I agree with Al, books are going to be a little scarce unless you start looking for draft-driving resources. Max Pape is a good one and I found the pair chapters in Heike Bean's "Carriage Driving: A Logical Approach Through Dressage" to be very clear and easy to understand.
zoey829 said:
-How to stop the one from rubbing-How to stop them from wanting to have a party in an open field. They think it is whaaa whoo time. They think they are in the Indy 500. But anywhere else they are fine
-I have been experimenting with different bits. I like to get opinions.
Really though, the questions you've listed above are the kind of basic thing that good books on driving a single horse would teach you. For the rubbing, start by getting after him every time he starts to do it so he learns not to start in the first place. If he's determined, tie a string from the outside of his harness saddle to the cheekpiece of his bridle so he can't reach over to rub on his buddy. It should be only tight enough to prevent actual rubbing, not so tight it interfers with bending and turning. If that brings him up short and you get after him every single time he'll soon figure out that rubbing is not an option and you can take the string off again.
A lot of horses see open space and get very excited. The answer is the same for a riding horse, single driving horse or team. WALK THEM. If they start jigging or trying to break, start circling and doing figure eights and other boring work until they settle down then try going straight across the field again. If they immediately break gait, back to the figures you go! It won't take them long to realize that trying to go fast only gets them a lot of hard boring work at a walk but when they behave they get to go across the field towards the next big adventure. Practice stopping and standing too until they'll do it patiently. If they're fidgety you'll have to keep it short at first so the minute they give you perfect stillness for even a second, let them walk forward. You're going to gradually draw out that time until they'll stand quietly for as long as you ask (meaning twenty minutes or an hour- not three minutes!
) The only caveat to the "don't let them move forward until they quiet down" is that if they're getting dangerously explosive, like thinking about going up, for gosh sakes don't try and bottle them up!
Safety comes first and they aren't going to learn anyway once their minds have disengaged like that. Instead push them directly forward into a hard working trot and make them do figures until they're thinking again and well past ready to stop, then ask them to whoa. This time they ought to be grateful for the opportunity and you can calmly reward them for standing quietly and let them walk forward again on your terms. Again, you don't usually have to do this more than a couple of times before they learn. Eventually when they're standing and walking quietly in the field you'll try a trot again and they'll probably forget all their lessons the moment you do.
Just wrestle them back to a walk and return to figures the minute they get too forward and they'll be far quicker this time to behave. Horses aren't dumb!
It shouldn't take long after that for them to be walking and trotting calmly anywhere you choose.
As for bits, well, you'll get as many different opinions on that as there are sources. You bit each horse individually so whatever works best for that horse is what they should be wearing whether they are driving singingly or in a team. Setting the REINS for a pair gets complicated, but the bitting is just like a single horse!
The books I mentioned above both cover the rein arrangements quite thoroughly.
I've got the pair bug too so I envy all of you who already have one. Someday! Someday, I will find a match for my little Kody.
Leia
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