Learning to drive the hard way

[Dontworrybeappy]

I bought my first pony (Shetland/POA) when I was 27 and running a boarding/training stable. Of course I had to get her a cart and harness, and figured "how hard can it be?"

The cart was a custom made wrought iron cart with expanded steel mesh for the basket. It really was a cool cart and fit her well, which was pure luck and not knowledge! It came with a harness which also fit her well.

Honeypony was either already broke to drive or just a pure Saint in pony clothes. The first time we hitched her up, we had trouble figuring out all the straps, although I did sort of understand some of the fit from having shown model horses!

I was working with a young girl who had come from showing Saddlebreds, so she knew how to adjust a fine harness, but neither of us really knew how to fit the britching, or really what it was FOR - so we took it off.

So off we went - ground drove for a little while, hitched the cart for another few minutes and then we climbed right in. Fortunately (and I give Honey ALL the credit) all went well. We drove around the stable for a few days, and had great fun, although we did accidentally teach her to AIM for trees and hitching posts - by screaming and laughing when she got too close! Spent the rest of her life having to pro-actively steer way CLEAR of obstacles!

Soon we were sure that we were ready for more, and we drove her UP the very steep hill that was the driveway of the stable - then around the streets, and then back down the steep hill. As we were headed downhill, Honey started doing this strange, stiff-legged walk - weirder than anything I'd ever seen! We sat there in the cart wondering what on earth she was doing. Then we looked down a bit. That pony had her rump braced hard against the basket of the cart, her tail hair was sticking straight through the little diamond holes in the steel mesh! She was holding that cart back and taking the hill as slow as she could!

We looked at each other and said at the same time "That must be what the britching is for!" and we jumped out of the cart and walked down the hill with Honey probably breathing a huge sigh of relief! Then we put the britching back on and played with it until we figured out how it worked correctly. I never drove her again without it!

I'm pretty sure I went out and found a book about harnessing after that - one of many in my collection now!

Thank goodness for patient and smart horses to teach us, because at the time I sure didn't understand just how wrong things could go!

Anyone else have stories like that?

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Great story Karen! And now I know where your farm got its name.

I was pretty lucky and got into driving with experienced help so I think on first reflection that I've avoided most of those types of scenarios but I know the patience of horses has saved me many times in the past. Mom still tells of being out with our Arabian broodmare when I was just a toddler and wondering why the mare suddenly sucked up her tummy and froze...only to look under her and see me blithely standing there with my hair tickling her pregnant belly!

Gooooood mare.

I know my friend started Kody in less than a week and the first day I met him was when she asked if I wanted to help take him to a show. She'd had him less than a month, he'd gone from never being handled to driving, and she was planning on taking this completely green-broke stallion who'd never seen another horse hitched into a large open country pleasure class. I think my face looked like this:

. Luckily she'd trimmed his hooves too short (poor Kody) and he ended up too sore to go in the ring.

Knowing him as I do now he would probably have been fine but I couldn't believe anyone was going to do something so risky. I'd been in a major cart accident with my big horse by that point- I knew how bad it could be.

We'd been told he was broke to drive and he was but what they forgot to mention was that he'd had a terrible accident and not been hitched since. We treated him like a green horse and went through the process start to finish with an experienced driving trainer but the first time we hitched him somewhere other than her arena he had a flashback and bolted, wrecking the cart and nearly giving me a concussion despite my helmet. He never drove again and couldn't even be around a hitched horse after that without losing it completely.

After that experience I couldn't see taking chances with another driving horse.

Kody is definitely the kind that could make you do stupid things though. I put him in an open bridle one night and walked him around with the cart following for about two laps, then hitched him and went. He could have cared less.

I had a header there, I knew the horse, I did all the steps, but I did them in less than ten minutes with a horse who'd never been driven open. The fact I would never have done that with a less accepting horse doesn't negate the fact it was stupid!

Leia

 

[Keri]

I think I'll let the picture explain itself! Hahaha! Boy, Braveheart was a saint! 60" pony cart and shetland harness somehow wrapped around him. I was an accident waiting to happen. Good thing nothing ever did. Once I got into the show ring, I got lessons on the proper cart and harnessing of a mini/pony. That wreck waiting to happen is way in the past now. But I just have to laugh wondering why I trusted the guy who sold me all that stuff and said it would fit him perfect (and he gave me lessons! I came from a western riding background and was clueless to driving).

 

[Kilkenny Farms]

These are great stories. I have my new horses with trainers so hopefully I can avoid any serious mistakes. But I have enjoyed reading about your first ventures.

Barbara

 

[RhineStone]

Our first driving horse was a grade appendix QH. My mom has always had a fascination with old stuff, and wanted to have the "old-time" buggy and horse. (I prefer new and shiny, myself, but I digress.)

