I need help from all of you gurus. I have a 14 hand Dales Pony mare and want to drive. I will mostly drive on a multi use trail that is softer than asphalt, made of crushed stone. It is also used by runners, bikes, strollers and horses with and without shoes. I plan to take the mare and myself for lessons first. Recommendations?
Do you have any driving experience? Does your Pony have any driving experience?
Me, some but very little. Pony none.
Do you ride this pony currently? How does she react to other trail users? If it’s a busy trail, you will need to get her rock solid on all the distractions and “monsters” she will encounter. I would be concerned to drive a green pony in those circumstances.
Rebecca
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Good point. She was started 5 months ago, wtc every day in July and August and I have ridden her some, but probably should walk her more on the trails. She’s due to foal June 1st.
Just keep in mind that a panicked horse hitched to a vehicle is very dangerous, much more dangerous than a horse without a vehicle. I would say she needs to be pretty close to bombproof to drive on the trail if it’s at all busy.
Rebecca
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If you go to the American driving society page you should be able to find the contact info for a local driving club, that’s a good start to find someone in your area experienced enough to teach your horses to drive and teach you to drive your horse (along with the very important help in safe vehicle and equipment). If if that doesn’t yield any results, search on Facebook for the various driving Facebook groups. I believe there’s one for beginning drivers that would probably be helpful. You might also want to search for your state plus driving club and see if that yields any results. From there you can give your location and ask if anyone in that area is experienced at training horses to drive.
Be prepared to travel, unless you happen to be in one of those areas that has a lot of driving horses you may need to adjust your distance expectations as far as training and lessons go. But that will be the single most important thing you can do, because nothing can kill you faster than a poorly or untrained horse hitched to a vehicle. You really do not want to screw around with that! But if you get past all these hurdles you are guaranteed to have more fun than is legally allowed. Good luck!
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Helpful. Thanks DMK.
1000% agree with @DMK & @RMJacobs. 
I call myself an Intermediate Driver w/some 10+yrs experience, the last 8 with my VSE.
I had no illusions of breaking him to drive myself when I bought him as a halter-broke 2yo.
I’d ridden - Hunters, Eventing, Dressage & miles of trails - for around 30+ yrs by then.
But my area has a wealth of Amish trainers & I got back a “Daudy”(Grandma) pony, safe for me to drive.
I give mini at least 50% of the credit for that.
It’s who he is & I’m grateful for that.
That said, even the best-broke Driving horse can get spooked & you need to have the tools to handle that. A good Driving instructor can give you those.
My first bolt was on a group drive with my Club & fortunately there were beanfelds off the trail that I ran him into. As beans were as tall as mini, it worked to stop him.
I’ve survived a couple Out of Cart experiences since then & learned (as in Riding) there are no guarantees. You just use your best judgement & hope for a good outcome.
Honestly, not trying to scare you off.
But Driving is not a self-taught discipline.
Pls report back when you get started.
& Pls Pay the Pic Tax 
Here’s mine:
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Firstly, welcome to driving! I have been driving since I was 5. Its a great sport and it can involve the whole family.
Some one asked and mentioned that is important that the horse/pony be bomb proof. Remember, driving bridles have blinkers and when a biker, stoller, etc comes zooming pass into their line of sight it can be scary.
I am a huge believer in driving, its a great hobby/sport and you can take a friend with you in the cart/carriage which makes it doubly fun!
I would set your sights on driving her after she foals and weans her baby. In the mean time, double lunging, work on voice aids, rein handling, lessons, bombproofing, more lessons, picking out safe cart/harness, lessoning, … and finding a horsey friend to go with you the first dozen or so times.
Save to assume you are with in a non trailering distance from these trails? Hitching by yourself away from home is different than hitching at a trail head.
CAA is also a great resource: https://www.carriageassociationofamerica.com/
ADS https://www.americandrivingsociety.org/
what state are you in OP?
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Driving is more fun than anything else I’ve ever done with horses, but absolutely, positively, do not pass go, do not collect $200, go straight to a really calm, patient driving trainer.
There is such a difference in a pony who is started driving well and slowly and never has anything really unfortunate happen because the trainer got in a hurry. Well-started ponies have the confidence to handle a minor accident or being startled. Rushed ponies are okay --until they aren’t, and panic in a carriage is not good.
As well as finding a good trainer who can take it slow, and tell you if the pony doesn’t like the job, do lots of exposure at home: I flap long lines around, let them touch legs, etc, drag bucket with rattley rocks when ground driving, bump into and knock over cones and barrels, get my kids to ride bikes and scooters toward us and pass, let the goats and dogs out, have my husband pass with the 4 wheeler and truck, all the weird stuff and controlled chaos as gradual exposure while pony and I are business as usual. That’s stuff I can do, but I know I don’t have the skill set to legit get a pony driving, so pony goes off to the best trainer I know.
