When to start

[Mickey & Mouse]

At what age should training begin? I know that it is a vague question but my thought was probably two?? to begin the ground driving. Just wondering as I keep telling my hubby that he has to wait another year to start with the boys.

 

[RhineStone]

You can "start" a driving horse as a yearling as far as I am concerned, you just don't put them to a cart until they are a late two if not three. We do work in hand, longe, harness (without the bridle), etc. as soon as possible. It all "translates" to driving training. We don't add the bit and bridle until they are two and make sure their teeth are done before we even get a bit close to their mouth.

But in the big scheme of things, their body mass and their brain dictate more of their trainability than their age. We are just now getting a 3 yr. old Arab/DHH mare started line driving. I put the pony harness on her at 1, but her mind and body are just not ready for "major" work yet. She still looks like a "baby" and I'd like her more filled out before I put her to the cart. Older horses (3, 4, 5 and up) with lots of ground work train faster than younger horses pushed too fast. And they stay sound longer.

Myrna

 

[hobbyhorse23]

I'll begin my driving training as soon as the horse is old enough to understand giving to pressure. To me it's ALL driving training! They learn their voice commands, how to stand tied and be patient, to let me handle their bodies and to tolerate straps around them, I desensitized them to dogs and tarps and plastic and windspinners and all those scary kinds of things...all of that can be done as yearlings if the horse is mentally ready. Then I just start layering skills like standing still out on a road near a barking dog, walking over a tarp with straps tied around them, following voice commands on a lunge line....That way nothing is new and scary so it's easy to segue into full driving training with very little stress. My two year old is happily walking along under a travois of two dragging pine branches (complete with fluffy pine boughs) and couldn't care less because it's all a game to him. He's confident I won't let him get hurt and is very eager to get going. I personally prefer not to put a horse to cart or any sort of pulling work before he's three but that's because I come from slow-maturing Arabs and work mostly with refined, spindly A-minis. I don't want to push that type of horse out of respect for their joints and longevity. But I will do anything they're ready for that does not stress the joints and by the time their body is completely grown, they're mostly trained and it only takes a couple of weeks to get them fully driving.

Leia

 

[Sandee]

I don't know where I read it but someone said, "everytime you take a horse out of his stall, you're 'training' him." With that in mind the training starts almost as soon as their born. Getting them use to noises, being touched, giving to pressure, etc. When my mare was only 6 mo old she got very very sick. After she recovered she had a hip that was like jelly (I mean one hip was firm you could feel muscle while the other was like touching a bowl of jelly). I was advised to exercise her by doing backing and pivots. In the process of teaching her what I wanted her to do, I realized that this was skills that would be used in obstacle. We went on from there. She's HOF in obstacle and now does driving and last year even roadster.

The best thing they learn from all the one on one work you do is to trust you. That's "priceless"!

 

[Annabellarose]

[snip]Arab/DHH mare[/snip]

Say what!? Now you've got my attention! How's she bred (on her Arab side)? Would love, love, love to see her! I am really liking that cross.

 

[RhineStone]

There are photos of our Arab/DHH mare on our website, including her sire and dam. She is an Afire Bey V granddaughter, mostly Polish and Crabbet. On her DHH side, she is a Waterman great-granddaughter and goes back to some Hackney as well. No Saddlebred in her DHH.

It's a good thing those photos are old (she was about 1 1/2 at the time) because she is awfully homely right now! Big ol' DHH head/ears and legs on a scrawny little 15.1 body!

Momma is a big 16HH and Bask Afire Bey is 15.2, so hopefully she grows some more. The nice thing about her DHH head is that she won't be mistaken for an Arab and have to deal with "Arab prejudice" from some judges, i.e. "You don't really DRIVE Arabs....."

Good thing she also has "working" bloodlines as well. Her trot is AMAZING! Not as high as a true DHH, but definitely comparable to a Dutch Warmblood, big and round with "flick"!

To keep this relevant to the topic, her scrawniness is the reason we haven't worked very hard on getting her put to. We have been told that she won't fill out until she is closer to 5 yrs. old. Her chest and butt are a little bigger than the photos on the website, but not much. She isn't anywhere near even the size of her sire, and I don't want to stress her body. She has quite a bit of trust since we have had her since she was 2 1/2 mo. old, but being an English horse, she is "hot" and distractable right now. She needs to develop more "work ethic" before we are going to make major progress. At this age, this happens with more brain development than anything.

Myrna