Driving Should Not Be Rushed
(Page 28) Before we begin, you must understand something very important: Driving a horse or mule is very different than riding. It is critically important to pay attention to detail. It’s much more difficult to learn the basics, let alone the finer points. Here’s an analogy: Just because you can drive a pickup truck, doesn’t mean you can fly an airplane. And if you want to fly a plane, you need more than just one lesson to become a pilot. The point is this—driving is fun, and it certainly looks easy, but of all the equine activities, it is the most potentially dangerous for you, for others and for your equine. If you get into trouble while riding, you might get thrown off. If you get into trouble while driving, you could end up with a runaway animal and a careening vehicle that’s crashing into everything in its path. Driving can be the most dangerous of equine activities, so be sure to spend plenty of time on prep work for both muscle conditioning and accustoming your equine to the elements of driving before actually hitching them to a vehicle.
For safety, this should take two years with multiple groundwork tasks. These exercises should not be rushed. If it can be avoided, you should NEVER drive on roads that are busy with traffic regardless of how bomb-proof your equine is. There are drivers who don’t pay attention and they are who you need to worry about. Learn more about DRIVING in the various sections under TRAINING and in the management and training products in the STORE on my website at www.luckythreeranch.com, particularly under TRAINING/TRAINING TIPS (#109 -#120).When these exercises are completed, you can safely move on to his athletic endeavors whether it be riding or driving. Whether riding or driving, the prep work is the same. The animal that is properly prepared will have far less issues with his physical mobility (less accidents and power vet bills!). The steps to training your equine to drive are simple and there are some stages where it is advisable to use an assistant, but you can learn to do this yourself.
I like to encourage people to do most of the training themselves because the equine bonds deepest with the person who trains them. You can find all kinds of helpful information about preparing your equine with postural balance and core muscles strength on my website at www.luckythreeranch.com in the various sections under TRAINING, especially under TRAINING/TRAINING TIPS #109 – #120 and at TRAINING/VIDEO ON DEMAND. You can purchase my books and videos in the STORE and I am always happy to send you a lot more detailed information if you email me at meredith@luckythreeranch.com.
DRIVING YOUR DONKEY (Page 29) Driving is loads of fun, but can be very dangerous if your equine is not prepared, and if harness and equipment is not selected and adjusted properly. Make sure the harness fits snugly and correctly so it can function as it should. Pay special attention to the weight and size of the vehicle, and to the lengths of the shafts on single hitch carts. Select the vehicle that pulls easily and is proportionate to your equine’s size. Make sure that your equine is physically prepared over a long period of time with the right kinds of groundwork exercises that will build core strength in good equine posture to avoid inadvertently straining muscles and or pulling tendons while in harness. This will greatly affect his mental attitude toward driving and keep it positive. If the equine experiences any kind of pain or distraction, he could bolt and run. Driving him in the future would be much more risky once he has been frightened. Keep driving contained to enclosed areas for the first two years of your equine’s driving experience to promote control, good communication, steadiness and safety. If you do drive on roads, always try to avoid driving along asphalt roads with heavy traffic to prevent unnecessary and potentially devastating accidents. Dirt roads are preferable. Know and obey the general driving rules of the road! Learn more about our comprehensive equine training approach in the various sections under TRAINING on my website at www.luckythreeranch.com.
