First time in a carriage; breaking a pony to drive: what we do and why we do it.

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Showing this young pony's first ever time in a carriage. This is Mr Darcy's introduction to carriage driving - taking a horse on the roads for the first time. We explain the importance of doing your best to prepare horses for things, making them as bombproof in harness as possible, and show how this very green, newly-broken horse reacts when meeting large lorries for the very first time. We show him working at all paces, proving that it is safe to canter horses on their first time in harness providing they have the correct initial training. Darcy is driven out on the road, going both uphill and downhill; he knows what the collar and breeching feel like on slopes as well as on the flat. He can also slow the carriage down when going downhill (although we have brakes on the carriage we do not use them all the way down the hill, yet he does not panic when the carriage pushes against his breeching). Darcy also meets lots of traffic as there was an incident on the A303 and the traffic was diverted over the bridge onto the other carriageway.

Lots of people focus on getting a horse into a carriage in a quiet space, and only drive them initially in an enclosed arena. However we feel this is not the best way to prepare a horse - if you don't feel confident enough in your training to take it out on the roads, what would happen if a lorry drove past the arena, if a strong gust of wind blew a plastic bag across the menage, if a pheasant jumped out of the hedge, if you misjudge a turn and the carriage knocks against the fence? You cannot ever guarantee that the "safe area" will remain 100% calm and quiet on the day you put to for the first time, so rather than try and control every external factor (which is impossible to do), surely it is better to prepare your horse for a variety of things so if something unexpected does happen, the horse will not panic? It has been written in many published books on breaking that you shouldn't let the shafts touch your horse when going round a corner for example, so it does not spook and start kicking, however in our opinion you should do the groundwork properly to ensure this does not happen, so that your horse can feel the shafts on his side when first put to and will not get upset. Trying to prevent him from turning and feeling the shafts on his side is futile because if he shies sideways (which you cannot prevent him from doing) and then feels the shafts, it will come as a big shock and then most likely lead to him panicking.

Our aim is to train horse to be safe, confident and happy in any sphere of harness work, and this means introducing them not only to the carriage itself and the basic premise of being driven, but also the big wide world around them, such as traffic and other hazards. The relationship between horse and driver is vitally important as well; the horse needs to trust the driver in order to have confidence in him and therefore confidence in himself. That way if you do meet something unexpected, the horse will trust the driver enough to cope with it happily, even if it has not seen it before.

Horse Drawn Promotions - Breaking horses to harness.
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