02.25.08
Driving 2 yr.old horse training sessions
These are from last November after we first hitched Glendale to the training cart on November 6, 2007. (Somehow I overlooked posting these before…) Please see my Horse training disclaimer
Walk, trot, canter, Dad early session in paddock, Nov. 9ish.
You can see Glen is a bit fussy with his head and seems unsure of what to do– that’s because all this is still so new to him. He is learning that single rein pressure means to steer that direction, and he’s learning he has to adjust his pace with the cart behind him on uneven ground.
Towards the end of this video, on a slight downhill, the weight of the cart pushing on him causes him to trot faster and then he breaks into a canter for a few strides.* Hubby lets him canter for a second, so he won’t be afraid to go forward, then stops him for a break to let him relax and think about it a minute. The horse through continued training will learn that on a downhill slope he needs to hold back against the cart by going slower.
After driving him twice in a small paddock behind the barn, we moved down to a large lower field to practice. In each case there was another horse present for Glen’s reassurance, either his mom Willy or his brother Gilford, and usually it was me on the other horse taking pix and videos. (With Glen being just over two years old and having no experience yet going out alone, we feel it’s much safer to train him away from the barn by having another horse nearby. This helps the young horse learn confidence.)
Walking in the lower field, Nov.12. Notice his open bridle (no blinders.) (The leadline is a safety rope– in case of emergency, the driver can potentially bail out and grab the leadline, or the helper can walk alongside while he is being driven.)
Neighbor horses looking on and laughing! (cause Glen’s working and they’re not) Nov.12
Glen working at the trot, pulling Hubby in the training cart, Nov.14
It was our goal to get as much mileage on Glen as we could before the snows fell– and lucky we did all that work in November because the snows started early and heavy in December. By late November the ground had frozen pretty hard so the footing wasn’t great, but Glendale didn’t seem to mind. So far he’s seeming just as tractable as his big brother Gilford, but with a tad more energy to give us (his Arabian blood coming through)! He therefore needs his driver to be more alert to what’s going on with him and to his potential reactions to his surroundings. But that Percheron blood sure adds a lot of stability to a horse’s temperament!
Neighbor horses with their riders, returning from the trails… who’s laughing now? Nov.14
Yes I drive him too, but it’s sorta hard to take videos at the same time! Nov.16
In this session daughter Emmie and HorseGal were both present, so Em videoed while I drove the cart and HorseGal played around the edges on “her” Willy mare. By now you’ll see Glen is much smoother in his gaits, and does very little fussing (shaking) of his head. In fact he was mouthing the bit this day and was working nicely, quite willing to go forward. I let him canter a couple of times, and his transitions were so smooth you could barely tell he had changed gaits from his trot!
* Natural (respectful) horse training says you should not get after him in his early training for speeding up, he doesn’t yet know any better and you really do WANT him to be forward. So we let him canter a little so long as he’s not panicky or overly nervous. A driving horse should be used to cantering once in a while, so that when it DOES happen due to a scare (and it WILL) he doesn’t become even more frightened just because he’s never done it before.
See step-by-step how we trained this horse at age two to drive.