At the barn we boarded, there were a couple of older gentlemen that knew how to drive, so they worked with my mom to teach the gelding how to line drive and eventually put to. The gelding drove OK, but in the big scheme of things, we probably didn't take enough time in the preparatory portions of training. Also, absolutely EVERYTHING new to this gelding was a literal battle. Clipping, trimming, bathing, loading, this horse had VICES. He was a basketcase on the trail, and when I had to ride him there because the group we were with wanted to go, I was a wreck! At home, he was so lazy he drug his feet and we had to shoe his fronts because he would wear his toes off. (Perfect Western Pleasure horse) When we took him to shows, he was an instant English horse. (Didn't place very well in WP with a horse that won't jog.) He had me so stressed out at shows, that the first time we took our younger, more ambitious Saddlebred mare to her first show, I was so pleasantly surprised that she was the same horse at the shows as she was a home! (But she didn't drive either. She is going to be 30 in July...)

Anyway, the people at the barn convinced (but not really) my mom that the gelding was ready for a local parade. They put him in the trailer (remember, he didn't trailer well...) and hauled the Top Buggy (what people mistakenly call a Doctor's Buggy) to town. Before the parade, they had him put to and was waiting for the parade to start. He was so nervous that he backed into the curb and the road was a bit above the gutter, therefore when he went to go forward, he felt more resistance than he felt he should have. He went up in the shafts and broke the shafts in the process of coming back down. That took care of him completing the parade, but since Mom had done all the work to sew the prairie style dresses for her and a friend, and had Grandma's crocheted parasol they were going to carry, she and the friend put the horse in the trailer, and pulled the buggy through the parade themselves. They got their photo on the cover of the local paper the next week. They probably wouldn't have if the buggy was being pulled by my psychotic Apx. QH.

The next week, they tried to put the gelding to a borrowed little metal cart, and in the process he eventually had the cart on his back with the shafts bent up. Mom gave up. It wasn't worth it. Mom sold the buggy. Eventually, we sold the QH as a riding horse and pasture pet.

About 7 years later, we bought my 7/8 Arab for WP. He was solid in mind and body. We were renting a place to keep the horses, and needed to clean up some areas. We didn't have a tractor, but we still had that harness and an able-bodied horse. We used my new gelding to hook onto some old farm machinery to pull out of the weeds by the barn. I led him by the head as Mom pulled on the junk along with my gelding. This is how he learned to pull. (Horsepower!) Eventually, Mom bought another cart and we worked with the new gelding who was so good. He loved to drive.

Mom eventually bought a couple of mini horses, and my then future husband and I bought our Pinto Arab we have now. We have collected other horses in the mean time, all that we trained to drive in some capacity. We have gotten a lot more educated since those first days, taking some driving lessons and going to lots of clinics in the process. I will say that exhibiting in the ADS Pleasure Shows has probably garnered us the best information, as we got the opportunity to see how "real" driving horses are supposed to look and perform. The first couple of shows we went to, there were so many people who helped us tweak our harness and made suggestions that really benefitted us. These were even families of our competition! Yup, we have come a LONG way, but I still remember what it was like to be totally green!

Myrna

 

[Sandee]

I learned to drive from a pro - my first mini! He was 15 when we bought him and had been shown so he knew just about everything there was. Neither I nor my hubby had ever been in a cart let alone drove one. I watched the breeder demo him a few times and then she handed the reins over to me and said "You've ridden English. It's the same thing." and off we went.

He taught us how to drive and all about ill-fitting equipment. The harness that they "sold with him" was a cobbled together thing that turned out to be pony size because he was so overweight. Needless to say when we put him on a diet and he got back down to mini size nothing fit. We, of course, tried to put it on him anyway. I remember him rearing up and we were wrestling with him to keep him in place and put the bit in his mouth. When I finally got someone to help that knew about driving, we found out that the bit was a pony bit too (4 inch) and too much for his mouth. We felt so bad for having tortured him with all of this. But when we got everything the right size, he was very forgiving and accepted all the equipment with ease.

As for driving, I thought it was easy. I certainly wasn't prepared for the first time he went in the arena for an obstacle class. I thought to myself he hates backing so if I can just get him through that one and then keep him troting thru the cones, we'll do ok. He backed ok and we turned to face the serpentine cones when I swear I saw a light blub go on over his head. He trotted thru those cones so fast it was all I could do to put little tugs on the reins for turns. Then he immediately slowed to put the wheel between the poles.

I know the shock / fear showed on my face because I saw and heard the judges laughing their ____ off as we finished. They may have had a good laugh watching my face but they couldn't deny the performance that "old man" had put on and they gave us first place!

I've learned a lot since then - most of it the hard way and at the expense of my horses. I've learned a lot from my first two driving horses and I was able to train my own mare 2 years ago (actually we're still "training"- evolving). I even survived a runaway (fortunately in our pasture)and I still love driving - hopefully always will.

 

[rcfarm]

Oh Our first driving experience>We had a hackney cross pony, I was in my 20'S had no ideal what to do.Always rode biggies. Someone showed us how to hook up with what we had. Looking back it was all wrong. Poor Pony withstood years of us driving that way. I think the good Lord looks after the foolish

I was soo sad when we lost Pony, but he did give us years of Love and Understandinig.