of 14-15 as old

That is a GREAT age where they usually have their senses about them. If she has the right temperment and personality you might have an easier time training her then you would a youngster

When looking to buy a good riding horse I have never bought anything under 10

 

[Shortpig]

Thanks everyone I will mention all of this to my friend. She doesn't do anything with this girl and maybe she could then sell her to someone who would consider training her to drive. She would be an awesome cart horse I am sure.