put my girl in driving training!

[giddyupgal88]

hey all,

I am very pleased to tell you, that ive put my mini mare stella in driving training

i moved her last month from a small backyard barn to a large indoor facility for the winter. Shes 2 yrs old, (shell be 3 in april) so i figured this would be a great time in her life to begin it. as i am a novice driver.

what age do most of you guys start your horses for driving?

what kind of leg protection do you use? my trainer recommend sport boots but i was wondering if splint boots were ok to start with. weve been using polo wraps for quite some time.

any advice with anything would be wonderful! thank you!!

 

[valshingle]

As long as the horse seems mentally and physically mature, I usually start the driving training (ie. put them with my trainer) in Oct/Nov of the horse's 2yr old year. It usually takes at least 90 days before they are hooked up to a cart. We don't use any leg protection. In my experience, miniatures have legs of iron and generally don't interfere.

 

[Minimor]

We usually wait until spring of their 3 year old year. We used to start our Morgans the fall of their 2 year old year & hitch them up a few times before winter, but we figure with the Minis being so much smaller in relation to the weight of the cart/driver they don't need to be hitched until they are 3.

I only ever used splint boots or Professionals Choice sports medicine boots on the Morgans when we were starting them under saddle and riding them out (and then didn't use them all the time, usually only on the young, green horses that might be unbalanced with a rider up & so be more likely to hit themselves; We didn't use boots on the Morgans when we were doing harness work and I don't use boots at all on the Minis. I've never been a fan of wrapping the legs on a horse other than for shipping or support for a serious injury--working a horse in bandages can actually weaken the tendons and make the horse more prone to injury.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I will not normally put a horse to the cart until the end of it's third year- I never rode them before that age and I find very few are ready, mentally or physically, before then.

Of course I will do loads of ground work, traffic training etc, but they do not actually start work until they are going on four.

Put them to the cart towards the fall of their third year, turn them away for winter, bring them up in the spring and they should be ready for work.