New Driver

[cowgurl_up]

Hello All!

I am an avid forum reader. A less avid forum poster. I have been really enjoying reading everyone's posts about their driving horses and it has helped to answer some of my various questions. I'm a new driver, never done the cart thing but have done a lot of work with ground driving with big and little horses. I have also broke many horses to ride and enjoy taking my time and never rushing anything. Trust means a lot to me so we take our time.

I have had my stallion since he was a yearling (he is 7 this year) and he and I have always worked well together until this year (mainly the last month or so). He has been ground driven for about 4 years. Before I had the gear he was ground driven in just a halter and a surcingle with two long lines as our reins. He loved going and picked it all up very well!! Then I got my first harness (used, everything worked great but the bridle didn't fit right). So we upgraded to wearing full harness and added an open bridle with a bit. Again, he loved to go and really seemed to enjoy his job! Now I have the full set up and it seems blinders are causing us a bit of a problem, or at least this is my best guess?

We have been working with blinders and ground driving since last fall/winter as weather permitted but have run into some huge issues that he really seems to be having a hard time with. We originally had to do a lot of work on whoa when we added the blinders as he was always able to slightly turn his head and he could see I was behind him in the open bridle. Then add the blinders and I had "vanished". It took a little while to get him to stop straight without trying to turn around to face me. A few weeks of constant work and he had that down pat and now never tries to turn around. He was doing so well last fall that I actually hooked him a few times and he acted like an old pro driving around the property! I was very pleased! I did not hook him any more over the winter but did ground drive when the weather was nice.

The plan was to have him ready to show this year. He is not ready currently so I will not be adding that to his list of classes until I am very sure of him. Our new problems have seemed to arrive just this spring. A - his whoa's great, stopping with little pressure on the reins, but standing is non-existent suddenly. He stops, then wants to move forward. When I stop forward motion and repeat whoa he backs, and sidepasses in either direction. Anything but standing still! I have been trying to correct this behavior for the past three weeks. I feel like we are not making any headway and it has worn my patience thin. The more I try to get him to stand still the more edgy he gets. I know some of this may be caused by my frustration as he continues to act up and keep reminding myself to breath and stay calm.

Our second sudden "spring" problem is my rock of a horse is suddenly jumpy about everything!!! He has never been skittish or started at anything and suddenly any noise makes him start. Irregular noises as well as regular noises. A friend walked up while talking to him to let him know she was there and touched his butt before moving up to his head. This caused him to jump straight up in the air and kick out. It looked like a move I have seen the Lipizzaner Horses perform!

I do understand he is stud and probably has a bit of spring fever. It is just unusual behavior for this horse that I have had for 6 years. I would have expected this type of behavior from a 3 or 4 year old, not coming out now as an aged stallion? I might add he has been shown since he was a year old in everything from halter to jumping to whatever else I could put him in. This is my go to horse.

So, to end my novel I am looking for any advice, suggestions, stories of your horses, what problems you had, what you did to remedy them. I have always prided myself on training my horses for everything. It gives me a huge sense of accomplishment to be able to take them in the ring and do well with something that I have taught them. But I am now wondering if I need professional help and have considered sending him to a trainer for a month or two to see if they can't straighten out some of this mess.

Thank you so much in advance for taking the time to read and respond to my post!

 

[Jetiki]

First make sure the blinders aren't too close to his eyes or rubbing his lashes. 2nd, make sure his teeth are in good order. 3. Repetition, you can go back to ground driving if you are more comfortable with it. Ask for the whoa, then stand, if he stands for 1 second, praise, and let him walk, come back around, ask again, 1 second, when he'll stand for that second, praise and let him walk on, ask again, adding a second so this time you want 2 seconds, praise and go on. keep doing this until he stands for as long as you want him to and anywhere you want him to. You can re-enforce this using the halter when leading him as well. I use whoa or ho for stop and stand for stand.

 

[maggiemae]

I don't train horses to drive - so I don't have any training advice to give - just wanted to say that Jetki has trained several of my smaller equine friends to drive and she knows what she's talking about. She's given you good advice.

 

[cowgurl_up]

I will double check the blinders just in case although I did check them when I first put it on him and adjusted everything to fit him. Something could have moved since then. Teeth are checked on a regular basis but haven't been yet this year. Vet is coming out soon so will certainly look into that. I have been doing this all ground driving as I feel much more comfortable doing this without him being hooked up to the cart and don't want to hook him back up until we have this worked out. I will work with him on stopping for shorter time frames and work him up which is what I had done in the beginning. Maybe we need to go backwards several steps to reteach some of this or give him reminders. Thank you so much for your advice!! I'm eager to get home and check these things out! Thanks also maggiemae, I trust in what Jetki has said and will certainly give it a shot! I appreciate the advice!

