Please allow me to comment on my friend, Paula's post. I thought "down and dirty" was putting a harness on a unbroke horse, hooking up to something like a drag, while standing in a dirt field. Saying a prayer, telling the horse to move out by any means to get him going, then trying to hold on for dear life!!
(OMG - NO! Maybe I should use "quick & dirty" as I usually did it while I was feeding - didn't groom them, just used either a halter and lines or a bridle and lines and worked with one while the others were eating. Did it a lot with several of mine one winter - worked great!! Then would go on to the next. Usually spent an extra hour in the barn, could groom several and work several too.) Paul, I think you and I have seen a session like this on one of the draft trail drives. Only the man thought that horse was already well trained!!
(Yep, seen some interesting things on both the trail drives and the plow days. Even seen lots of interesting things on trail rides when I used to ride all the time.)
I actually owned a Welsh cross that was broke to drive in one day this way. Long before I bought him. I was told they had 4 helpers standing by but never needed them. The pony galloped through the dirt with his cart following and driver holding on to the seat. When they came back to the farm house that afternoon, the pony was"broke". He was a wonderful driving pony by the time I got him years later.
I am way to chicken to train this way!
(I have seen this method used a lot - especially here in NC with minis and small ponies. Problem is - they often aren't taught anything once they've finally learned to ignore what is chasing them. Most don't ever learn a true "whoa", how to give to the bit in any direction or how to back up. Most of the ones I've seen trained this way are pretty severely traumatized - though not all. It's why I DO want to spend a lot of time on the ground teaching "whoa".
I've had one runaway that wasn't caused by lack of training - well she was very green and essentially so was I - but by painful attack by wasps whose ground nest we'd hit. Even though that 3 yr old filly knew "whoa" - she simply wasn't responding and I really couldn't blame her as I was stung quite a bit as well. It was on her 3rd hitch to the cart and I'd just about been ready to stop when it happened. I wasn't alone - the girls were with me, but I had no other adults with me. I was pretty sick from the stings I'd received and "scared spitless" too by the "runaway". The loss of confidence when you can't really do anything is HUGE. She was bucking and running and I managed to get her to circle our round pen - somewhere in the middle of our 4 acre pasture. But at one point she went up, wildly squalling, the cart and I left the ground behind her and we ended up in a tangled heap. It was the closest I'd come to cutting a harness off to untangle a horse - but I don't know that I could have. I was shaking hard, the leather was in great shape and many layers stitched together. It was a quick hitch training harness w/o breeching and I was able to get it all unsnapped in various spots. Got her untangled from the shafts and stood up. She wasn't lame or injured - a slight cut on the inside of her gaskin on a hind leg and quite a number of swellings/lumps from wasp stings. The cart was fine. I had wasp stings and some bumps and scraps but nothing major. I made a mistake when neither of us were actually injured by not re-hooking her then and there - like I would have gotten back on a riding horse. By the next day, just bringing the harness out caused her to get highly upset & I was still too green - and sickish and shaky - at the time to REALLY know how to deal with it. The gentleman that I was working with then was dealing with a very sick family member and couldn't work with me at the time and I didn't know who to contact for help to go on with her. I didn't work with her enough to get her over what she thought was BAD. I thought I was doing right - but even though I re-introduced the harness and cart - she wasn't happy or relaxed and honestly - neither was I. Honestly, it took a long, long time for ME to get comfortable with driving her dam or her sire after that and they were both pretty well trained. That was in 2000. Instead, we turned her into a top notch little riding pony and never got her driving again in the years we had her. Now she's a very fancy hunter pony, that consistently goes around a course under different little riders.) But I agree, lots of small blocks of time. Attention span of a horse's brain is very short. That is why I call my way, "playing games". Hope full I will never get pulled through a field and get down and dirty.
(YIKES!!) But if it happens, I hope you are there to help me!
At one of the plow days I went to, a pair of mules - supposed to be well trained - got away from their owner/driver and took off. While hooked to a rather large hand plow! They headed straight back for the trailer area - where there were a LOT of HORSES, PONIES and other MULES standing tied to their trailers while being hitched. They circled around a couple of times with that "cutting thing" slinging around - honestly it was SCAREY!!!! I was THANKFUL I'd spent a lot of time ground driving my first pair AND had practiced driving them up into my horse trailer - I got the horse trailer open, drove them in harness and all, and shut the door, and I hopped into the bed of my truck. There were plenty of more experienced people to handle that - I knew I wanted nothing to do with it - I just wanted out of the way. I was amazed - no one was hurt, harness was intact and so was the plow and both mules. It did catch on one trailer - a big one that was heavy duty. I don't remember it sustaining any damage. I now not only teach our ponies to get in and out of the trailer while I stand outside saying "load up", but load them with their harness and then drive them in and out... a good practice to get into in my opinion...
