> We ground drive all of our horses but have only put about a dozen or so > Icelandics in a cart. They have all been really really easy and accepting > of the process, parting because of the steps we use, but I think mostly > because of the temperament of the horses we chose.
Good point, Robyn. I don't think this can be stressed enough - almost all horses can be ground driven successfully but only a small percentage are good candidates for carriage horses. I know sometimes there is the mentality out there that "well, in the olden days all their horses were used for driving and they did fine" - well, that's just not so, a good driving horse was a valuable horse because not all of them are suited and this was recognized. I shudder when I see people that have no idea what they're doing hook up their backyard horse to an Amish buggy(bought at an auction) that has been sold because it's falling apart, load up the kids, and go down the road on a lark. There was a bad, bad accident up at Moses Cone with just that situation and 3-4 kids were badly hurt. I actuallu knew the people and had cautioned them about the foolishness of this. They just laughed it off. That was one time I was really sorry to be proven right. A good carriage horse is ROCK SOLID - not flighty in any way and even some of them are spooked by the carriag. Driving is a fun, fun sport but go slowly and be ready to accept if your horse isn't carriage driving material. Laree
