Calling all vehicle drivers

[Miriam]

This is a question on napping in the cart


Nap 1 - Towards the gate. So quick I nearly exited the side door but for Iz's quick thinking

Ok its a no no. Go round again

Nap 2 - gate. Inearly exit the side door again but this time I know which way I'll ffall so make sure I head in the opposite direction. Again Iz making doubly sure I odnt exit side door

Another No no. Ok lets try again

Nap 3 - I'm ready for her. Shortens the rein. Head turn in my directon of shortend rein we nearly get past the gate. When suddenly she naps a quick nap and heads for the gate rearing in the process.


Now napping is a huge nono. Area to paddock gate is on a slant and so of course cart is tipped back anyway.Rearing horse (and non of those mini rears either), cart tipped bakwards eeeeeeeek. Not frightened for me as it did not bother me but for my passengers. If anyone can remember the pic that was posted of the donkey with the cart tipped backwards and the donkey in the air. Well that vision did go through my head :eek: Result also one broken horse as she is now lame

[Jessey]

A guy I know broke my friends small horse to harness, and when 'boy' napped (having already ignored his normal aids, reins and voice) he gave him a swift swat with the whip on his rump, he also did this when he reared, 'boy' only got about 3 swift (and very firm) swats in total and he has never done it again. I know this is not the answer for all horses but it certainly nipped it in the butt for 'boy'.

J

[Yann]

Sounds dangerous :eek:

Would it be safer not to drive until you've sorted the napping and rearing issues out? I don't know much about driving but the idea of having a misbehaving horse in harness is a scary one for me.

[Miriam]

She does not normally behave like this and is not a dangerous pony at all either under saddle or in the cart. The thing about this situation is that the horse who was in the paddock with her had not long left and she probably missed it. This is the first time she has napped with the cart.

We do a lot of road driving and although like any other horse she can have her little moments she is never what I should class as dangerous.

[Esther.D]

I would go back to slow work and longreining, she is getting a bit over-excited by all the fast work so I would slow down and do some really slow gentle driving in the arena, giving her plenty to think about but nothing exciting. Send her on firmly if she naps but don't get her too hyped up.

Longreining in the area would also not be a bad idea to deal with it on the ground.

I don't think she is dangerous but you do need to watch her excitement - if running for the gate and little rears are appearing I would cut out the fast work until you have dealt with the problem as over-excitment and anticipation of fast driving doesn't help in these situations :)

[Miriam]

Thanks Esther will do. Silly girl was in slow work. But I'll go back to long reining and see what she does

[Esther.D]

Silly Rhi :rolleyes: At least if you try to mimic the situation on longreins you are in a safer situation (firmly on the ground :D ) to deal with it :)

[Yann]

We do a lot of road driving and although like any other horse she can have her little moments she is never what I should class as dangerous.


LOL, I wasn't suggesting your horse was dangerous, just that daftness with a cart attached is a lot more hazardous to all concerned than with a rider on;)

[Miriam]

Sorry if it sounded like I was saying you were calling her dangerous. Not what I meant at all. Just bad wording.

If she was doing it all the time then yeah I would say it is dangerous but as she is not usually like this there is something else underlying and I need to know how to handle it anyway as the way I was handling it was the way you would handle it under saddle. I'll do what Esther says and try to long rein her and see what happens


I would find it more scary if I was on her back. Driving is the one place I have oodles of confidence

[april]

well miriam...you'd needn't have worried about me being in the cart!!!....however if there were others in the cart then i could see what you'd have a need to worry about! Is Rhi any better...can't remeber if i've ever asked you today?(my memory :rolleyes: )

[Silver1]

Uhm...sorry if this sounds dumb, but you mentioned her going lame afterwards. Is it possible she was hurting, though not actually lame when you started driving her, and was napping cause she didn't want to work on that leg anymore?

[Miriam]

Why oh why did this not show up weeks ago in my new posts :mad:


April - As ou know Rhi is much better and is now ready to go again :D of course this time you all have to ride her too.

Silver1 No I dont think she was lame before we started. I think what she had done was as she came down and caught one of the small stones in the paddock near the gate. She is a huge wimp and feels pain easily (just like her mum ;))

[welshcoblady1]

i would just like to say ,in ref to hitting driving horse on the rump ,i would not advice this as the horse could kick back and through the foot board causing injury to him self and driver ,if you need to encourage the horse forward a quick flick up by the collar if it was needed near the withers .
best wishes .

[Wally]

:D :D I ended up inspecting Stow's hind shoes on my lap once.....I used the whip on his shoulder too in the approved manner! ...He never was one for reading the books :o :o :o :rolleyes: