Hips and Hyperbikes

[paintponylvr]

MCR has changed a lot since I purchased the rope that I got. Part of the reason I haven't ordered any online yet. I still have a few pieces of at least 2 of the 3 original colors I had purchased.

Umm... that's known as one of the stages of introducing the cart to the driving horse - and you will see it in several different books as well as in some of the driving videos. Guess Vicki and I have taken pics of many of the training stages we went thru - documenting where we were and what we were doing at each stage. Some of the photos are really cool, some - not so much. On occasion, we caught some pretty ...aahhh "active" shots where ponies were not happy or settled when introduced to something new.

We were a little surprised at this young mare's reaction. She was "driven" beside her mom as a suckling, weanling and yearling. Yet as a 2 yr old, she was kinda goofy and spooky! Right now, as a 4.5 yr old, she's going thru another "goofy" stage. She'd rather not eat than be caught since we moved onto the new property. Since she will attack the other girls (some of whom are babies), the gate is closed while they eat and she is locked out. In a few more days she will likely decide she is hungry enough that she'll be waiting at her bucket when I go out to feed... I'll be able to walk right up to her and catch her for feeding. Silly Mare.

Here is a pic of GG as a foal. The green lines are made from one of the colors of MCR I had gotten in 2000/01.

and then after she got over the goofiness and is driving as a pair with her dam officially -

and here she is "working" last fall as a 4 yr old.

I don't have any pics of her driving single. She's been hitched single about a dozen times and did pretty well - just went on to hook her as a pair after that...

 

[paintponylvr]

she's done some ground driving work (think 5x?) as a 4 abreast hitch, too. I sold the bay/white mare and haven't done the 4 abreast yet, even though I have 2 pairs that can/will do that. Just haven't had the chance, time or help (don't want to do a 4 abreast by myself).

I built a larger round pen here (not finished yet) and will be practicing w/ a 3 and 4 abreast hitch this summer. Also plan on doing a 4-up (2 pairs in front of each other )... I was aspiring to do a 6-up like Bsharp is doing some day, but may not make it to that. If I don't, that's ok. I've accomplished a lot and we enjoy what we do. I really like driving pairs!!

More important to me than a 4-up (or 6 or 8) is to get the mower customized so that I can use a pair or 3-abreast to mow this fall. We'll see how far we get. It's taken longer to get to this point than I'd thought it would...

 

[paintponylvr]

Here's a blog that gives some nice explanations and has pictures as well.

Harnessing Horsepower

and another one - think I originally had/have this one in a horse magazine, but can't remember which one.

Put the horse before the cart

Here's a video... with a shaft trainer similar to mine but then dragging on the ground..

Training to drive

and this shows another photo similar to the above video (different trainer/different farm)

Tolt Farm

I found these by using Google Images.

I used these search terms -

Ground training the driving horse

Starting the driving horse

ground work before hitching

 

[paintponylvr]

then I went back to YouTube.

I've always LOVED watching the vids from IAMRANCH. They breed/raise and train champion mini horses in multiple types of driving. They have the smaller minis and do training outside and "cross country" with various styles of equipment (their "surfing" vids are hilarious to watch. Me - I'd hurt my horses' mouths attempting that. BUT we've done similar w/ a line attached to the front of a drag to hold on to to keep from hanging on the horses' mouths...).

The other would be to surf thru Barry Hook's vids - they have lots including ground driving different types of horses, what they do to accustom to harness and going out in the country and on the roads. He trains in England (can't remember where right now) - so some stuff is different then we typically do here. Harness and vehicles are a little different (like Marathon types here). He also shows some collar work - not just breast collar.

Here's some more -

This person is working with mini horse by themself and using an Cabella Jet Sled. Also shows a hyperbike from the drivers seat... Beginning ground work

These are riding horses being trained & the terms used are riding terms, not driving - from Double Lunge to Long Reining

This mini is pulling a shaft trainer w/o a breast collar and traces (just attached to his harness saddle) - Bishop

moving downed limbs & water work, too. Horsepower, moving downed limbs

************

There are many sources besides just books to go to for reference. When I did some searching right here in Lil Beginnings - I found harness, ground driving and hitching posts going back to 2008.

 

[paintponylvr]

This one is cool. The "shaft" is on a line. I suppose the "driver" could release the cord and drop the "shaft" if necessary... Dinero dragging pole

Might be good to go back and watch the whole series here - but I really enjoyed these 2 - here they are introducing the shafts/travois - looks like it's built from dimensions given in Doris Ganton's book - Training the Driving Horse. Cap 4

Here's the trainer being the horse while ground driving - pretty much the same as Vicki and I have done. Doesn't drop the shafts tho... Cap 5

And here is a Webinar - long but shows different types of harness and what the uses are for. Harness & Bits From here you can follow many of their other video/webinars.