Rose's progress

[heathera]

Rose is doing incredibly well. The vet gave her the all clear at the beginning of February to start coming back into work and then be started to harness.

Since then we've been doing some body work, groundwork and general rehab stuff around the winter weather. We started tyre pulling a while ago and here she is, with our swingle tree being used for the first time so we can have the tyre clipped on rather than held on a quick release by my SO.



We've been up and down the driveway which is quite noisy



and we introduced her to Syndey the wooden Sledge yesterday. This is one my wonderful SO made for us and consists of two fencing posts to make the sides with the front ends sawn so they curve up and don't dig into the ground, there's some cross bracing and then a piece of plywood to hold them together and make the top. It's about the size of a pallet.

We started her pulling it yesterday and she did amazingly well. A little hesitant at first but she soon got the hang of it and Rose and I went round the arena on our own for about five minutes after a few laps with SO on a lead rope and me on the long lines. We did a few changes of rein and lots of transitions from halt to walk and back again. Her transitions seemed smooth.

I posted about this elsewhere and one person remarked to not do too much with Sydney Sledge as pulling a dead weight may teach them to 'yank' into the harness when moving off in order to over come the inertia of the dead weight. The suggestion was to put her in the carriage and get going.

Apart from the fact we've been told that we should no way do an initial carriage putting to ourselves the main form of driving that she'll be doing is harrowing our arena and fields with the odd carriage drive and some gentle hacking under saddle.

The harrows are louder and slightly heavier than Sydney. My thought was to keep going with Sydney until she'd built her fitness up a little more and was totally blasé about the sledge before we then started building up to harrowing. At some stage we may have her put to a carriage.

How can I teach her to pull harrows if having her pull a dead weight is going to teach her bad habits for when she's in the carriage?

[Debbie]

I'll preface this with the fact I've little to no carriage or draft experience m'self.

From what you've posted on what you want to use Rose for, I'd say continue with Sydney the Sledge. Rose is going to be used for 'draft' work in my opinion, so if she's going to be harrowing and pulling into the work like that, Sydney will simulate the work she'll be doing, which is primarily the harrowing.

Yes, she may pop a little when she first learns about the carriage, but I've seen horses and mules used around us that do the proper farm work, pulling plows and harrowing, etc, but they are used to pull the buggies too. I think the horse/pony/mule knows what they are put to after a bit and can sort for themselves if they need to pop into the harness to get the weight shifting.

If Rose were only ever going to be put to a carriage, I could see that being sensible advice to avoid the sledge, but she's not.

As for her training Well done all round!!! I love how you always take things so slowly so they have time to think about it all and can react in a relaxed setting first.

...edited for a spelling error that was getting to me

[valerie n scout]

me not got a clue either but the old guy I got my first Dales from used a chain harrow and lordy that was heavy x I think Rose sounds like she is doing well with just what your doin, Heather X

[lucydales]

You can put a spring into the connection to your sledge/harrow/whatever to add some damping, I'll try and look out some pics for you, but I wouldn't worry too much as the weight she's pulling won't be too much (if your harrows aren't huge?).
Lovely to see her going so well. I don't see why you can't put to yourself either as long as your helper has her on a lunge line and walks at ther head, especially if you've done lots of ground work. It's not like you have a baby you're starting. Rose is used to working and responding to you and going out with you. Do you remember the posts I did when we started Amy driving with Claire? 2006/7?
Good luck.

[lucydales]

www.heavyhorses.net/Pages/equipmentchokergrapple.htm

[dalesponyrider]

No experience whatsoever but just wanted to say it's lovely to see Rose looking so chilled about it all! You must be doing something right!