Good morning, Ash! First of all, this is a great critique post as far as you providing all the background information, a variety of pictures, and already knowing that there are things it's hard to see without outside input. Kudos to you!
I love working with you over the internet but we're getting far enough into your training that I'm itching to fly out there and get a few days in person to really make some progress. There are just some things it's really hard to learn over the internet and I think you're beginning to hit some of those road blocks.
I had the same experience a few years ago with Kody- I was able to teach him to do cones and basic dressage tests with a little advice, work on my figures, get him used to crossing water and tarps and plyboards and deal with all things traffic and trail, go different speeds, etc., but then I stalled out and couldn't go any further. I asked clinician after clinician what I was doing wrong with my hands and they all said either "nothing" or implied it would come with time but I KNEW that I was doing something wrong. I could feel it in Kody's mouth and see it in the way he counterbent and we'd get into a vicious cycle trying to straighten him out. Instead of staying quiet, my hands were getting louder and louder and my horse responded in kind. And yet everyone said we were fine!
I finally found a trainer who took one look and straightened us out in less than an hour, and our training took leaps after that. There is no substitute for finding someone who can show you where the roadblock is and how to get past it. Wish I could afford to head to NY before the snow flies!! It would be so fun to drive with you. Are you sure you can't make the National Drive in KY this year??
[SIZE=12pt]I'm extremely lucky in finding a trainer where I ride, who has really helped me & him progress a lot. 
She's into Portuguese style dressage, which I'm also very interested in, & am applying to driving the best I can. But what you are describing with Kody sounds very familiar.
& I'd love to have you out here some time, as far as the National Drive I sure wish I could make it, but really no way to make that happen yet.
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Anyhow, we're stuck with the internet so here is what I see. First of all, Banner is a very forward and energetic horse. He's got a strong personality and loves to drive, and he naturally uses his hind end to step up under himself. Unfortunately that "through-ness" stops at his withers and as such he's being robbed of the power he's built to naturally have. He moves without tension and with energy, but he isn't recycling that power through his whole body for reuse and so a lot of it is lost. Note his annoyed expression in the last photo with your mom and the general "I can't HEEEEAAAR you" of the other photos- he's not working
with you two. His body is nice and loose and he likes driving but mentally he's resisting being "pushed around" and it shows in every photo. Some of this is a mental maturity issue, but it's our job to show him that it's easier and more joyful to work WITH your driver as a partner. There's something in your contact that has not (to this point) encouraged him to soften and work through his topline the way we want him to. This is where I wish I was there to do some exercises with you and see what's really going on, but the best I can do over the internet is to reiterate the importance of encouraging him to reach down and doing frequent soft transitions to try and "hook up" his engine to your hands.
[SIZE=12pt]Yup, yup, yup. He definitely needs more transitions. He definitely hates to be told what to do, so I've gotten very good at asking him. Sometimes he complies, other times he says nah, try again. & unless we're endangering something/ourselves, I'm fine with that, he's becoming more reliable as we go. Not trying to make excuses, but these aren't the best pictures of him actually working, they ended up coming out very good, considering what we were doing is trying out the new cart. But he is definitely not stretching, he's not warmed up like I normally would have him. Also it was extremely wet & muddy, but I don't think it bothered him much. I should try to get someone with a lot of patience come out to take pictures when I really am working him. I agree a lot with the not recycling of his energy, especially in these pictures. Though that is a major thing we are working on, which sometimes it feels like we have some recycling going on there.
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I know this is going to sound a little funny, but you might consider putting blinkers on him for awhile. I'm a big fan of driving open and it's not like he appears to be ignoring you in favor of his surroundings or anything, but I just get a gut feeling looking at the pictures that he might soften and become more submissive with a set of blinkers. It forces him to see you only as the pair of hands guiding him and encourages him to look to those hands for instruction more than he currently does. Right now he's exhibiting a bit of the contentiousness that a lively, strong-willed horse will show with his favorite person. It's almost like they're so comfortable with us they can afford to be a bit callous as they know exactly where the limits are and that we love them anyway. We want him to focus on his driving, not on the people doing the driving, if that makes any sense.
I know I'm not doing a good job of explaining my reasoning here but I'm trying to find words for something that's purely an intuition. I could be wrong too, we never get the whole picture looking at just a few photos.
[SIZE=12pt]I'm kind of iffy on this. I respect your opinion a lot, but from driving him I find he seems to look out for the cart, if that makes any sense. Tonight we were driving, just for fun, and weaving through a ton of trees. & he seems to look for the cart & watch out for it, as if it's now a part of him so he's taking care of it. Buttttt, as I think of it. Maybe he should be leaving that worry up to me...
