Teaching the horse to accept the shafts training device?

[MiLo Minis]

This idea is more so getting the horse having a sort of feeling of what shafts are before he actually gets in to the cart. I think it would be a more easier introduction to the cart. I also at first would use a open bridle.

Most horses don't have a problem with the shafts being there when they are going straight it is when they go to turn the first time and bump up against them giving them the feeling they are trapped. Unless you can have someone holding a pole or whatever against their side they won't get the actual feeling of a shaft with whatever you use.

 

[RhineStone]

I don't train my horses with plastic bags—not because they might spook the horse, but because I simply see no point in it. In spite of that, in all my years of riding and driving I have never had a horse come undone by a flapping plastic bag. A friend of mine once had a young horse she was trying to train. One day she tied a plastic bag to his halter & put him on the longe line. The bag filled with air right there next to his face & scared the living daylights out of him. He ran and ran and ran until he could run no more, and only then did he finally stop. Now what was the point of that? It taught him nothing—it just scared him badly. The fact that he was afraid of that air filled bag flapping alongside his face didn't make him dangerous to ride. I know that, because I rode him for awhile.

Wow! I doubt that I would tie a plastic bag on their head, either. I agree, what is the point?

He might have learned that in all of his running, he didn't get hurt by the bag, but it depends on the particular horse as to whether they can process that way. Some can't, some can. However, I have had horses react to plastic bags at shows. Particularly, ones that cover speakers on rainy, windy days. We lost a class once with a big horse, because it flapped hard just as he went by on the rail and he jumped sideways. It was just enough of a tie-breaker the judge needed. A little duct tape around the bag would have helped with that, but oh well. We put treats in plastic at home, and even our Arab/DHH filly comes "running" towards us when she hears the bag! That helps a lot.

The plastic bag we use for training is a big, clear recycling bag. We don't tie it on them, just put it on their back, neck and head, rub it on their legs and belly, and if it falls off in the process, they watch it fall and we pick it up like nothing happened. We don't spend a lot of time with each of the "toys", just enough to keep them interested in training, and develop trust. I find that especially the minis need to have variety in the training process. If I just longe for a week teaching gaits, they are bored to death. So we alternate with "toys", or I might lead the horse in a halter while pulling something on the ground in the other hand so they get used to the noise dragging behind them. We might pull the cart around along side them, and even bump them in the side with the shafts, being careful not to bump their heels with the wheel. We give treats on the cart, while teaching them that they CAN'T EAT THE CART!

Generally, we work with "English" type breeds, so we are used to horses "blowing smoke". If they see something that they think is weird, we "make" them "stick their nose on it", until it becomes a "non-issue". I find it harder to work with a stoic horse that doesn't show you they are afraid until it is too late. That is why we keep "pushing" to find different toys that they might react to, because I would rather teach them to "spook in place" as John Lyons calls it, than to find out that they were really "tolerating" all the stuff and blow up when they can't take it anymore. Major wreck. It's not about making your horse bombproof, but more about teaching them how to deal with it safely. Even you and I jump at noisy, scary stuff, but we have learned not to run away like a schoolgirl. If you can find information on Police Horse training, they use some AWESOME stuff to train their horses.

My son was riding our 20 yr. old Pinto Arab last night. He is a total babysitter. Kyle's "new" saddle that we got for his birthday came in green bubblewrap, so he wanted to lay it out in the arena. Spider walked over it like there was nothing there. Yup, "psycho" (as some people call Arabs) Polish/Crabbet Arab cross, carriage driving champion, great kid's horse.

 

[wildoak]

Most of mine have gone directly from ground driving sans poles, to the cart with no problems. The mare I drove this past year had the most training, the most thorough desensitizing of any....... and yet for reasons known only to her she became claustrophobic about the cart shafts touching her and just came unglued. This came with no warning either - and she is at least temporarily retired from driving.

I have a great story too about horse's fear. We raised a QH filly many years ago who was - unlike all her siblings - goosey from day one. I looked out early one morning to see her lapping the field at a dead run, with a good sized piece of heavy black plastic flapping from her mouth. She had evidently picked it up out of curiosity, then when it flapped in the wind she panicked and took off, clamping down with her teeth instead of turning loose! The faster she ran, the more it flapped and the more she panicked lol. After several laps around 2-3 acres, she hit a low spot and went down in a cloud of dust....and came up on the other side of an old wire fence, leaving a couple of bent t posts in her wake! I couldn't catch her for a couple of hours - just got close enough to see she wasn't going to bleed to death - and from that day you couldn't get close to her if you had on a jacket or skirt or anything that flapped. She was scraped up from her fall, but only ended up with a couple of stitches in her cheek. I was pregnant at the time, and decided the better part of valor was to let her go, so she was sold not long after to a rancher who knew pretty well what he was getting into.

Jan

 

[MiLo Minis]

It is really important to take big wide sweeping curves for the first while when putting them in the shafts. Make sure that your shafts are wide enough they are not pressing on their sides and gradually tighten the turns over several weeks.

 

[Margo_C-T]

I am fully comfortable with my technique of using a single length of heavy wall PVC, with ends rounded off, in one tug loop, and driving the horse with one hand at a walk while 'maneuvering' the 'pseudo shaft' in the tug loop,including 'pushing' it against their shoulder as we turn 'toward' it. I am as safety-conscious as anyone; should anything go amiss, I can IMMEDIATELY pull the 'pseudo shaft' backward out of the tug loop, and drop/toss it BEHIND me and the horse, well out of the way. That said, I wouldn't recommend that ANYONE who has never 'trained' a horse before try it, because it requires a 'feel' that only comes with a high level of experience, IMO.

As for flapping plastic? I think it is a perfectly useful idea to use it for desensitizing; out here where I live, there is a LOT of wind, and in this 'modern' world, flapping/flying plastic is an unfortunate fact, oftentimes. What is NEVER a good idea is to ATTACH any such scary thing TO a horse so that it CANNOT 'ESCAPE' it;IMO, no one who understands horses would do such a thing! Jan's mare 'did it to herself', and being horses, that happens...but the result was a permanent 'impression' that she needed to fear flapping things...understandable, if you are a horse. Key is that the horse needs the chance to ACCLIMATE to whatever the 'scary' thing is; you must make it so that the horse finds out, with a minimum of stressfulness, that such things aren't out to hurt it, AND, that it can 'avoid' the 'scary' thing until it has learned it doesn't have to fear it.

My first fulltime show mini was BORN a spook, yet with a LOT of patient handling, he competely successfully in both Halter and Driven Obstacle, and went in large parades and other venues where there are lots of things going on likely to be scary to a prey animal! Yes, occasionally an obstacle would be more than he could take(like the time at Estes when a blue tarp on the ground to simulate water, had a HUGE ceramic POT on each corner, and when he stepped onto the too-taut, and edges-NOT-buried tarp pulling the cart, the pots all MOVED toward him, tilting and falling--and he set a new 'giant leap' record! Funny now, but could have been very dangerous; bad course design idea. And, I've been a STICKLER for having the edges of ground-laid tarps buried in dirt EVER since; a safely factor, for sure, in my judgement!)My point is, with time, patience, and consistency, much is possible.

Margo