learning to drive
Midnight came to me to learn to pull a carriage. What a treat to teach this horse, she is compliant and very smart. She has never been under harness with an actual cart before as far as I can tell. She was a little wary of the poles the first time I attached them. But after a few rounds of me walking beside her and quietly encouraging her with soft talking and stroking her neck she quickly accepted her new task and moved forward like the lady she is.
Midnight will be going home in three weeks to happily pull a cart for her owners. It is simply amazing how easy and fun it is to be able to teach an older horse a new task to make her life and her owners lives more enjoyable. Everyone needs a job to perform to keep them feeling useful. Good going Midnight!
A little about her personality. She was a brood mare at one time and still has a strong mothering instinct. She has attached to a four year old that came here for training at the same time from the same farm. However, these mares had never met each other but attached immediately. When turned out together, Midnight will herd the other mare and ‘protect’ her from the other horses. What a good mom she must have been with her foals. Midnight is very aware of everything around her, but does not balk at a task. She is voice commanded which makes it even easier to teach her how to pull. By next week I will be able to hook her up to the actual training cart and take her for a spin around the larger arena. I always keep them in arenas when teaching them new task to be sure they are safe and minimize the chance of getting hurt. All it takes is a few minutes a day. Happy trails Midnight.