As we all know, the old expression “don’t put the cart before the horse” is a metaphor about making sure that we have our priorities straight. Having said that, what is literal is how tragic it can get when someone arbitrarily assumes that it would be fun to drive their horse in a cart or buggy and that the horse will just agree do his or her job and be okay with pulling the contraption down the road.
Unfortunately, what all too often happens when even the best riding horses are suddenly harnessed and hitched to a horse-drawn vehicle without appropriate training is a runaway horse, bucking and kicking, desperately trying to escape the jaws of the monster that has suddenly come at them from behind.
When this happens it almost always ends with a very ugly wreck where horse, people and property are seriously damaged and the horse has had his or her trust and confidence shattered by the person who put their desire to drive a cart before the well being of the horse.
Within the confines of a magazine column I cannot possibly do justice to the myriad of safety issues with regards to training horses for harness work. However, I can list a few points to keep in mind if you’re seriously considering training your horse to drive.
First and foremost, driving horses should be bold and inquisitive but kind by nature. For instance, a horse that tends to run away from barking dogs in fear, or, just the opposite, aggressively chases, bites and strikes at dogs, is probably not a likely candidate for work in harness. When you are out and about driving your horse in the real world you do not have control over what happens in the environment so you had better at least have control of your horse! When your riding horse has an issue with the sudden appearance of a threatening dog that is one thing, but when a driving horse gets out of control things tend to go from bad to worse to ugly in a big hurry.
Test Drive
So here’s a little test. While your horse is quietly grazing, or half asleep while turned out in the paddock, create a sudden and unexpected disturbance. You can throw a ball, empty bucket, or plastic chair, and aim for the ground just a few feet behind them. If your horse reacts by bolting across the arena or paddock, or turns and strikes at the intruder, then your horse is probably not the best candidate. However, if your horse simply turns, drops his or her head and looks inquisitively at the object, then walks over and sniffs and gently nudges the object, then you’ve got a potential harness horse.
Another good test is to see how reactive your horse is around his tail. If you can easily lift what remains as a soft, supple and relaxed tail this is perhaps a harness candidate. However, if you attempt to lift the tail and your horse would rather swing her hips away from you, or into you, and the tail is clamping down tight at the mere thought of you lifting it, then, again, this horse is not comfortable enough with the idea of you being “back there.” Its stress will increase exponentially as you add the harness, the crupper, and the traces along its hips and training poles or a cart behind it.
“To blind or not to blind.” That is the question that I am often asked about driving horses. In Europe you will often see driving horses working in an open bridle but in North America you would not be allowed anywhere near a driving show without blinders. Blinders (or “blinkers”) are not for the purpose of preventing the horse from “spooking” about seeing what is behind them. Horses are smart enough to know that something is “back there” and only very “green” people are innocent enough to assume that “out of sight means out of mind.”
Blinders?
Blinders on driving horses are for the same purpose as blinders on race horses: To add to or enhance “straightforward” focus so that the horse is not distracted by the environment to the left or right. This can come in real handy when driving in traffic!
However, I always start my driving horses in an open bridle when training them for driving because they need to see my body language when I am long lining (ground driving) them so that they can associate and “add up” what I am saying with my body with how it relates to what they feel from my hands, and then connect it to what they hear from my voice.
I also leave them in an open bridle as I begin to pull a light object (note that I said “I pull” not the horse) behind them while long lining. I want them to see that it is indeed me, or my assistant, dragging that car tire along in the dirt behind us while I am long lining so that they can see what they are hearing and they can also see that I am calm and okay with it. If I cannot keep the prospective driving horse calm and straight while long lining because the noise and visual of an object following them is too stressful for them then I am not going to assume that the blinders will make this stress go away. Just the opposite will happen and the horse will panic if it can not see what is stressing it.
While long lining, once we have a horse okay with the sights and sounds of objects being dragged behind it (without being truly hitched to the object for obvious safety reasons) then and only then would we be ready to add the blinders for increased focused forward on the straight-ahead.
Driving horses need to bend. If a driving horse does not bend its barrel to turn then it gets jammed between the shafts. For instance, when turning left, the too-straight driving horse will be poked in the left shoulder by the front tip of the driving shafts and will also feel bound or stuck in its right hip against the back of the right shaft. The smaller the turn, the more jammed or stuck the horse feels. This seemingly simple concept is often sadly overlooked and consequently is one of the leading causes of runaways. God forbid that the shafts are a little too long, sticking out past the shoulder, where the horse will suddenly be poked hard on the inside of his neck when turning!
When a horse is shown how to bend its barrel while turning, stretching from “the inside out” throughout the entire length of its spine, then the horse is not only better balanced and calmer while at work, it is also free to move throughout the turn without ever feeling stuck and/or poked between the shafts.
Driving is Like Sailing
In closing, again, it’s actually a bit frustrating writing this column because there are just far too many safety issues that require significant detail when it comes to “training tips” for driving horses. Suffice to say that riding is like surfing while driving is like sailing a boat. You can jump on a surfboard and try to learn as you go but what kind of fool assumes that they “just know” how to sail? If you get into a sailboat or attempt to hitch and drive a horse then you need to know how all the rigging works because the more there is attached to the horse the more room there is for critical mistakes.
It would require far more room than this column allows to be able to outline the proper form, fit and function of how the harness works and should be fitted properly to the horse and, then, how the horse should be fitted correctly into the cart, sleigh, carriage or wagon. There are numerous safety steps in ground training the driving horse from long lining through dragging objects, to hooking into a travois, or training poles, to what to look for during the first hitching to a wheeled vehicle.
I will be producing a video on training driving horses this coming spring but, in the meantime, if you want to train your horse to pull a cart then please, don’t put the cart before the horse! Seek out competent help from a trainer who has truly proven that he or she knows what they are doing with driving horses.
Happy trails!