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What helpful info! I’m thinking a VSE is a very small equine (aka Mini). People I know who have Dales ponies think they are quite chill and smart. I’m an Oldenburg/warmblood/dressage/arena rider but now live in a town of 9,000 (Port Townsend, WA) instead of 4 million (Houston). We have a nice hard surface trail and I think I can use it to drive. My town is quite remote and isolated (think island instead of peninsula). No large animal vets here nor Amish! I’m taking Berry Blossom to a midwife adjacent to a vet clinic in Snohomish Saturday, but that is 2 hours including a ferry ride away.
The place I found to train her is Corbett Stables (see youtube) where I will leave her for three months once the foal is weaned and I can go once a week to drive.
Another bit of advice I got is to have an experienced person/driver with me the first dozen times or so and I intend to do that.
Thanks again and stay tuned.
Mary
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I’m in Port Townsend, Washington. The county installed bollards in the middle of the trail at various points at road intersections. A friend has offered to let me keep the cart at her place on the trail, and I can ride the pony to her place to hitch up. Does this sound like it will work? I will do some bomb proofing while the foal is still at foot in a fenced turnout that I have. Dragging a tire with the bridle/blinkers on thru cones? Before she goes for driver’s ed? What is double lunging? Best way to pick out safe cart/harness?
Thanks.
Mary
@Furiant this is spot on (and so is everything else LOL). I got my fjord as a 3yo and he had just acquired his driving skills. Out of all the fjords his breeder drove over the years, he said Charlie was one of his favorites and that he really loved to drive. I had to jump out of a runaway carriage over 10 years ago, so that gave me a VERY healthy fear of what can go wrong…and how quickly.
I live in a very horse saturated area and there is a driving community. With that said, there was only one barn that I found that actually did lessons and they were about an hour away which was totally do-able. I took Charle down there for our first lesson as it was all new to me. He did great after not being driven for a while and I got bit by the bug. I took weekly lessons for a summer and did a clinic with Bob Giles, using the barns horses due to me not wanting to deal with a god awful freeway/construction nightmare to get there an back and that was worth the time and every penny. Some of the people taking driving lessons there were coming from places 3-4 hours away.
The barn Im at now, the BO drove here and in FL. She was the navigator for a friend in FL as well, has a bunch of carts/carriages and several of her horses drive. She’s been wonderful to have as a mentor and I am VERY lucky we just happened to land at her place.
Its really a LOT of fun, especially having a pony that agrees with that sentiment. Heres our latest…crudely navigating around non driving cones 
7f3aa3598d4243afa08d20253573e336
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Yes, I drove my ponies as a kid in the '70s, and like so many things in the '70s, we were just a Darwinan experiment in survival of the dumbest. Early on they mostly got started by hooking them up to a pipe cart and seeing if we all survived. We did, but I recall many harrowing incidents with that method! I developed a slightly more refined system with later ponies where we slowly introduced them to the concept and possibly even familiarized them with some aspects of pulling and shaft pressure, but I wouldn’t overstate my skill set in this phase by any means…
So when I got back into driving after more than a few decades away, I did as much of the ground work as I thought safe and then I called around to see who started young horses in the closest driving area to me (Aiken, 3+ hrs away). They all pointed me to the same person who started their youngsters, so I sent Xan off for a minimum of 90 days training, but understood that it might take longer. I got lucky in that my ground work was a good base and he progressed really quickly to the hitching stage and within a month I had some driving lessons with him. We both graduated in 90 days and I took him home, but I will say it was a another year before I considered him solidly broke to drive, because he does have a fantastic GO button and as good as he is, he’s one of those good driving horses that you really don’t want him to see the thing behind him, so he had some “I could explode, but I won’t since I’m a fjord” moments along the way!
That was about 5 years ago and we have competed ever since, moving up the CDE levels steadily (and I’ve had no small amount of training from some top drivers). That said, I still feel like a newb on a regular basis. Driving will do that to you in ways that make riding seem like a cake walk!
But again, SO MUCH FUN!
(Vid of us at live oak)
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OP, the best thing you can do right now while waiting for your mare to foal is to take some driving lessons. It’s better to discover that you don’t like it before you make the investment of having the mare trained and buying an appropriate cart and harness. Driving is not for everyone. I switched from riding to driving minis about 7 years ago, took lessons, showed a little. But to be completely honest, I don’t enjoy it as much as riding and I have a really super brave little driving mini who LOVES his job (and I love him!). If you take a couple months worth of lesson and love it, then you are that far ahead of the game when the mare goes to training.
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Somehow, I made it through childhood, garage sale pipe cart (cheap because owner got injured in a wreck) and all, thanks to a really nice QH with a good sense of humor. What was I thinking? What were my parents thinking?
Now? Now I’m old and breakable and all about safety first and leaving first hitch to the pros!
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I do not know any driving people in Washington. Check out Sargent Equestrian Center in Lodi, CA:
All great questions.
Double lunging is sometimes called ground driving or long lineing. Ground work is your friend. Do not skip it.
I would just start with some lessons first.
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Since you’re in WA, check out the EI Driving fb page. Annual clinic and Kitchen Sink event is the last week in June if you have time to run down to Rochester --weekend funevent has a little bit of everything CDE wise to check out (dressage day, Derby, DT).
Look at you, driving all Aachenbach-y, 1-handed!
I tip my helmet to you & Charlie! 
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