But as much as I prefer the open bridle, I'll give this some thought & possibly switch him to blinders for a while, he has no problem working in them. I am slightly worried as we just *knock on wood* got over bucking in the cart, just from him feeling good. I wouldn't want for whatever reason that to come back with the blinders... just a thought in my mind that it may... [/SIZE]
Another thing you might consider is using a mullen mouth Liverpool or Butterfly bit with the curb chain attached medium-loosely and see how he responds to that. He may be one of those horses who likes a bit he can get some solid support from and the additional poll and chin pressure from the curb might help him learn to round up without leaning on the bit or running through it.
[SIZE=12pt]Here's another real iffy thing for me. I really prefer not using a curb bit. I just don't think that it's necessary... I do have a lot to learn, but as of now I still don't think it's necessary. I will give this quite a bit of thought and research though & see where I stand on it later.
With the myler I think he can get some good support off it. another problem with changing bits is he doesn't have much roon in his mouth at all. Boy we just keep adding up the problems, haha.
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As for the rest of the equipment, there are a couple of issues that have cropped up since the last time you posted.
Most of it comes from how high the shafts sit on his sides which is fairly typical with an easy entry like that. I'm a bit surprised to see he's having that problem given his size, but I suppose you're using 24" wheels with him? That would cause the same problem a smaller mini has with a Frontier with 20" wheels. If there's any way you could lower that singletree down further on the basket it would solve just about every issue and give him a much better angle of draft. If you can't do that, then we need to tweak the harness a bit.
[SIZE=12pt]I'm really stuck here, I don't know how I can fix this. I don't have enough knowledge on the cart & how to alter it. But, I will see what I can do. [/SIZE]
What I don't like is the way the traces are running so high on his sides. I know they're forming a straight line to the singletree, but the singetree is too high as well and the end result is a horse who may be holding his head and neck up because the pressure is centered so high on his chest that he isn't comfortable putting his head down. Only you can tell where the pressure is on that breastcollar (bottom edge? Top edge? Center?) but I don't like the way the back of the breastcollar is sort of popping up with the neck straps flapping. The good news is that he obviously doesn't have any pressure on the top of his neck, but that's not the way a Freedom Collar is meant to fit. Try loosening the false martingale- in my experience with quite a few of these collars the backs will pop up if the martingale is too tight. Its purpose is to keep the W shape from deforming and flattening out under pressure but it doesn't have to be that tight to do it...just enough to keep the bottom point from popping way up off the chest when in draft. Simply being anchored is enough to do that most of the time.
[SIZE=12pt]That is how tight the false martigale is, I've been messing around with the freedom collar to see where it should be on him. The angle of his shoulder & where his windpipe is makes it a bit difficult, there isn't much room at all. But I'm still tweaking it. [/SIZE]
Also I'm pretty sure the pressure is even, when he's actively stretching he has no resistance when he puts his head down. Also it seems like the straps alternate which is tight & which is loose, sometimes the front one is tight & the back is loose & vice-versa.
Once the collar is laying flat against his shoulders and chest while in draft, see about getting those traces down a bit. I know from experience that if you run them through the breeching holdbacks it will pull the breeching way up, but maybe you can put a trace carrier loop on the shafts or something? I know normally a straight line from breastcollar to singletree is the rule but in this case I think it's the lesser of two evils to interrupt that line so the angle of draft is lower. The other way to do that is to put smaller wheels on the cart so the singletree itself sits lower and the shafts go slightly uphill instead of completely level. That will help with both the breeching and the traces and might improve things for Banner as far as pulling.
[SIZE=12pt]Even with smaller wheels, the singletree is going to still be high, it's just the way these carts are made. I do have my old cart, with smaller wheels. But I'm selling it because I got this new one. He certainly pulls very easily in this new cart.
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Here's my other cart...
So overall I'd like to see the breastcollar and the breeching sitting on a similar line, meaning the breastcollar a little lower and the breeching a little higher, and he could do with a shorter browband so the crownpiece can't slip quite so far back behind his ears. Let's get your mom's helmet sitting further forward while we're at it!
She's such a nice lady, I'd hate to see her get a broken nose because her face hit the ground before the brim of her helmet did.
[SIZE=12pt]The browband fits with blinders on the bridle, & the crownpiece doesn't move at all. In fact I'd like it to be back off his ears a bit, but it never stays... & Yes my Mom knows she's not wearing the helmet correctly, but of all the things going on that was the least of her worries. Never-the-less thank you. [/SIZE]
Lemme know how much of this seems useful and how much was only the photos and we can go from there. You know how much I enjoy watching you and your driving horses have fun and learn!
Leia
