Oh, such a cutie!! If I rode western and was looking for something a bit older, I’d definitely be calling! Gotta love a sane horse.
Trotting on the road is fine in moderation and if the horse is conditioned for it.
However, if you introduce the work slowly and work up to it, not only can it be fine, it can be beneficial.
There was a study done by endurance riders back in the late 80s - 90s (by Winky Mackay-Smith, I think?) that showed conditioning work on hard surfaces actually improved bone density and long term soundness.
Sure, If you take a soft unfit 3 year old out and trot for 5 miles on the road, he’s going to be lame the next day. Maybe not road founder, but sore as heck and probably working on shin splints.
Just like a human athlete. If they switch from a manufactured track surface to running on the road abruptly, they have problems. However, lots of human runners train exclusively on pavement and at high mileage after being conditioned to it.
Hunting horses in my part of the world end up spending time hacking on the roads, it’s just reality. We trot and canter on the roads if we have to. The horses are shod and conditioned for it. There’s a horse in the barn that’s still hunting at 28, having hunted every season since he was a four year old. And there are multiple other horses in the barn, late teens to early 20s, that are still hunting happily and soundly.
Final note: I think I recognize this seller, and I think he is in Amish country in Pennsylvania. I don’t know if he or a member of his family is Amish, but they seem to have access to a lot of Amish bred stock. All the horses are broken to drive first, drive single and tandem, drive in traffic and have this same bomb proof, been there, done that attitude.
ETA: I was mistaken about the location. The seller is located in Ames, Iowa. However, I do still get that Amish working horse vibe.
ETA2: Found his website: https://www.helmuthequine.com/about-us
He was raised Amish and competes at the international level in Combined Driving.
Thank you.
If he’s shod for the road - borium on the shoes - he s/b fine.
Amish horses do many daily RT miles on asphalt at trot & stay sound.
Our Driving Club President routinely drives roads with his senior horses - all in their 20s - along with functions like parades & events. Granted, mostly at walk for the paid events.
My own mini is barefoot & holds up fine to the avg 5mi or longer drives on roads when we go to The Ntl Drive. He trots the whole way (his choice) to keep up with the horses.
At home, I try to keep him to grass or dirt trails.
At the Drive, hanging with a friend & on the road:
Tandem is a leader and wheeler, one horse in front of the other, a PAIR is two horses side by side. I did not see the buckskin driven as a tandem, (unless I missed that part) he was driven as a pair. (or some people call a team. Most Amish do not drive tandem.
Bugs is so CUTE! (teenage girl squeal!)
You can be his Fan Club
Lately, he’s the only one keeping relatively mud-free.
That outweighs cute for me right now!
@MunchingonHay
“Most Amish do not drive tandem.”
Correct, nor do you see pairs on the road.
Generally a single horse to a Queen Buggy.
I remember being in Shipshewana & seeing what looked like a pair of Morgans bring driven on the road. Unusual enough so I noticed…
And then saw the Amish man running alongside them, Amish woman in the buggy & at the lines
Failed Experiment?
Do we get t-shirts with his picture on them?
When’s your birthday?
Yup. I spent from age 0 - 37yrs old in the pleasure /coaching / combined driving world (CDE mostly) and lived outside of Lancaster My mom used to strap my car seat into the pipecart floor with bunges and take me with her when she drove our pony.
My bad, @MunchingonHay, you are exactly right!
I meant to say “all horses are broken to drive first, both single and as a pair.”
Driving tandem, especially for the leader, is a specialty skill.
The video is Amazing, you are right! And so the horse, he’s lovely
I was hoping to see the horse busking, or buskin’. sigh Such as it is, what a great horse! Agree with @beowulf that the skijoring was super impressive. I can’t (yet) drive a horse, so this one would be wasted on me. Doesn’t mean I don’t wish for him (her? Missed that part as I, too, skipped around).
I always feel that these young horses have been drilled and worked into a numb, flooded submission. This little horse has some nice basic training but I cannot help but feel he wants to be up and out but keeps getting pulled into a curled and downhill frame.
I would take a look and see if that desire to be up and out can be turned to level balance and push.
I dont ride any more and this could be a totally fine trail , non-discipline pleasure horse. They are going to get a “pretty” premium on the price.
If I got him I would give him a fair amount of time off simply to decompress. You see these videos all the time and the horses are jacks of all trades and goodness knows how much they are worked.
I generally assume that a horse who is broke enough to do all this by the age of 4 will be so relieved to have any other career that they will take to it happily. “Jump 8 sets of white rails and purple flowers and do a couple of lead changes? And then I go home? Sure! That’s better than riding through Walmart.”
Many working horses (like this fellow seems to be) may not have the life I want to give my own horse. But plenty do. I’m not prepared to make an indictment off of a video.