Thanks guys Well update on last post sticky situation, we are back to going well, I am starting to feel more relaxed again as I had gone back to be very nervous of the what if's after our windy sunday happenings.
I lunge him before we go out, seeing hes in a small area if he wants to get rid of his jolliness he can, and then we go through alot of trot on, walk on, and whoa, stand on the lunge line to get him listening and focusing, then harness up and off we go. We try to trot him along as much as our town area allows then walk him along and once heading for home definitely walking. If he starts getting that spring in his step coming home I just turn him up a new street and he thinks "oh buggar where are we going now" gives him something else to think about and say to myself keep those hands still elaine, keep relaxed and of course when ones nervous always sing "Hey Jude.. don't be afraid",,,,,,,,,

So yes just got to keep him focussed and not be stupid myself and put myself in a situation I can't handle. I think I was getting over confident they day I went out, it was blowing an absolute gale, who takes horses out that can get firey in wind out in the open plains............ some clown who was asking for trouble ...
I am sure we will have these little hic cups again but its teaching me how to handle them.

Driving a paint gelding, retrained at 15 yo from riding due to my being uncomfortable in the saddle at 67 yo. Also have hackney pony I have yet to hitch although he is supposed to be a driver, he has trust issues but will be a lot of fun.

I'm from Wisconsin. Been driving a little this spring. Hooked Hotrod 3 times. Drove him once down the road but Hubby had him on the lead line. He did OK so DH took him for a spin.  He seemed OK so we hooked him again. Not a good trip. Hotrod spooked at something and it became a fullblown runaway. The third time was equally as bad. DH said something about needing a large tree to stop him. This from a pony not much bigger than a mini. Need to decide what his future is going to be.

Your successful pacer is feeling the pains of his competitive heart I think. He was bred and raised to be in first. Now that he's not on the competitive side of things, it will be hard when others leave him behind. Horses are also herd animals, their instincts tell them to stay with the group....

 I drive my minis in both breed shows and combined driving events. I love to drive!!! After a lifetime of riding big horses, this really opened up a door for me, and I have really enjoyed learning about it.

Here are a couple of photos of my horses in breed shows and CDE.

 

I have driven horses now for about 6 or 7 years. I mostly have qh's and paints/pintos that we have put in the cart. We normally get them started in the cart at age 3 before we get them trained under saddle, it allows them to mentally prepare for scary situations and physically less damaging while enableing us to have them bridle trained as well as conditioning them. I currently own a 12 yr. old NSH gelding that has been started on cart but has not yet been finished (his sire Allience-(Arab) was a national champion in Fine harness)

I was only in one driving wreck, and boy was it a wreck!!! we took a 3yr old PtHA/APHA mare to a breed show offering a driving class. They did the large driving class which consisted of about 12 harnessed regular sized horses in an indoor arena so it was a pretty tight class. All went well until they asked for the lineup-everyone except one horse was set up in the line up. the last horse was still on the rail, he reared up and broke both of the driving lines and took off on the perimeter of the ring. he dumped his rider and left her with a busted ankle. after his first trip around he came right through the line up of horse taking the cart overtop of another cart this spooked that horse and the horse next to it which in turn sent them bolting. needless to say it didnt end very well! there were two horses that had to be cut out of harness when one horse tried to go overtop of the other and got tangled in the harness. Our horse came out of the ring minus most of the cart (a large country pleasure type). There was only two rider/horse teams that came out with both horse and cart fully intact still. I think our horse did pretty good in that class too....

Our mare luckily enough never had any cart or indoor arena fears after that incident! I am still more comfortable in the saddle than behind the reins, even after 2 years of draft horse driving job at a historical farm museum and numerous more training the greenies.

I prefer the heavy leather harness ALWAYS with breeching (Brichen?) we often find amish made horse/pony/draft sizes here in eastern/southern ohio.

 

 Hi

I am driving my Paint/Pinto and using breeching but I noticed that at the shows no one was using breeching.  The traing cart I have is metal and I have a Houten cart for shows.  When my horse stops the breecing alway hits him and then stops the cart.  What would stop the cart without the breeching? I show this horse halter and riding classes and want to add the driving classes.  There is a show in Hutchinson th end of July I would like to enter.  What are your thoughts on using the breeching in a pleasure driving and reinsmanship class? 

 Love your photos.  i noticed in the first that you had no breeching on your horse.  It is difficult to see but it looks like you have breeching in the second.  I am driving a full size 16 2 horse that I am using breeching but want to show at Pinto shows.  No one there is using breeching..what stops the cart?

I have shown pinto as well and we always showd with breeching as it is safer. I have place well with my horses while using the breeching so decide for yourself which you want to go with. I think your right for wanting to keep it on, and  I commend you. From what I have gathered in my showing experience that they do not use breeching due to fashion and trends.

