hello from newbie .. advice please

hi, this is my first post here .. we ,as a family, have had horses for a few years now, ponies for the kids to ride and horses for the wife.. I recently purchased a full blood German trotting mare, with a foal at foot, i originally bought them because they were in such poor condition and i felt sorry for them, anyway now they are looking superb and such good natured so i thought i would have a go at driving, i have bought a modern style gig and a nice leather harness.. i do have a friend who drives and he assures me that the horse is fine for my needs but i can`t help thinking she may be too fast for me... i only want a quiet trot around the country lanes , not a race up the motorway.. any thoughts on the subject would be most appreciated. thanks in advance.. kev

you may be right about her being too fast,they are speed horses and if she is off a track get her proffesionly broke trotters are very lively and tend to bolt when frightened

some good breaking (if shes not broke to drive already) and she could be ok. the only way you know how she will be though is to hook up and go. if she was a former racer, she could still be ok. im not sure how they are over there, but here, our racers trot slowly every day for exercise, and are only sped up to racing speed when they are turned to train or are racing. there are exceptions though, some horses pull your guts out trying to go as fast as they can (we have a trotting mare like this, shes.... something...) but also sometimes if they are like that, getting them away from the track setting completely changes that and they relax and are never a problem.

the best way is evaluate how she is and how her ground manners are. does she spook at things a lot? jump puddles and shadows? etc. because you can pretty much bet if she spooks at things normally (walking on lead, in crossties, out in paddock) that she will do it driving.

Hi, Sadly I am no help with driving but I'd just like to say welcome to HF!

hi, thanks for the reply.. she is an ex-racer brought over to the UK from Germany.. her manners are exceptionally good on the ground, and seems to spook at nothing (even with a foal at foot) , i use a noisy old tractor around her regularly and she does`nt bother about it at all.. i`m going to start lunging her this week to get her a bit fit then try and hook her up and have a go.. i`ll let you know how it goes .. thanks again Kev

thankyou

thankyou............

Thank you for the interesting topic, I learned a lot

Sounds like you have a good horse.

What you need is a good trainer to work with the horse and with you until the trainer feels both you and the horse are safe.

Driving is SO MUCH FUN, but there are a lot of safety considerations. If you feel safe and your horse is safe, it will be a wonderful experience.

My money was very well spent with a trainer.