Ground Driving

Today's lesson was....ground driving! So by the time I got off work (5:30) and made it to the stable, it was almost dark. By the time I brushed and got him ready, it was really dark! I thought even thought "hmm...ground driving in the dark is probably a bad idea" but instead of listening to reason, I figured I'd give it a shot.  Oh and on top of this, I've never ground driven a horse before! I saw our old groom, Victor, ground driving the stallion Ragtime when he was young (of course Ragtime was already broke but whatever...minor details) so why couldn't I?

Normally, people (who can afford it...aka not me) use a surcingle, a lunging cavesson and/or bridle and bit, and 2 lunge lines and look like this . I only had a rope halter, a lunge line, 2 lead ropes, and a bareback pad. Having never ground driven before, it started basically how you would expect that it would. I got this horse to go in every direction but forward! It made sense, he saw me by his haunches and figured that he was supposed to follow me...so I would go toward his haunches and he would keep backing up. During this time I was also trying to figure out the lead rope/lunge line situation so I kept dropping them and he'd get them all over his feet. This wasn't actually a bad thing, it taught him that things around/hitting his legs and feet isn't anything to panic over.

Finally I got myself figured out and viola, we have forward motion! The trick was to start as a regular lunging session and slowly move toward his haunches and grab the other rope. Once he learned clucking means moves forward, it was easy from there. I would pull back on both reins and say "whoa" to indicate stopping. At first, he would toss his head and try to avoid the pressure, but once he stopped I immediately released so he figured out really quickly that it's easier to stop than to throw his head every which way. He would also get impatient (again...typical 3 year old haha) and start pawing once we stopped, but then I would pop him with the reins (not very hard, just to distract him) to indicate that pawing is not appropriate. Sometimes he'd stop and look back at me and the equipment like "wtf is all this?" and start trying to munch on the equipment...babies...

 Once we had whoa down (about 30 mins later) we tried turning!  He learned first to give to pressure on his rope halter and instead of turning, he'd more bend to the inside. The key to this is always having forward motion. Eventually, he would follow his nose and I'd immediately release pressure and say "good boy!" By the end, he was really well behaved!

Here he is at a walk, it looks like there is pressure on the reins but if you look closely you'll see slack.

This was a "whoa" and you can see he's checking me out like "what is the point of this? I'd rather be sleeping"

Here's a side view at a stop, he had it down at this point and standing very patiently, but still keeping an ear on me. For some reason I only have pictures going this direction but we practiced both ways.

For our first time ground driving, and in the dark no less, I couldn't have asked for a more well behaved baby! Soon he'll be like this Lipizzaner! He does have Spanish blood in him somewhere... ;)

**disclaimer: I would not recommend trying this if your horse is prone to kicking/bucking. Luckily (?) this boy is more of a rearer, so I wasn't concerned about tapping him from behind to get him walking forward. Also, it's important to always stay slightly to the inside and not directly behind so they can see you walking.