# Driving: Long term benefits?



## Twine (Sep 27, 2014)

I occasionally get the chance to work at my friends Arabian horse farm. (Let's pretend my friend's name is Martha.)_Martha_ and I really get down to it on the rare times that I have a chance to drive down and visit her. We typically will ride 2-7 horses a day and make multiple trips down to the pasture, do maintenance work in the barn, draw up courses, ect.

With the horses, we only will really just work on ground work and fine tuning the in the barn or out on a trail. However, Martha has a cheap harness set and cart that has me interested. We never once used the cart or harness, but I'm tempted to ask her if we can use it next time I go down there (In two months). Her Arabians can range from lazy and 'bomb proof' to spooky and very inexperienced. If we took one of the more experienced horses and worked with a surcingle on them for a few days, exposed them to the cart and harness, and then harnessed the horses up and lead them with it (Eventually leading up to driving them) every time we work with that horse, will it have any long term benefits? If one of her horses really enjoys working over jumps, and another horse despises it, couldn't we maybe find a hidden love of driving for someone who we wouldn't normally work with? Also, could we maybe just occasionally use it to spice up our way of conditioning the horses? 

I understand that introducing and training a horse to drive isn't just something you can assume you know how to do, but I'm willing to do all of the research and practice necessary if it could really benefit her horses. Any advise to a driving newbie as myself would really be appreciated. =)


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

I grew up on a trotting stud so even my Arabian mare got trained to drive, it was kind of inescapable!  We do lots and lots of long reining when educating horses to drive, making sure they follow all the necessary commands, and do walk-trot-walk transitions, slow/extend, halts, turns and rein-back in long reins before we ever put a cart on them. This process can be started at yearling stage as this does not stress the horse physically. So can cart familiarisation, which is a gradual, repeat-often-rather-than-prolong process. There is usually one offsider working as the babysitter at the horse's head when new things are being taught, until the horse has learnt that particular thing; e.g. the trot-on and back to walk is so much easier for a horse to learn when babysitter is demonstrating right next to horse - even if it's already doing this perfectly off a lead rope, which is where these things are taught before long reining - because in long reins that becomes a slightly different situation for the horse, and an offsider always un-complicates the training. Later on, when the horse first pulls the cart, the babysitter re-appears for reassurance at the head of the horse until everything is A1. Two people can prevent many hairy situations, and should a horse panic and go down (had that only a couple of times in 30 years), the cart can be quickly unstrapped by one person while the other calms and restrains the horse, preventing potentially nasty situations.

I found cart driving around the sand track which was used to condition the trotters a very nice complementary form of conditioning for endurance competition. My Arabian trotted and cantered at usual endurance pace, but it gave her back a break, and actually acted as physio in that way. Half an hour of that is quite respectable work in deep sand, and was good in-between exercise to being out on the trail.


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## CaliforniaDreaming (May 8, 2011)

I think driving turns out incredibly level headed horses. Makes sense, really, because the last thing you want is a horse getting into a tizzy between the shafts or get all hot and bothered about a cart dragging along behind them. My Haflinger is a rides-and-drives and while some of his attitude about life comes from being a Haffie (and naturally stoic to the point that a friend says he's stoned :lol: )the other day, I was standing around after riding with a girl grazing her young QH, and a Quarab. The QH stepped on a hose and went ballywhack crazy, the Quarab jumped out of his skin, and my gelding just stood there like " duuuuuude, what just happened, maaaan?" He's pretty unflappable because he's learned not to get worked up over carts, wagons, carriages, etc. he wouldn't have made it as a driving horse if he hadn't. 

For someone who is new to driving, you should get some experience driving a seasoned horse before trying to hook one of your friend's Arabs up. When I first started driving, I'd driven a mini a few times, and the BO's Saddlebred mare. I got my horse primarily as a riding horse, and it took a few years before I got my hands on a harness and when I did, I spent a few months ground driving which was more for my benefit than Mr Experienced Haffie's.

I'm working with my mare right now, she's got some issues in regards to riding, so I'm (slowly... it's so much more tempting to harness, hook and take the gelding out for a spin than walk around behind her) getting ground driving training into her. She does that pretty well, as I imagine she's harkening back to the days of yore as a youngster being ground driven, but I haven't gotten to the point of having her fitted with false shafts or figured out how I'm going to have her get used to dragging weight (I know I need a tire, I just don't quite know where to get one) yet. I think what you're thinking is it's just a matter of getting the horse harnessed and used to pulling the cart, but there's a few steps there that you don't want to leave out as holes in driving training can be a bit ... problematic. Obviously if any of her horses already know how to drive and just need the refresher, that's fine, but if you're talking from the ground up, it's going to be a process that'll take some time.

How often do you go see your friend? Is she likely to continue with the training when you're not there?


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## Twine (Sep 27, 2014)

@California


You halfie sounds like quite the master at driving, then! =D It sounds like you really care for him. 


I go out to her farm at least once every month for at least a day or two. During the summers I go out for 65_ish_ days in total. And I think if I proved to her that it is very beneficial, she would then continue working with driving.


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

Even when you KNOW how to train a horse to drive, it is a dangerous proposition. These horses need to be introduced to this by competent, experienced professionals, who own the proper equipment, and have the proper help.


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## Twine (Sep 27, 2014)

As I've mulled over that thought, I realize how bad of an idea that really was. *Shakes head* I need to carry a bucket of reality that I can dump over myself before thinking about starting things like this. :lol:


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## LadyDreamer (Jan 25, 2008)

It's definitely not a BAD idea. Adding skills(like driving) to a horse's education is never bad thing. It just probably isn't the best idea in your situation right now. 

Definitely look into driving lessons for yourself, and learning how they are trained and get some supervised experience, and then come back to the idea. Driving is not something you want to only do halfway. With added equipment, the possibility for something to go wrong is increased. You will want to be able to see several horses started so you can see the reactions of the horse and handler in the training process. 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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