[Berlunz]

I have a horse thats 2.8 (I have been saying he is 2.6 for almost 2 months now.. time flies) and we have been doing work in the round pen as far as, get on, get off, walk, stop, yielding to my leg, changing directions etc. At this point he is getting these down and fast but I really dont want to start moving onto things like trotting, cantering, longer sessions etc until he is a little older. I have seen a lot of people teaching their younger horses to drive and most of them say its helping them accept and learn the bit and contact etc. Right now he is in nothing but a halter and lead rope so he is learning to move almost completely from my leg and I am laying the rope along his neck when asking to move so he gets the idea to move away from the rope and my leg when they are used.

My step dad does a lot of driving, he gets hired to do parades and events etc etc so we have the equipment for a single horse and I have someone to teach me. As I said before he is getting the walk, stop, moving off my leg down very well and I dont want to move beyond that at the moment. I just figured it would take longer to get this stuff down to the point where I wanted to move and he understood and would be older and ready for it. But he is just picking it up and getting it down so fast I am thinking of moving up but not in the direction I had planned. His experience with a bit is lacking, so the question is did anyone else here teach their horse to ground drive to help with learning about the bit? Does it help or hinder? I am worried about it teaching him to basically have to plow rein instead of moving off the reins and legs like I am teaching him in the round pen.

[JBandRio]

Help or hinder? Entirely depends on how well it's done. You don't actually have to teach him to drive, as in pull a cart, you can work on ground driving. Just remember that in order to properly teach bit contact, you have to be aware that still starts from the back end. It's too easy to focus on what you're doing with the reins - pulling both to stop/slow down, pulling 1 to steer - and forget that you should still be driving him forward, not just following along. It's too easy to create a horse who is just giving to the bit by breaking improperly at C3 instead of at the poll, not lifting his withers, not lifting his back, etc.

But done *properly*, it makes ridden work much easier

[Berlunz]

Originally Posted by JBandRio

Help or hinder? Entirely depends on how well it's done. You don't actually have to teach him to drive, as in pull a cart, you can work on ground driving. Just remember that in order to properly teach bit contact, you have to be aware that still starts from the back end. It's too easy to focus on what you're doing with the reins - pulling both to stop/slow down, pulling 1 to steer - and forget that you should still be driving him forward, not just following along. It's too easy to create a horse who is just giving to the bit by breaking improperly at C3 instead of at the poll, not lifting his withers, not lifting his back, etc.

But done *properly*, it makes ridden work much easier

Well I should have specified that this would be ground driving only as we dont have any single horse carts, just the equipment. We have two horse pulls and stuff for the parades and events and at one point we had a single horse cart we restored (it was beautiful) but we just bought restored and sold it. So this would be strictly ground driving around the arena. I also figured it would help him to get used to working more in the arena since almost all his work this far has been in the round pen and I longed him once or twice in the arena.

The second half of your post is what I am most worried about. Is that it seems mostly like you are pulling with 1 rein to get them to turn and that would mean plow reining but while we are working I am teaching him basically neck reining and moving from the leg without even considering the bit. I think it would be something good to train him in for the experience and if we ever get a single horse hitch again it would be fun to show driving at one of the shows (though most of the horses who show driving are big saddlebreds who do basically nothing but, it would still be fun to paddle around the arena for the experience for both of us). But the last thing I want to do is to start teaching him something thats going to contradict what I want him to learn.

[JBandRio]

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great idea to teach a horse to ground drive The benefits of having the 2nd rein/line mean that as you ask him with a direct rein to steer at bit (greenies start out with more direct steering as it's more intuitive) you have the outside rein to keep him from popping his shoulder and keeping his hind end from swinging out. That line, as a long physical connected barrier, can be more helpful than using your outside rein and outside leg to do the same thing.

And, the very act of the horse being in front of you can show you any holes that you don't want appearing when you're on him. Lack of confidence when you're on can result in your getting dumped. My trainer won't get on a new horse until she can safely ground drive him

[Berlunz]

Originally Posted by JBandRio

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great idea to teach a horse to ground drive The benefits of having the 2nd rein/line mean that as you ask him with a direct rein to steer at bit (greenies start out with more direct steering as it's more intuitive) you have the outside rein to keep him from popping his shoulder and keeping his hind end from swinging out. That line, as a long physical connected barrier, can be more helpful than using your outside rein and outside leg to do the same thing.

And, the very act of the horse being in front of you can show you any holes that you don't want appearing when you're on him. Lack of confidence when you're on can result in your getting dumped. My trainer won't get on a new horse until she can safely ground drive him

for some reason I wasnt even thinking about the fact that I could close off his shoulder with the other rein to keep him from falling out and circling at the head instead of turning his body.

Is there any difference in the types of bits you want to use for driving instead of riding? I bought a new bit just for him to be started in and have been putting it in his mouth but not using it. Its a french link eggbutt snaffle from Korsteel I believe. We have a variety of bits that we have collected over the years.

I mostly want him to get used to the bit and riding seperately just because of how bad his mother was and turned out (so oversensitive to even the lightest of bits). For the record I didnt breed her, he was already 2 months old when I got them (actually we suspect he is much older than his papers say as she didnt keep track of the birth records on a farm with 50+ broodmares) but she made it pretty clear she was trying to push selling us the mare and foal for extra otherwise we would "Seperate a two month old from his mother". But he was far bigger than a two month old should have been. However we just used the date she gave us for his registration papers (and that whole thing was a pita too as she never filed a stallion report), so he is currently registered as being 2.8 but we suspect he is likely about a month away from his third birthday

[Lopinslow]

Personally i ground drive/long line all of mine before i even swing a leg over their back! i start it in a sidepull, then to a snaffle. so, they know how to steer, give to the bit, follow their nose, stop and back before i ever get one... makes it SO much easier.