Barry Hook shows how it is done. :encouragement:
When my Percheron was 6 or 7, he worked out for our Amish neighbor on the hay baler. He was in a team of four abreast. I occasionally stopped by to check on Chuck (the horse). I watched him in the hay field once - just the Amishman, the team, the hay baler and a hay wagon behind the baler. As the horses walked along the rows of hay, the baler collected it, made a bale, put string on, and spit it back toward the hay wagon where the Amishman picked it up and stacked it. When they came to the end of the row, the horses turned and came up the next row. They never stopped or hesitated. Because the baler is loud, the Amishman couldn’t have been shouting commands at them --they (or one of them) just knew what to do when they came to the end of the row. When the Amishman turned off the baler, they knew to stop. And my ma used to tell a story about a milk horse that’s driver died on the route. The horse continued along the daily path, stopping at every house . . .the driver dead on the seat.
I harrow on voice commands with Chuck --just because I can, but I still have lines on him. The kids loved to ride him because you could stop him, turn him and back him under saddle with just a voice. I think draft and driving horses are better riding horses in some ways because they are tuned into voice commands. The little kids that come out here have great confidence when they ride Chuck because he’ll “do what they say.”
Foxglove
Voice commands are helpful, but driving the roads, doing farmwork with no traffic, are completely different types of driving. Routine jobs done on the farm, like the baling, can have a horse who “knows the routine” doing his part because it is repetitive work. Same with the Milk Horse on the daily route, same stops, little traffic in neighborhoods, same amount of time needed for each stop. I have heard that dropping a customer on the route didn’t go well with the horse, who STILL wanted to stop there.
I certainly would NOT recommend laying reins over the dash to show how obedient horse is to voice. Big chance of rein falling down, some unexpected happening around the horse, car backfiring, for them to react poorly to, jump and not feel the bit to keep him calmed.
Drive as you like, snug or loose reins. Just takes LONGER to regain control with loose reins in taking up slack for horse to feel you behind if he startles.
We do the same with riding a horse down the road, on a trail ride. Reins can be loose or snug, just to feel the horse mouth. But should horse spook sideways, it goes better with being able to just lift hand, reins are in contact, to regain control of his body. When you have to reel in the reins to FINALLY feel his mouth, you probably have “lost your moment of opportunity” to gain control of the situation. Horse is MOVING to get further away from scary stuff. That first stride or two is ALL the time you get before horse is in full gallop, pretty much not listening now.
Something else to consider, as with the Amish driver example, is that his horses are usually worked DAILY, usually for SEVERAL HOURS of work, not just cruising down a trail. Horse is pulling a load, maybe doing high milage visiting or shopping, then returning over those miles, hauling the FULL wagon home. He is fitter, but GRATEFUL to stop, stand, take a break because he probably doesn’t get a lot of them during the day of work. Neither is the driver resting much, piling bales etc, or working when they arrive someplace and horse is tied to wait for return home. These horses “in work” are DIFFERENT than horses used an hour or so 4-5 times a week driving. Maybe driven much less than that.
Again, you don’t have to hang on the horse mouth, keep it collected every stride you drive. You are SUPPOSED to let him go “long and low” at times to stretch out, move freely, especially for your improved Dressage. But a little contact with his mouth is not “a sin” or harmful to the horse mouth. You feel each other lightly, he KNOWS you are there with him, makes him confident going forward.
There are many kinds of “horse driving” but they don’t all work in all situations, even if they APPEAR to be kindly. Talking down to others about their methods in either direction is divisive. Take the best from the other styles, might be useful to your uses in some situations. Horse should be adaptable, able to respond well to almost any request by the Driver to collect, go long and low, mosey along on a trail or road as well as moving precisely in a ring for patterns or cones, breed showing. Means horse is well-trained, able to do these various kinds of things to make you happy in all kinds of driving.
I personally don’t think snaffle bits with hinged mouths are the “best” bit for driving, but others do and I sure don’t mock their choices!! Doesn’t automatically mean the horse is “soft-mouthed” either. Just means the DRIVER likes using a snaffle bit on this horse and that is OK!!
Voice commands are one of your Aids in Driving. You only have the three, Voice, reins, whip, and not training or using any of them reduces your ability to do more or more skilled things with that horse.
That is pretty much most driving horses I know. They are very good with voice commands. I was not impressed with the video. I have had mine loose in the arena and i had part of the arena removed from mowing and forgot to put it back. Horse saw the opening and I told it to whoa and back and it did what I asked. Does what I ask in harness also.
Barry Hook is amazing with driving horses and his work is fantastic, he really understands horses and driving and his training methods can’t be beat.
Here’s a great video of him explaining how a horse that he had in training wasn’t nearly broke enough to go home and be safe. To me the horse looks bombproof but to Barry he isn’t safe.
[QUOTE=enjoytheride;8540148]
Barry Hook is amazing with driving horses and his work is fantastic, he really understands horses and driving and his training methods can’t be beat.
Here’s a great video of him explaining how a horse that he had in training wasn’t nearly broke enough to go home and be safe. To me the horse looks bombproof but to Barry he isn’t safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRBmLUZdkrc[/QUOTE]
This! I used to watch a bunch of his videos and I was pretty impressed with the work he does. He is tireless in exposing the horses to everything and making sure that they are rock solid. He drives all of them in plain rubber snaffles and talks a lot about how most people just bit them up to control them when in reality they need more training.
