Training Journal
Entries written by Anna (age 12-13) are in Purple
Everyone makes mistakes, like I did, when training a horse to drive. So, if you are training a horse now, or are going to be training a horse to drive, I hope that reading about my mistakes and triumphs will help you. The time of training you are a about to enter with your horse is wonderful, frustrating, amazing! I say amazing because, in training your horse, you figure out how much sense is packed into that little horse brain and how much more you can pack in!
June 17, 2008 Buying 2 new horses was fun! We went up to Chino Valley and bought Warrior and Dream. Warrior can move really nicely. He is a NFC's Dandy Moon Man son and a Rhoten's Little Dandy grandson. Dream is a daughter of Little King's Supreme Dream.
June 21, 2008 After ground driving Dream today for the first time, I thought, because she did so well, that she had been worked with before! Let me explain what ground driving is for. Some people will know what it is and what it is used for but some will not so I am going to explain. Ground driving just means having the harness on and walking behind the horse like you are driving, but without the cart. Ground driving gets the horse used to the bit and harness without having the stress of the cart on. It also lets the horse learn what walk and trot means and how to steer because everything gets more complicated once the cart is hooked up.
June 24, 2008 I ground drove Dream tonight too. She hates to stand! She needs to learn to stop really badly. She does not know what "Whoa" means. Going towards the barn is another difficulty.
June 28, 2008 We ground drove Dream today again and decided that we thought that she was pretty much ready to hook up. So we hooked her up to a cart and Mom walked beside me with a lead rope on. She did really good except she still does not know how to stop. I kept asking Mom to take the lead off. "She will be o.k. Mom," I said. So, after about 15 minutes, Mom took the lead off and I trotted up to where Lisa and Jessie were with Warrior and Turbolina. She did fine until we were on our way home. We turned around and started home at a slow jog but then Turba started speeding up and so Dream wanted to stay with Turba. I let her go and she got up to Turba and then shot past at a run! We were out of there! (Remember that she does not know to stop yet), but after I pulled on her for a little, she stopped. She is not a very good runaway, she stops too easily, hee hee hee! We decided that we had to work on her stop before we hooked her back up! If I can train a horse to drive, so can others!!
July 1, 2008. It's my birthday!! I am 13 years old.
July 8, 2008 Today, after dinner, we went out because we wanted to drive again. Our whole family has been sick so we had not driven for about 10 days. Lisa hooked Warrior up into his harness and as I was starting to hook up Dream, Mom said, "You know, you really need to practice working her stop so I want you to walk back and forth in front of the barn 2 times walking and then stopping and see how she does. If she will not stop right when you ask her to, whip in front of her feet but don't touch her. Then, if she still will not stop, gently hit her hooves with the whip." After a few times of walking back and forth in front of the barn, she would stop when I said "whoa". I then thought I should take her out in front of our driveway onto the dirt road because she is somewhat barn sour. I had to work her out of her barn sourness by going back and forth in front of the spot where she always wants to turn. I was afraid that all my work with her in the barn would be ruined by her barn sourness. So I took her out there and worked with her for about 30 minuets. She did really good so I took her back to the barn to harness her up. As I walked back into the barn, Mom looked at me and said, "Wow, you took that, 'walk her in front of the barn twice and really ran with it!" She was laughing at my anxiety to get Dream driving. We took them down the road and they both did good. Dream even stopped when I asked her to on the way home!!! I was so happy with her!
July 9, 2008 I am going to ground drive Dream tonight because mom says that, when starting a horse to drive, you have to drive them consistently because each step of training is a building block for the future steps. In other words, keep up with the progress you have made and do not let all of your time be wasted! I am going to go drive now! The other thing mom always tells me is to end each training session on a good note.
July 10, 2008 Last night I hooked Dream up to a cart! She did so good! Driving with Kelli, our neighbor girl/friend, was fun. Kelli had Magic and I had Dream and we drove for 2 hours. We even went fast and she never even started to go too fast. Kellie's Dad owns a trucking business and we went right by all those big trucks that were pulling is and out of their land. I was so proud of her! We were laughing at her because, when we bought her, she was quite a bit over weight so, whenever she would trot, her fat jiggled!!! It was so funny. Working with her has been a great pleasure because she has a wonderful attitude. She has been patient with me even when I am not patient with her when she makes mistakes. Sometimes I get mad at her and she does not throw a temper tantrum. She is such a wonderful mare to work with.
July 11, 2008 Today, I am going to drive Dream over to Kailey and Pam's. Jewel and her baby are over at their house right now. Driving Jewel should be a bunch of fun!
I am dying to drive Dream again because I have not driven her since the 9th. She was too tired to drive yesterday, I think. I will report back on how she does later!
We drove over to the Pam and Kailey's. Driving around in her back pasture was fun and we got videos and pictures. Here is the video. Here are some pictures.
She
is doing so good!
I am so
proud of her!
.
July 25, 2008 Today, Pam and Kailey came over driving Dina, one of their horses. When they were ready to leave, Mom asked them if we could derive home with them. They said yes and so we took Donny, Lily, Turbolina and Dream and started out. The horses all did good except for Turba because it was the first time that she had been out since January. Dream did good until Mom asked us to lead. She did not know where to go and she does not trust me completely when we are in the cart yet, so she was swerving. Lisa and Donny then took the lead and she did fine because she had another horse to follow.
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