# so, what do you do with your driven horse?



## CheyAut (Nov 26, 2008)

My previous dog (crossed the bridge two years ago) drove 

Two of our driving minis (one's hubby's, the other mine) are on a mini horse driving drill team www.minimystique.org) 

Then our other driving horses, we do combined driving. Tons of fun!


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## jimmy (Aug 26, 2009)

one of mine is lent out at the moment a young lads collecting scrap,and i did have a couple of really old photos of a woman driving a goat but can,t find them i wonder if they covered their feet with anything i know in olden times wen they walked geese to fairs they tarred their feet


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## lillie (Oct 26, 2009)

i've heard of that tarring feet thing too. and someone told me the drovers used to do it to the cattles feet on droves from wales to london? have you got a picture of the scrap wagon jimmy? the vicar of the local village used to drive his 2 goats in a little cart-- i havent seen him for about 10 years though, so he cant have them anymore, and there is someone who has a couple of newfoundland dogs who does charity events with them in a little cart giving small children rides, never seen them tho'


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## lillie (Oct 26, 2009)

i'm always impressed my your ponies and horses chey aut!! just have to ask tho'--- do they have to wear nappies ( diapers) when they do hospital or hospice visits? ( i havent heard of equine hospital visits in the uk!)


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## RubaiyateBandit (Jan 25, 2009)

My pony, Bandit, is very nearly broken to drive... we're just going to refine turning and get him a bit more used to pulling with a person in the cart. He'll mostly be used for fun, since there aren't any harness shows near me, and I might rent him out at the nearest town's "Graf Days" for little kid's cart rides or something. I'm trying to talk my saddle club into including driving classes, though.
Dante is learning to drive, too, but he's only been hitched to the cart maybe once, so... he's further behind. ;p

I hope to eventually drive them as a pair, but that's still awhile off, I think.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

We drive mostly teams and 4-hitches for farm work. We used to do all of our farming with mule teams, now we just have teams for pleasure driving around the country.













































This is how we would go feed our cows in the winter, we would stack hay on the sled and drive the 7 miles to the pasture where our cows were held when the snow was too deep for the pickup.









Us kids had a donkey that was just our size.









We even had a team of longhorn cross cows that would drive for a while.









Here is the only team we have now, John; a percheron gelding and Bessie; a belgian mare.


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## 3neighs (Jul 15, 2008)

I loooove your pictures, Jen! Especially the last one with Rafe walking next to Momma.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Why thank you. . Here in a few years, I will have pix from between his ears going beside the wagon. I can't hardly wait. YAY!!


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## lillie (Oct 26, 2009)

rubaiyate bandit: hope you have better luck than me in putting together a pair! one of my intended pair just hasnt grown! but we hope to get there in the end! smrobs: i just loved seeing those pictures. ( more please !!) i can remember my grandfather working the farm with horses, here in uk, but its now very few and far between that people seem to use anything but tractors over here. are there a lot of differences between training cattle to drive, and training a horse to drive? i see also , that you have baby along as well- this is what my grandfather did too. ( sorry i just love talking about my grandfather). the other thing i notice on this forum is the difference between american mules, and the mules that people have over here- american mules are much taller and horse like, over here they seem ussually smaller, furrier and donkey like-- i really find this so interesting and am toying with the idea of getting my smaller cob to do some little jobs around the place, just to give him something to do. in the meantime tho - please may i come and live with you guys (lol) it just looks a wonderful life to me!! ps . i see you have a size difference in some of your crew, would you be able to tell me what the biggest difference of size could be acomodated- we have a 2 h difference, which every person i know, bar one, has said is too much.. would that be too much difference in your opinion?


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

We usually try to match them within a few inches (usually no more than 1 hand) but what is more important than the height is the stride and how well they work together. In the last pic with the draft horses, we were worried that they wouldn't match up because the black usually has such a long stride and the mare has a shorter stride. However, after hitching them up, the black takes shorter strides in harness than he does loose and they match up very well. Quite often, they will be on the same stride. A team that matches perfectly with size isn't worth much if their strides are totally different.


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## CheyAut (Nov 26, 2008)

lillie said:


> i'm always impressed my your ponies and horses chey aut!! just have to ask tho'--- do they have to wear nappies ( diapers) when they do hospital or hospice visits? ( i havent heard of equine hospital visits in the uk!)


 
Thank you  I haven't taken mine to hospitals ect (lack of time) but my friends have. Most haven't used diapers, guess they've gotten lucky or trained them to go before hand? LOL


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## CheyAut (Nov 26, 2008)

In the training section there's a thread of what you do, your discipline or something like that, where I posted photos of 3 of my driving horses.

Here's the dog I mentioned on this thread:


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## lillie (Oct 26, 2009)

thank you for your replies. my 2 match stride, but my little one is a rescue, and he just hasnt grown a all. i think when we first had him we thought he would go another hand, but he just hasnt done it ; however, he is a lovely little boy, just never going to be part of a pair! i have toyed with the idea of trying them tandam at some date in the future, but he has a lot of driving single to get through first! i will look in that section you mentioned chey aut- great picture of the dog pulling you in what looks like town traffic! ( i'm just remembering taking my g.s.d. out on a lead whilest riding my son's bike; all went well til she saw a cat and took of after it, landing me in a tree, in a very painful position!)


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