Whatever the job of the horse or pony is going to be we aim to train all horses to be confident, relaxed, obedient and work in a balanced manner, with this grounding we believe that the horses we train have a solid platform to go on and enjoy any discipline in the driving world.
The systematic training process that we use takes time and patience, all training is broken down into small steps and we only move onto the next step once the previous step is established. This applies to both breaking a horse to harness and when developing an existing driving horse’s education.
We use harness and carriages that we believe allow the horse to move in maximum comfort, our equipment can accommodate between 11 to 15.2 hands. Outside of these sizes owners are asked to provide their own equipment but this must be safe and comfortably fitting for the horse or pony.
When breaking to drive we cannot guarantee that every horse will break to drive however we do have a good success rate which we put down to our experience, gradual systematic training process and taking the time the horse needs.
Generally, we expect breaking a horse or pony to drive to take between 6-8 weeks subject to its temperament and previous experience/education. After this time clients must still appreciate that the horse will still be classed as inexperienced and should be driven with extra care.
If we feel in the early stages of training that the horse is unlikely to take to driving or that it is going to take a long time to achieve then we will have an open discussion with the owner, if the owner understands the situation and is happy to proceed knowing that the process is likely to take longer then we will continue the training. In extreme cases we may choose to no longer train the horse due to safety or welfare concerns, but this is rare.
We take horses and ponies for training from 4 years of age, we are aware that some establishments take them younger, but we believe that they are not physically strong enough before 4 years old. With our own horses they are nearer 5 before they start any training, and this is still done very lightly.
We work the horses here for training 5 days per week, if for some reason we are unable to work them the 5 times then a discount will be applied to that week. The horses that come for training live in individual pens with 24-hour access to an outside sand area, weather permitting and subject to the horse’s requirements will get some grass turnout throughout the day. The horses are fed home grown haylage and Baileys Horse Feeds Lo Cal Balancer plus a chaff or speedi beet. If your horse has other requirements, then you may need to provide their feeds.
Send with your horse the minimum that they need but include anything that is specific to him/her i.e. any medications, creams.
Please note that the horse will have access to outside 24 hours a day so any rugs need to be of the turnout variety, a sweat rug can also be useful.
It is advisable to send any harness and carriage that you intend to use so we can assess its suitability and get your horse used to it if it’s appropriate.
We aim to send updates every few days and these are often videos via WhatsApp with a short report or equally we can chat on the phone.
Other than very experienced drivers we recommend that those having a horse or pony broken by ourselves come for regular lessons with our schoolmaster ponies to improve their skills ready for when they are driving their newly broken horse and then have lessons with their own horse.
Feel free to get in touch to discuss your requirements or to ask any questions
