So I've been wanting to pursue a bit of pleasure driving with Dreams. I wanted to do this a few years back but a number of other things got in the way, but now that life is starting to level out again I'd like to pursue it further. My first question for all you driving folks out there is how to tell if a horse is going to be good in harness? With Thunder the Shire I just KNEW he was going to be a good driving horse, I never had to ask myself or think about it. Are there any tests you do to see how a horse reacts to any given stimulus? Ideally I'd like to know if Dreams is going to be a good driving candidate before I go out and buy a harness so that I'm not out all the money.
Thus far Dreams has taken to everything I've ever asked of him. He is, in general, calm and quiet. I've yet to see him take off away from a scary object - his usual reaction is to suck back (not step back, just lean) and snort, then cautiously approach and snort some more. He doesn't like road traffic coming at him, so this would definitely be something to work on, though in his defense he's been ridden around road traffic like twice in his life and I've never really trained him at it. It only took 15 minutes to get him over his terror of the roping dummy being dragged by a 4-wheeler last year, so I think if I applied myself and really worked at it he'd be fine.
As far as obstacles go, he's fine. Crosses water, mud, tarps, anything. He's an excellent trail horse, goes anywhere on a loose rein at any speed so no worries there. During Thunder's desensitizing training he was exposed to bullwhips, fireworks and shooting blanks, and while he jumped at the louder ones he didn't run. I haven't done a ton of desensitizing with him though, so I'd need to work on that.
-- Kai
Thus far Dreams has taken to everything I've ever asked of him. He is, in general, calm and quiet. I've yet to see him take off away from a scary object - his usual reaction is to suck back (not step back, just lean) and snort, then cautiously approach and snort some more. He doesn't like road traffic coming at him, so this would definitely be something to work on, though in his defense he's been ridden around road traffic like twice in his life and I've never really trained him at it. It only took 15 minutes to get him over his terror of the roping dummy being dragged by a 4-wheeler last year, so I think if I applied myself and really worked at it he'd be fine.
As far as obstacles go, he's fine. Crosses water, mud, tarps, anything. He's an excellent trail horse, goes anywhere on a loose rein at any speed so no worries there. During Thunder's desensitizing training he was exposed to bullwhips, fireworks and shooting blanks, and while he jumped at the louder ones he didn't run. I haven't done a ton of desensitizing with him though, so I'd need to work on that.
-- Kai