This message is from: Marsha Jo Hannah <[email protected]>
> Kathleen Prince <[email protected]> wrote: > > You all agree I need to wait and let my girl mature > physically and mentally. My gut had been telling me that but I felt a > bit of pressure from outside sources. Since I'm so new in the horse > world it's sometimes easy to be confused by what those with much more > experience say. The idea of teaching her to drive is excellent! Well, maybe. All of the comments that were made about mental maturity apply as much, or maybe even MORE, to driving as to riding. When you're riding, you are right there, with the animal, "supporting" it (mentally) with your legs wrapped around it. For driving, the animal is out there in front, "all alone", which can be overwhelming to a young animal. The physical contact of riding also allows you to better read what the animal is about to do, hence make minor corrections in a timely manner; it is much harder to "see what is coming" when driving, so the mistakes tend to be bigger, hence the corrections bigger---which can upset an emotionally immature equine. Also, driving (actually pulling something) puts a fair amount of stress on the hocks, which mature even later than the knees. Now, it's fine to begin the preliminary training for driving (learning to wear harness, learning voice commands, learning to ground drive, etc), but I would postpone actually hitching her to anything until at least 3 years old, and any real work (such as driving on sand) until 4. Marsha Jo Hannah Murphy must have been a horseman-- [email protected] anything that can go wrong, will! 15 mi SW of Roseburg, Oregon Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f
