twoblackminis
Member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2007
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 0
Background on the troublemaker; 6-year-old green Miniature gelding. Very playful (loves to 'baby play' with the 3-year-old Standarbred colt!!) and very saucy. He's 36" tall, so pretty big for a Mini, but ittybitty compared to our foundationbred Quarterhorse and 16hh dressage horse LOL
Our farrier has been helping us train the Miniatures, since he has YEARS of experience driving and breaking draft teams, saddlebred-crosses, arabs, NSH's, STBs ... anything that can go behind a cart, he's driven It's a running joke, because we have our two black minis who will eventually be a team and the farrier has his huge black percheron team ... they look so cute when their all together!!
But back to the point of the thread!! We have been ground driving the Mini on and off for the past three years. Last year, I started backing him into the shafts to get him used to them touching him. He's always taken this all SO well!!
But this year it seems, he's determined to be a turd. I've only had time to lunge the mini a few times a week this spring, so the farrier decided to take a hand at ground driving him. Mini was great fo 10 to 15mins, then BLEW UP! Spooked, jumped around, spin in the lines ... we checked all the harness, bit, his hooves .. he was fine!! So pushed him forward and tried again ... was great for 10 to 20 minutes then BLEW UP again!!! It was the same story the entire time. At one point, the Mini flipped himself in the lines and fell!!
Totally scary. Mini was shocked and a bit upset, but got himself up and kept on truckin' (we stopped and checked him for injury, but he was fine!!)
We kept ground driving him since we didn't want him to feel that he'd 'won,' he was being really, really, really good so we backed him into the shafts and hooked him up. Lead him around with the cart on and he was SO SO SO good!! Gently ground drove him (with the cart now attached) and he was awesome! And then ... he BLEW UP ... AGAIN!! Ack. You'd think we would have learned, right?!
Long story short ... he flipped in the harness (and cart!!) twice! Mini sustained no injuries and the (metal!!) cart needed a slight chiropractic adjustment ... We gently ground drove him after the last freak out and than stopped ... again, to make sure he didn't 'win.'
what?! I gave the mini a day off to "recover," and have been lunging him walk/trot to keep him obedient. I am apprehensive to ground drive him myself, since he can TOTALLY take advantage of me. Our farrier is coming back out in a few days to ground drive him again, but ...
Any suggestions for us?! ?!
Our farrier has been helping us train the Miniatures, since he has YEARS of experience driving and breaking draft teams, saddlebred-crosses, arabs, NSH's, STBs ... anything that can go behind a cart, he's driven It's a running joke, because we have our two black minis who will eventually be a team and the farrier has his huge black percheron team ... they look so cute when their all together!!
But back to the point of the thread!! We have been ground driving the Mini on and off for the past three years. Last year, I started backing him into the shafts to get him used to them touching him. He's always taken this all SO well!!
But this year it seems, he's determined to be a turd. I've only had time to lunge the mini a few times a week this spring, so the farrier decided to take a hand at ground driving him. Mini was great fo 10 to 15mins, then BLEW UP! Spooked, jumped around, spin in the lines ... we checked all the harness, bit, his hooves .. he was fine!! So pushed him forward and tried again ... was great for 10 to 20 minutes then BLEW UP again!!! It was the same story the entire time. At one point, the Mini flipped himself in the lines and fell!!
We kept ground driving him since we didn't want him to feel that he'd 'won,' he was being really, really, really good so we backed him into the shafts and hooked him up. Lead him around with the cart on and he was SO SO SO good!! Gently ground drove him (with the cart now attached) and he was awesome! And then ... he BLEW UP ... AGAIN!! Ack. You'd think we would have learned, right?!
Long story short ... he flipped in the harness (and cart!!) twice! Mini sustained no injuries and the (metal!!) cart needed a slight chiropractic adjustment ... We gently ground drove him after the last freak out and than stopped ... again, to make sure he didn't 'win.'
what?! I gave the mini a day off to "recover," and have been lunging him walk/trot to keep him obedient. I am apprehensive to ground drive him myself, since he can TOTALLY take advantage of me. Our farrier is coming back out in a few days to ground drive him again, but ...
Any suggestions for us?! ?!