First steps to Driving

What are the first steps to teaching a horse to drive? Do QHs drive?

Hi americancowgurl31391

We are located in Australia, so couldnt recommend any breakers LOL, however any breed can be driven it just comes down to the horse themselves whether or not they have the temperment.

To start you only need two lunge leads, a bridle and lunge roller, and a whip. This is all you need to start from the ground. (The whip is purely used in place of leg aids, as you now only have hand, voice and whip).
This is the method we use -
No.1 always have a second pair of hands when you have a harness horse. Never do it on your own.
No. 2 start out by long reigning / ground driving (If your horse is already mouthed).
No. 3 then move into winkers / blinkers (these have eye blocks to stop the horse seeing the vehicle attached).
No. 4 Then progress to him pulling a tyre or weight of some kind etc so he gets use to weight and the sound.
No. 5 Now I begin to add harness for the horse to wear

Hope this helps, would love to hear how anybody else out there starts them.

i agree with above poster! ^^^^^

Great post. I wondered the same thing. Thanks for the info posted

No problems, glad it could add some insert for you.

Wow Iam so glad to hear from someone who is driveing, Quest that my Andy pulled when he was younger but has not in a number of years. I have done hours of ground work on long reins with Delbert, that my QH but have not had him pull anything yet, he has also been undersaddle just a short time. I am a BIG believer in ground work and long reins. I have found a small buggy I am redoing and a harness that I am haveing fixed up at the saddle shop to fit either one , but have not gotten in back yet. Really looking froward to getting it all put togather and see what we can do. I hope Quest will remember and take to it easy, Id love to talk to you more about the buggy and harness.
Grayhorse

Hi grayhorse,

Sounds like your keen to get into driving.
What sort of buggy do you have? We have a few different kinds in Australia.

If you are already long reining your horse, you should move onto having him drag a small weight like a tyre. I usually have someone drag the tyre beside me for the first few times (so I know the horse ok with the sound) then i move onto having the horse drag the trye.

The photo of my pony, is in a unique vehicle to australia called a sydney brass sulky. It has a curved wooden floor, dash, shafts and wingboards. Also has alot of brass works (hence the name).

I would be happy to chat with you regarding your harness and vehicle.

regards,

Laura.

LAURA so sorry it took me so long to get back to ya things here have been a little nuts lately.
The buggy is something like a doctors buggy , but no top on it, I would put up a pic but for some reason I am able to get them up, I have tried a number of things and It must be me, I could send one to ya maybe to your email, threw my email for the pd, this computer here at home is dail up and just too slow to do anything much, send me and email at nowata908@yahoo.com and i'll send ya a pic or to
grayhorse

I have just emailed you.

I love this site for new articles and advice on driving. You might like to try it.
http://horses.about.com/od/horsespor...nesssafety.htm