Hi Sylvia >>>Rule number one, first you have to be able to run, or have a 100 lb girl
that can run. I tried this with Willie and he took off with me too fast and oops, I lost him. Maybe a smaller arena next time. That is why we start our horses ground driving with a leader at the horse's head. It makes it much easier for a horse to understand the go forward in walk and then trot. It is certainly possible to ground drive by yourself but you definitely need to be experienced and have a smallish place to do it. My sister, Linda, developed the steps as described in article on Judy's website, to make it easy and safe for amateur owners to take their through the steps of being started. She was teaching classes at Cal Poly in the 1970's amateur owners and it needed to be safe. It is quite a challenge to ground drive by yourself to start with because of the distance you end up being from the horse. When you can have someone at the horse's head a couple of times it helps handlers who are not experienced at driving get the sense of timing and helps the horse start to listen to signals from behind, to go forward. This can be a bit confusing for them in the beginning. I compare a horse's early response to ground driving without a leader as how a car with power steering responses in the mud - you seem to ask and ask for a turn and nothing happens and then suddenly you are totally turned around- with a horse they are sometimes facing you :) Robyn Icelandic Horse Farm Robyn Hood & Phil Pretty Vernon BC Canada www.icefarm.com
