On 05/08/07, Judy Ryder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Wanda, if you were going to ask the horse to pull something, a little log or > bicycle tire, how would you set it up for him to do that?
Kevin would ground drive Dagur, and I would drag the object around, behind, beside, in front of....Dagur. The intent is for Dagur to become accustomed to the noise of it and understand that noise wasn't going to hurt him. When we felt he was ready to pull it, I would stay more behind him while dragging the object...allowing him more time to get used to the noise from that direction. Then when he was hitched to it, Kevin would still ground drive, but at that point I would be leading Dagur on a lead line...just to avoid any gooseyness. All of this could be handled in one session or in many sessions, depending on how accepting the horse is. This is the process we used with Gusti when we worked up to the point of having him hitched to the PVC pipe. I think I sent in You Tube videos last winter... But Dagur is a long way off from that. Gusti had tons of ground driving done with him when he was a baby...long before he was ever ridden. We're giving Dagur the same opportunity now. We'd forgotten that step when we first backed Dagur...and we are retracing a few steps now. Dagur loves it. Yes...we're training...fumbling around..making mistakes...and hopefully learning from them. Wanda
