Good show! Hope it wasn’t a fluke. Keeping fingers crossed for you! 
Maybe since you have now had some success, keep your sessions short so you can always end on a positive note rather than perhaps pushing so far as to frustrate him. Keep up the good work.
Is it just me? Or is anyone else irritated that she keeps sitting in the damn tire and making him drag her around? I don’t see the purpose of it and it won’t be long before he gets tired of it again. Hitch the horse up and drive him properly, it will be much easier on him than draqging your a$$ around an arena.
LoL, China Doll… In the beginning when she went to the cart so quickly and hit problems with him pulling we all told her to drag tires… So she did. I’m not sure why she decided to sit in the darn things except i know how old it gets to be walking around every day… But i can see why she hasnt gone back to the cart yet, with the issues she’s had with the tires, it’s much easier to bale off a tire than a cart! And she hasnt had the help she needs to really do cart work if there is going to be an issue arise.
But yes! “I” think you are ready to hitch to the cart now and see what he does. So get a friend or two to help you out for a few days of cart work and we’ll all keep our fingers crossed Chewie keeps up the good work!
I 100% agree with 49’r, dont frustrate him pulling tires over and over. That is really boring work and tiring with the dead weight of it. So keep those sessions shorter, say 15min, so you get beyond that 30-40ft he wanted to stop before, but dont over do it. Not so much stopping and praising him though, since he likes to stop… Verbal praise and cookies at the end! If i’m ground driving and have a good moment that i’m by their rear end, i’ll do a pat on the butt if they are doing good too, but i dont stop and fuss about it.
One more vote for
STOP RIDING THE TIRES
Your horse is doing OK with that work - dont continue to annoy him
Think in terms of 10 to 15 minute sessions of a variety of stuff to learn and accomplish.
Pulling something (tires)
basic ground work - lunging/long-reining
I like what one trainer we had did - use a PVC pole in one tug & dragging on the ground. Dont tie it in (supposed to drop out occasionally)
long rein with the pole gong over as mush noise making ground as you can find. Great over gravel. When the pole drops out - horse must stop and stand for you to fix it
IF you horse is going well with all the basic lessons, then get some knowledgeable friends over and hook up to the cart again NOW YOU HAVE THE NEW HARNESS THAT FITS
Keep your initial sessions with the cart short and directed toward learning and getting comfortable
This horse has shown you already that he is going to let you know if you make him uncomfortable or if you ask him to do something he thinks he cant do. So STOP ANNOYING HIM.
Make all his experiences positive and productive and maybe you will be on your way to a driving buddy
Best of luck with that
Ok, ok, stop riding tire. Got it. It seemed like the thing to do at the time to add more weight. But it’s a great way to get filthy & its uncomfortable as hell. But yes, I did feel I needed to see what he’d do and I was blown away with what I got. Massive turn around.
My plan is to hitch him to the cart this weekend. I feel after 8 weeks of pulling empty tires, and then the successful pull last night, I’ll work him again this week and on the weekend, do a very short hitched intro.
I have no goals, no “expectations”. If we make a full lap around the arena with the cart, great. If not, So be it. But I am looking forward to hitching him. Hopefully I can get a recruit to help me, because I’m sure I’ll need to make a few adjustments to the harness when he’s in the shafts.
He’s already done a gazillion times of pulling pvc poles, too, DriveNj. I started those on day 3 or 4 way back in March. He knows all about poles.
If you make it successfully around the arena I would keep going. This is a 12 year old horse not a youngster. My 1st time I hitched my 2 yrd old I went to take a lesson so as not to hitch alone. I had done lots of longlining but not draqgging anything.
The 1st day I took an hour lesson and hooked her to a proper drag. They reccommended doing that for 2 weeks. I knew the horse was solid and the
2nd lesson they agreed that they thought she was ready to hitch. We hitched using a lightweight training cart and drove at least a half hour and never looked back. I used a lightweight cart for the summer and then bought something heavier that I use now.
That’s something I wish I did buy to start- a lightweight training cart. One that I can escape from easily… err, I mean exit readily… and that’s lighter. But all I’ve got is the 300 pounder-Meadowbrook with the wood wheels, so that’s what I’ll be using.