Another drivingwreck today. It seems mishaps follow me. Today I was doing some arena driving (grass arena) with Mikey (a welsh) who is a little bigger than Hotrod and way better trained. We were having a great time, have a show coming up in a couple of weeks that we are trying to get ready for. Then,  Mikey stumbles and goes down on his nose. The momentum of the cart kind of pushed him into a somersault and he landed sideways with the cart also tipped sideways. He struggles to get up, I scamper to his head to calm him, Finally, he is calm enough to let up but in the process he gets a leg over a shaft and the cart is still tipped on its side. Fortunately he stood, I yelled for DH who was in the house and didn't hear right away as I tried undoing the now too tight harness. Got some of the harness loose to get the pressure off when DH finally came out of the house to rescue me. Mikey had a bloody nose that he wiped on my shirt, harness lost a buckle, cart seat needs a new screw, and I was quite shaken but not hurt. Probably won't be able to get the harness repaired in time for the show so that might be a scratch unless I can cobble together something that will fit him from other harnesses I have.

Some day I should write a book on driving wrecks.

Glad you both are ok! Driving wrecks are never fun!

I plan to show with it at least for a while.  My horse is doing well in the harness and is not having any problems. Today i worked on his pivot turns with the cart on.  He has done great with the turn to the left and also does well with that in ground driving.  Crosses ofer front and bvack simultanelously with the back being a smaller step.. To the right he has had trouble moving his left hind leg out.  I ground Drove him in the round pen and worked on it but was getting a pivot over that left hind leg..not what I want in the shafts.  Then I had a helper..my son push him over at the haunches after I asked and cued him to move over.  He did it several times.  When I hooked up he was doing gret and his left turn was awesome.  To the right he finally started moving that left hind leg over jus one or two ssteps..but a real improvement.  I wil be tomorrow he has it .  He is very much like that if he is starting to get somethng and then I just stop and leave him in the pature for a day he will be great the next day.  So far driving him as been a series of baby stpes and he has adapted well.  I did spend a long time pulling a pipe and in the shaft trainer.  

This is turning into an interesting topic!

I have actually done very little driving, but have been fascinated by it ever since I watched a "roadster" class at a big horse show once.

When I worked at a Hunter/Jumper barn someone had given the trainer a little mini named Shimmer. He also came with a little 2 wheel cart similar to a sulky. We had no idea if he'd ever been actually trained to pull that cart and WE sure had no clue how or the time to go about training him! So, the trainer sent him to a cutting horse friend of hers who's cowboys weren't afraid of no little white "pony". They just took Shimmer and the cart down to the river bed, hitched him up and hopped on for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. At any rate, he came home dead broke to that cart.

While we never had any wrecks with him, we tended to cause some close ones at the local horse shows. All the big fancy barns had golf carts to tootle around the showgrounds in. We just took Shimmer and his little cart and rode around in style! Those horses had never seen anything like it and it it got sort of rodeo-ish when they'd see us go by. It did tend to give us an edge if our trainer happened to park next to the ring for coaching.

The funnest part of the whole driving thing was that while Shimmer was a little spoiled brat on the ground, he was all business once ya started tacking him up. And he loved us to reach forward and scritch the top of his butt while driving him.

Well, I did make it to the show but didn't take Mikey. I took Frosty,who has been having problems with founder but he has been my main driving pony and my "steady eddy". (He is the one in my pic)  I haven't used him much all summer as he was telling me his feet hurt, but I had pulled him off the grass and he seemed better. By the time our show was, he had been totally off grass for a few days. He did very well, is fun to drive, and we beat the only other competitor in our class. (My DH!)  It was a fun day. However, after we got home, within a week Frosty was so bad he could hardly walk. Poor pony, vet x-rays showed definite founder. He is on permanent dry lot now with last year's hay for dinner. Yummmy! He gets a daily bute pill with applesauce for the pain. The good news is it definitely is helping so maybe he will recover enough to be useful at least for a few yard drives. He is only 10 so am hoping we have alot of years left.  Will probably make Mikey my main driving horse though. Still haven't decided Hotrod's future. I really would like a horse I feel comfortable to take out myself.

hello.....sounds like Frosty is a wonderful pony and way too young to be semi-retired.  You didn't say what you have done to repair his 'founder' .....x-rays are done so you know how much rotation the coffin bones have and thus what to do to get them back where they need to be. Happily most feet can return to normal with just trimming, no pads, expensive shoes, etc.  Of course it will take a farrier with that trimming experience.....much of this is all explained on the web-site 'hope for soundness' by Gretchen Fauther (?sp.), certainly worth reading. Wishing Frosty a long happy driving career.