 

[susanne]

Be sure to check your entire harness for any pinches or irritation. My gelding, Mingus, is so good, but he lets me know in no uncertain terms if he is uncomfortable. Also, even though this is not an acceptable reason for misbehavior, look around to see if there is anything new or different on your property/training area. Stallions in particular can be suspicious of anything strange that you may not have even noticed -- a new animal at the neighbors...a tarp laid out on the ground -- and blinders can make something innocent seem all the more threatening.

 

[Sandee]

Did you clip him yet this spring. If not the harness from last year may be tight over the extra hair, including making the bit tighter.

If the harness is fitted, the teeth are ok then going back to ground work is all that is left to try to figure out what "disconnected" in his head from last fall. Oh, and yes stallions sometimes, IMO, think with a different brain and I don't mean the one in their head so they are dense and slow to learn sometimes.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Good advice from every one but I just wanted to add; think about his diet too. Has it been changed recently, something added or taken away. Was the hay he was fed this year different in some way (wet summer or ...)? I have seen horses who behave the way you describe who settled when given a good mineral mix. Some pretty minor deficiencies can result in noticable behaviour changes.

 

[susanne]

Not only can the winter coat make the harness tight, but the long hair can also get caught in the buckles or by the girth or straps and pinch or pull.

 

[MiLo Minis]

Was he in the blinders'when your friend touched him? Is he in blinders when he won't stand still? If he was then I would suggest you get his hearing checked and then his vision. Horses can have hearing or vision problems that will make them react differently particularly when we put blinders on them and take away or constrain one of those senses that they have adapted to rely on.

 

[shorthorsemom]

Be sure when you stop him that you reward the stop by lessing pressure on the reins. Constant hold can make them jumpy. My trainer gets on me for not rewarding the halt with less pressure, took some conditioning to get that stand, he was all go and no hold when I first got him. I work with a trainer at all times as I still have lots to learn, you can't beat having somebody on the ground coaching you in addition to having someone ready to jump in should things get out of hand. My boy won't drive in blinkers. He gets very jumpy. Still plan to do some training later to try to reintroduce blinkers, but for now we drive in an open bridle. He had a dog attack with his former owner and she started using the open bridle on him as advised by her trainer. When I tried to use blinkers he did much of what you described with your boy.

ditto on the check teeth advice. I get my guys checked and floated yearly.

best wishes, keep us posted

Ps, My trainer did get in my cart and have one of those "heart to heart" come to you-know-where battle of wills with my boy on the standing issue. (she won) She said the whoa was the most important "gait" and not to be taken lightly when you have one that wont stand. very dangerous she said, especially if they start to back up. She has more experience than I do and she got the message across when he was acting bratty. We still have a ways to go, I am so glad I have a trainer working directly with me. Sometimes when you send them out for training, the horse gets training and the driver doesn't, it needs to be a dual training of horse and driver IMO

.

 

[cowgurl_up]

Thank you so much everyone for all of the great advice!!! It is always in the blinders when he is so jumpy. I have gone back to working in a small round pen. He is due to have his teeth checked (they are done yearly but haven't been this year). The last few times I have worked him I free lunged first, then added the head stall (no reins) and we worked on walk, whoa, and changing directions freely which of course is different since he can no see me and has to totally rely on my voice. He did extremely well with that and was very quiet on the bit since their was no pressure on the bit. Teeth are on our list and I'm thinking that is probably a huge portion of it. It's amazing how fast something like that can change since he was done last year and was great all last fall and now has such an issue! I will be interested to see if he goes back to normal after that.

I did go through and be sure everything was fitting him correctly and be sure his eye lashes were not rubbing the blinders. I have not clipped him yet this year but he has completely shed out to a very short hair coat so I actually had to go through and tighten everything as I was working him this fall/early winter when he was fuzzy.

As far as changes, everything changes around the farm pretty consistently. They raise cows and farm so nothing is ever in the same spot and all my horse are used to tractors and trucks and the noise that goes with that. But he has been used to this routine for years. He did spend last fall and winter with one of my bred mares and of course they were separated this spring. I do wonder if that is another part of his problem this year. He's not in solitary confinement or anything, he can see the other horses. He's always been fine alone being a stallion and last year was the first time we had him turned out with another horse. Maybe he is having some problems with being "alone" again as well?

His feed has not changed at all. Same hay from last year. He has a salt block but I will try adding adding a mineral block as well. I am game to trying anything to get my horse back!! = )

I agree with everyone. Whoa and stand are extremely important to have down and I will not be hooking him back up to the cart until I know I can trust him to stand.

Thank you again everyone for all of your advice!! You are a great group and I'm very glad to be able to ask for your help!