Do you drive alone?

[Chewbacca]

Put my eggs in the basket of “I’d never drive if I didn’t drive alone”.

One of my goals for the near future is to set myself up to be able to travel alone with my driving horse, too, so I can actually go to trails, shows, clinics, and other events without needing a 2nd person… this means a new truck for me and a large enough horse trailer to fit cart & horse.

My current set up of 2 trailers & 2 trucks and relying on my husband’s involvement & interest just is not working.

I love it when I can get a passenger in my carts – extra conditioning for the horses (woot woot!) But yes, I am always always alone otherwise. Arena, roads & trails. No travelling for me in 2014 without that truck & trailer, which is a big bummer, but hopefully 2015 will be better.

I also have 2 minis that I trained and started and drove tandem alone, and I will be looking forward to getting a pair (hackneys probably) someday, and yes… that will be alone, too.

[DJohn]

I did it today! The weather was perfect, it was sunny and I decided to go for it. We had a lovely time!
I ended up getting him all ready, slipping the halter over his neck and leaving him at the hitching post. I brought the cart up behind him and struggled a bit with getting the shafts in the damned loops. Thankfully, he didn’t move a muscle, even with me heavin’ and ho’in and wiggling trying to get the cart adjusted. He was a perfect specimen! We then backed up from the hitching post, and off we went!
He was spry today, feeling his oats, but wonderfully behaved. We accidentally cantered a few steps when I asked for a big trot (oops) but he came right back and trotted on! He wanted to keep going, but we ran out of places to go. I think I enjoy it more with a passenger, for company… but it wasn’t bad at all!

[goodhors]

I would first say “know your horse” before going out alone with him as a single. A young horse, a new-to-driving horse, means you should take extra precautions, get some help to just ride along, until horse gets time and miles on him.

An experienced driving horse? Obedient, fairly spook-proof and traffic safe? I see no issue with going out alone driving. You take common precautions, carry the cell phone ON YOU, have your spares, halter and lead, in the vehicle for safety.

As many have said, if you don’t go alone, you never get to go at all. Horse tends to be YOUR toy, spending time using him, is YOUR enjoyment, ridden or driven. So going out alone is pretty common among horse folks I know. Great if you have a family member to share with, just don’t count on them always being around.

I did the single horse driving way back, went out and did MANY miles of fun with each of my girls. I did the conditioning, Husband did the detail stuff, since he was the Driver at the CDEs. Then we went to Pairs, Fours, which he likes better, and I don’t drive them hardly at all. Hitched that way, they are HIS horses, tuned to his voice and hands. I ride with him doing the Multiples, or am there watching him do ring work. Just not safe for one person to be hopping down and fixing stuff, then getting back up, takes too long. I can reset reins in 30 seconds, tighten a strap, get tail hair unstuck from harness, then get him back on his way whether on the road or in the ring.

Go with what feels comfortable to YOU with THIS horse and where you drive. Some horses or locations to drive are just SCARY, so you don’t go out alone. Change the horse or road you drive, no issue going out then. I knew my girls, raised and trained them, rode them, so we were very comfortable in all settings I took them to. Local roads are busy, but very visible, with MOST cars and traffic being careful around you, so are easy to drive on for long distances to get that conditioning they needed. Other places are blessed with nice back roads, so driving is a lot of fun.

One last note, is to NEVER consider muscling a Mini around. He needs to be TRAINED, have the depth of skills that ANY equine should have for driving. Little size is DECEIVING, because 300 pounds of fighting Mini is going to haul even LARGE MEN right down the lane. Seen it happen more than one time!! Minis are so accepting, until they are NOT, so they are big foolers in depth of training. Folks just put the harness on, ground drive a day or so, hitch the cart, go to driving their Mini!! He then has no “basics” to use when a bad situation happens, no idea how to react properly. You CAN NOT hold him if he chooses to leave.

So do all the steps with a Mini, that you would use training a 15H light horse to drive, along with TIME and repeating those steps to make them stick in his head, even though Mini NEVER reacts to anything during the training. Minis can be quite wonderful, but they are NOT “born broke”, so you have to train them. They are just very “accepting” until badly frightened enough to take off. They are NOT dogs, you will have way more than you can handle if he fights you even as small as they can be.

