$700 Pony Driving - Evaluation lesson this morning - page 2

This could be a long story, so I am going to try to cut to the chase. I have a 14h pony who is probably not at all suitable to teach to drive - she is a flake.

My driving experience is limited to driving a small pony in a jog cart years ago - to say that I have just enough experience to be dangerous sums it up well.

Despite the above, I dream of this summer tooling around behind the Pony with my two wee children. Across hill and dale (on our farm) and on the local slower road. http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif

Yeah, I dream big.

So here are the questions.

First, this is a bad idea, right? Talking me out of this might save not only my life, but my children’s, too. http://chronicleforums.com/images/custom_smilies/yes.gif
Second, anybody local to me who would like to take this project on (oh, KellySsssss, are you around?)? http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

I do need a boat load more information on cost of equipment, etc. Since I want a cross country cart stable enough for young children, this whole project become moot if (a) such a thing does not exist and (b) if it does, they cost more than a small house in West Virginia.

Thank you for your patience. http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

If you are going to sit around and obsess about what might happen, you’ve already lost. It’s a pony, not a draft horse. Go ahead, you will find out what he is made of long before your kids get involved. 99% of the time, training will cure near any animal, just have to make sure the humans involved are up to it.

You’re getting a llama?! What fun! Luckily my neighbors have a few, so when I need a cuteness fix, I go visit them.

Thanks for the great insights. I also sent you a PT. What I continually need help with is balancing my realities (time, money, children) with dreams (bigger than life). The time committment is the thing that I really need to wrap my head around. Spending a year making her kid safe is worth it only if I am going to keep her forever. Which is possible, but not certain.

So many things to ponder. Thanks again to everyone for the helpful suggestions!

Well, I for one can’t wait to read the adventures of the $700 driving pony!

For those of you not familiar with the adventures of the $700 pony, check out the favorites area!

Having been to llama school when I had to haul 2 baby llamas for a neighbor, I feel qualified to speak on the matter of llamas and horses!

We drove 4 hours to pick up these two baby llamas my neighbor HAD to have!!! She was going to make a lot of money breeding them. Well, no need to go there–they were eventually given away after the divorce. But I digress. We brought the llamas to her property which was across the street from my pasture. My horses stood facing the pasture across the street for I swear 6 weeks trying to figure out the smell that was over there!!!

Goodluck handling the llama. It will certainly give your horses something to look at!!!

RR–as far as training a pony to drive who is a flake. Some horses/ponies just don;t take to it. My mare who drives very well hates being ridden–thankfully not to the point that Lost Farmer’s tales tell. As has been said to all of us at one time or another—it ain;t worth getting hurt over. Go out and find a pony that drives now if you want ot enjoy it with your kids.

Good luck.

Jerry: Love your response. So to the point.

Caspiandriver

RR,
My gelding is a 13.2h 800lb keg of dynamite to ride. If you ever need insperation for the pony cronicles I have several stories of my gelding being a beast. He bucked me off one time. (See earlier fat guy comments) I spent a night in the hospital after him bucking me off. I have only ridden him western so my trainer friend says, “let me try him english.” Her comment was, “he feels much bigger than he looks.” Yup and he bucks much harder than you would think he should.

For all of this pony’s ponyisms he is kind and gentle on the ground to the kids. My kids (9,7,5,3) all adore Jack and he puts up with their being kids. To drive Jack and Cricket will let any novice at the lines and be fine. The 7 yo drives all the time with me. We have been passed by ambulance and cop cars, loaded trucks at 75 mph tarps flapping and no problems. Drove past 12 alpaca that came “running” ot to see the excitement. Not a quiver. The only real spook we have had driving was when Jack was in training about 3 weeks we stepped on a pheasant next and momma flew up under his belly. I ride him up a trail and the horse eating chipmunks are everywhere and don’t even ask about the horse eating mailboxes.

Ponies it seems are born to drive. They, for the most part seem to want to be driven.

As for the $$$$$ part of driving it need not be terribly expensive. I got started with 2 kill pen rejects and a used harness. I had less than $3500 into the project and had 2 horses, harness, sleigh, wagon, single cart, pairs cart and a tire of education. Now that I have become a little more into driving, the new harness, bells, additional team to drive 4-up and all that is expensive.

Good luck and keep us posted.
LF

RR
You have a PT. I think we can “hook you up” with some people and/or get you going on some ground work to see where you are at and go from there.

Christmas Day Photo
This was taken Christmas day while we were out playing. The snow was not deep enough for the sleigh but we had fun anyway.

LF

Hey there RR! Looks like DriveNJ has got you covered, but if you’d like to share any stories about breaking ponies to drive, drop me a line. Mr. KellyS and I just got the new one going over the winter and it’s been a lot of fun.

Just a couple of random thoughts to add to the mix:

1. I think everyone has to accept that driving a horse/pony is inherently dangerous. By realizing the risks, you can in most cases antipate problems and prepare for them.

2. You can never do enough ground work to prepare. Before we even though about hooking the new guy up, we made sure he had ground driven EVERYWHERE. He went to lessons and schoolings with the event horse, visited local horse shows, and ground drove around pretty much all the trails and roads we would be driving on.

3. When getting started, get the best instruction possible and always have an experienced horse person on hand for the first couple weeks of driving - having an experienced person with you who can hop down and head a horse when a situation gets a little hairy is priceless.