[DJohn]

Excellent advice! Very wise!

[goodhors]

Hitching alone. We have a 12ft aisle, so horses are cross-tied in the aisle for hitching. Sorry, just CAN NOT do that stand and put harness on, with our setup. Makes me nervous leaving them to stand. Seen a lot of failures when horse decides to quit standing. We can just drive in or out of the barn with the big aisle after hitching or to unhitch, which is really nice.

So our horses are tied at home for harnessing and hitching. Tied until Driver is ready to get into vehicle holding their reins. Away from home, shows, competitions, they are tied to the trailer, for harnessing. Then hitched with a Header holding lead ropes to each animal, per ADS rules with Multiples. Unhitched the same way, with Header and lead rope on each animal. Guess we are a lucky couple, both horse crazy, so we have the other to give a hand most times Driving. We also make an effort to have the second person on hand for our Multiples because it is just safer.

Using the aisle cross-ties, horse is used to standing there already, firmly restrained if he should THINK of leaving. He can easily be harnessed, unharnessed, put to (hitched up) the vehicle in the aisle or have vehicle removed SAFELY at the finish of the drive. Cement floor makes moving vehicles easy on level, firm surfaces.

If I was alone someplace and needed to hitch, horse would be tied with halter over bridle, neckrope, to the side of trailer to hitch his vehicle on. Then I gather up reins, whip in vehicle already. With reins in my hand, I would untie lead rope from trailer, remove halter, neckrope with lead end, then walk back to vehicle and get in. Put halter and rope in a safe place to take along as my spares. Talk to my horse, probably back a step or have horse “step” sideways to clear the trailer, and drive off. Horse would be halted when we returned to the trailer, stand while I got out and put halter back over bridle, neck rope on, then tie to trailer to reverse the process to unhitch.

We are big on using neckropes or cow collar with tie rope behind halter, so horse is NEVER untied while harnessing, saddling or hitching when away from home. The neckrope or cow collar holds him while halter or bridle is off during the harnessing process. A lot of folks like the nose buckle halters you can open to hang on the neck. They work similarly by having the strap around neck during bridle on or off process, so horse is ALWAYS tied. Safe is best, doing stuff yourself.

This is front horse with a neckrope and halter, back horse has a cow collar and halter, while tied to the trailer, to show you what I am describing.

http://s1355.photobucket.com/user/goodhors1/media/Horses/DSCN1474.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

[RMJacobs]

Goodhors, I really liked your “know your horse” post. Everything you said is perfect.

As for hitching alone, this is how I do it with a calm, well-mannered pony that I trained to drive myself:

I keep the pony in a halter snapped to a lead permanently attached to a hitching post while I groom and harness, until I am ready to bridle (last piece of harnessing).

The lead attaches with a panic snap because I have had two mares break or pull out a hitching post (which was set very deep), causing a scary situation with mare running around being “chased” by the post. One was my mare, one was a friend’s (my mare stopped when asked, the other was tougher to get under control). I would much rather the horse gets loose than pull out a post, or worse, break their neck–they never go far, and my driving pony has never pulled back anyway.

I must admit, this clever pony has undone the panic snap by mouthing it while I was picking out feet (more than once), yet he never moved away from the post. He just stood there quietly laughing until I noticed he was free. We have always said this horse has thumbs hidden in his mouth–he unties ropes, can remove a fly mask or halter from our other horse, opened gates until we frustrated him by buying SureLatches, and is generally a smart boy.

Anyway, once the bridle is on, I buckle the halter around the pony’s neck and stay very close to him from that point forward. The cart is right there handy, I put to, unbuckle the halter with lines in hand, get in the cart, back him a step, turn and head down the driveway.

Same routine in reverse when I return. This pony is great at heading calmly for the post and lining himself up so I can buckle the halter around his neck and remove the cart first. I do that before doing anything else (no matter how badly I might need to use the bathroom by then!). Then the bridle comes off, halter goes on properly, and finally the rest of the harness comes off.

This pony used to try to bolt up the driveway upon arriving back home, but a few sessions of taking him right past the hitching post and continuing to work took care of that little problem. Like I said, he’s smart, and when you combine that with eager to please, he is an easy pony to train.

Rebecca