We love driving and it is a great sport to do together.

Personally, I would be hesitant to drive on the road with kids in tow, no matter how well-trained the pony. We drive on the roads to get to our driving trails and it is hair raising on a good day. People really have no common sense sometimes, and we’ve had a couple of close calls.

There is nothing worse than driving down the road with a tractor trailer heading coming at you at 50 miles per hour with no intentions of slowing down. That’s when you pray that all your training stays intact. Thankfully this new guy seems to be pretty smart about traffic, but don’t ask about llamas. We had our first llama encounter on Saturday, and it was eye opening to see how quickly all the training can go out the door and the “flight” instinct can kick in. Needless to say, guess what is coming to live with us next week?

Don’t want to scare you away, just sharing some of our experiences so this can be a fun endeavor for you!

Personally, I think that gothedistance and reynardridge collaborating on the next book would defray all the expenses of whatever driving ponies and paraphernalia might be required!!

But, seriously, RR what has got me back into driving – or trying – is how much fun it was driving my two wee children with a nice pony many years ago. The memory of them laughing as we pretended the round bales in the field next door were ‘hazards’ and evening picnics that had to include dinner for Andy are precious. However, I just had an easy entry sort of cart and something like the governess cart GTD is recommending would have reduced the worry factor a lot!!

Soooo…what you’re hoping to hear is “Oh, I had a pony that was a flake, and she made the perfect driving pony for me and my little kids!”

Well, here’s not to say it can’t happen, but…gut instincts are rarely wrong, and often devistatingly right. You have a pony that is (in your words) “a flake”. Throw a cart and a few innocent kids in the mix…

Getting my drift?

Tell you what: Before you go any further into looking at finding a vehicle (a governess cart comes immediately to mind ) COTH member DriveNJ knows of some driving clubs in the NJ area – ask her to get you in contact with them. You’ll find someone who knows of a good trainer – let the trainer evaluate your pony to see if has the natural ability to be a SAFE driving pony.

You never know – the “flake” under saddle may well adore the life under harness.

The reason I got started driving is it was a way for a fat guy (me ) to put miles on my kids pony. Now he is my driving pony and the kids have had to learn to deal with that.

We go to town (5 miles away) for ice cream or church. We take them Christmas caroling. I the 3 years that I have been putzing with them we have covered nearly 3000 miles.

One time after we had a great drive my wife said she hadn’t ever seen a grin on my face like that and me fully clothed before. I am not sure wxactly what that means but it is fun.

LF

Nope, just borrowing one for a while.

I PT’d you back.

Got the PT, DriveNJ. Thank you! Will respond later when I have a few minutess.

I definitely second having a pro evaluate the $700 Potentially Driving Pony.

How much experience does said pony have on the roads and trails already?

That was Avery’s big issue. He’d never seen a trail in his life & was completely herdbound when I got him. I swear on a stack of Bibles we ground drove out there for three years before I felt it was safe to continue on to the next step in his training.

The end result, of course, was well worth it; I’ve got a very nice driving horse. But you have to consider the pony as completely green, and understand that you may be in for a very long haul in order to make the pony safe for the kids to drive. I’m not saying “don’t do it”, I’m just saying you need to be prepared for the possibility that it might be a LOT of work and might take a LONG time.

Well, I for one can’t wait to read the adventures of the $700 driving pony!

Unfortunately, women tell no tales.

I am smart enough to know that what I should do if I want to drive my children around is sell the $700 Pony and buy a DRIVING pony. I am also dumb enough to think there might be another solution out there.

Seriously, I will PT DriveNJ and ask about trainers around here. I think the idea of having a professional evaluation is a really good one.

And the pricing GTD is really helpful! A cart and harness for under $1000 is doable. Of course, I might need $15k in lessons to get to use them, but that would be life with horses, wouldn’t it?

Ah, kt-rose and lost farmer, you have hit the nail on the head. Many, many years ago my then trainer had two wee children and a wee pony and jog cart. I drove those kids all over the highways and byways of Tewksbury (yup, Drive NJ, that would have been Doug and Holly and little Monkey, if you knew then back then ).

So, part of me wants to recreate that fun for my own children. And part of me wants to find a way to keep the pony in work every day - without excluding the children.

I always loved driving and assumed I would get into it “at some point.” Could be now. Although, as I keep reminding myself, this particularly pony might not be exactly the right equine to start with. But I’ll leave that up to a professional.

I’ll update when I have one. Thanks for all the support!

The only catch I see with the children in the governess cart plan is that not many of them (the carts) were made for a pony of this size (14H) Most I’ve seen were made for those cute little thelwell shetlands

Not sure but what our current BO has one that descended thru her husbands family - even has pix of her husband playing in it as a boy

Local trainer (thanks DriveNJ!!) is heading to Fl for a week or so, so won’t be able to meet with us until the w/o March 20th.

Good - all the more time for me to stack the deck.

I have started whip desensitization - yes - the thing is terrified of the whip - and I still believe she can be a driving pony - can you say wishful thinking? Seriously, I have been meaning to do the desensitization since I got her and it is going very well - I do some modified clicker type stuff and she is a very fast learner.

I also long-lined (on a circle) exactly once. I will do that every other day until trainer can meet with me (or until the whole thing goes bloody South, in which case, please call 911).

Thanks to all for all of your help, advice and guidance. I’ll update in a few weeks when trainer and I get together.